Battles - Gloss Drop [2011]

they're really great live even though I think they fall flat on record

I think this is the... fourth time I'll see them live? I love the new record, though.

should be seeing them on saturday if i'm in town

Are they still using the big twin monolith video screens to project various singers (bar Eye) onto?

Apart from Gary Numan (looking like the Goth Dot Cotton, as my friend pointed out) I didn't think this worked and preferred hearing Sun Dome without a weirdly outsized, messianic Japanese dreadhead peering over them. Although it was a good idea in theory, I hope they ditch it.

I will let you know!

P.s. So far Futura is my favorite album track on this one

numan track is the best http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

Futura is def my fav but the vocal tracks are all awesome too (save Numan's). I'm liking how Gloss Drop focuses on pleasant guitar tones over intricate math-rocky sounds like Mirrored.

That's mad. Numan's vocals are brilliant.

Not literally mad. It's just a vaguely different opinion to my own.

Sundome is the best track on here imo.

numan track sounds sort of like queens of the stone age

love the entire album so so so so much, but ice cream is the track that gets me madddd excited.

Its funny because I found myself creating a playlist that skips just that track and I love the entire album even more then.

I guess with me being a die hard Numan fan since the early 80s, I may be slightly prejudiced.

been ignoring this band since overly math-y stuff usually bores me to tears
but saw the Ice Cream video randomly last night and totally loved it
hmmm

They are very humorous! It's like math rock but with silliness.

yeah they're very fun, totally not your usual po faced post rock

also this video is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkgQ88G8Hj8

feeling "wall street" these days. still miss tyondai

Saw these guys live last night, fantastic show, a lot more playful and freeform than the last time I saw them (which was a really "by the note" faithful repro of "mirrored"). Lots of segues and jamming and the neat trick of keeping the guests vocalists in with the screens. Loved it!

...my perforated eardrum HATED me last night tho :( ow.

At one point one of them (Ian I guess?) went off on a very strange ramble about how he was standing under a waterfall in tasmania staring into some guys eyes wondering if he could bury him under a pile of boulders... um.

Yeah that sounds like them all right

Heh. I think he also said some kind of "we made that joke up last night... eh it was funny at the time!" thing.

Goddamn the mathrocky bass sounds kicked serious ass. They didnt play "Race:In" tho :(

their show in barcelona at primavera last year was one of the best things i've seen.

can't say I miss Tunde at all, was weird at first but i think if anything they're better than they've ever been live

You mean Tyondai, right?

They are very humorous! It's like math rock but with silliness.

exactly why I can tolerate these guys a lot more than most anything else under the "math rock" umbrella. they've got a bit of the Magma/Ruins thing going on and really have some amazing grooves underneath everything. plus the Numan track is awesome all around (I'm a Numan fanboy though so maybe I'm biased)

excited for DROSS GLOP

from today's pfork review: Everyone knows by now that Tyondai Braxton left on bad terms in the middle of making what became Battles' second album, Gloss Drop

i didn't know this! someone tell me about it.

I had no idea there were bad terms, either! Is this some inside loop thing or just a reading of tea leaves by a pitchfork writer?

yeah, i didn't realize there was bad blood there either!

saw a target ad w/ a battles song in it during the golden globes

lovelovelove this album. hope they do another.

I didn't play this nearly as much as Mirrored. I liked alot of the material but I thoughth the production job was quite muddy. The sound overall seemed kind of flattened out.

is there a more recently updated thread for Battles? this new song with Shabazz Palaces is great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd9ulSsQ2-I

Is it just me or does the "Titanium 2 Step" vocal sound like Adrian Belew circa King Crimson's "Discipline" album?

Yes yes, excellent selection of guests, also incl. Xenia Rubinos, Jon Anderson, Sal Principato, tune-yards, swimming this brewful stew, which b chock-full of op art pop cuckoo clock functionality. Don't sleep on the video album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE9riaWiLb4

yeah this new one is a blast, I much prefer it to their earlier work

great album, I threw it some points in the EOY poll

It's sad when bands are doing their best work after no one cares

(jk I'm sure they're doing fine as a hyped '00s legacy band, and it's just an illusion based on perceived critical/media attention)

Can you live off being a hyped '00s legacy (minor) band?

There should be a catch-all Battles thread, I almost missed this because I assumed the revive was just someone posting "still dope" or something about a Gloss Drop track

Excellent question but my guess is yes, as long as you're still touring?

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNAgOXFv1RE

this video is sickk, esp the 2nd tune

Susumu Hirasawa opened for them in Japan, which seems significant since Hirasawa draws a pretty big crowd on his own. so they're definitely still popular somewhere

here's something fun: the LP of Juice B Crypts is meant to be played at 45 RPM, but if you accidentally play it at 33 1/3 I can pretty much guarantee you will not notice until the vocals come in

Hahahahaha this happened to me the first time I played it too

yeah if you go on discogs all the comments are about this as well

I've heard the "you can play it at 33 and 45" thing on a number of albums (particularly Autechre) but this is the only one I've heard where it legitimately works both ways. you wonder if it was intentional