A cursory glance at the artwork on this release reveals the full scale of Battles’ arsenal of guitars, keyboards, mixing boards, drums and Marshall amps, set up inside a small room. The mirrored walls create the illusion of an endless quagmire of machinery and interconnecting cables. Put succinctly, it’s an accurate indication of what’s to come once you hit ‘play’ on this extraordinary record.
Firstly, anyone who stumbled across their first couple of EP’s and dismissed them as po-faced math-rock experimentalists will be forced to think again. Despite their post-rock intricacy, this album is an ambitious, rhythmically thrilling beast, mainly due to the military-precise pounding of ex-Helmet sticksman John Stanier (most evident in the Glitter Band stomp of ‘Atlas’, or the giddy, convulsive disorientation of ‘Tij’). However, the most striking difference between this new collection and their earlier work is the addition of Tyondai Braxton’s vocals. Not actual decipherable lyrics, you understand, but his eerie whistles and hums are manipulated and pitch-shifted into something dehumanised; like a mutant gang of Teletubbies on a happy-slapping spree.
Elsewhere, muscular riffs crisscross and intertwine without ever really coalescing. In fact, this is dance music made with brute force by a rock band that you can’t really dance to. Bear with it though. Repeated listens do allow the record’s unorthodox melodies to take root, and it’s carefully executed ferocity and intricately arranged constituent elements begin to produce an oddly accessible, coherent listen.
After nearly twenty years of otherworldly releases from your Aphex’s and Squarepushers, Warp have unleashed another landmark album. Except that this one sounds indisputably invincible.
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