PURE MUSICAL EXPERIMENTATION // Battles - La di da di // Composer Reaction & Analysis

[@roddypiper7404]

Battles is incredible. Their album Mirrored is a masterpiece. Guitarist Ian Williams' former band Don Caballero is another favorite of mine, and well worth checking out.

[@nicknickson3650]

Love this album. Mirrored, Gloss Drop, and this one make up an amazing trilogy. The last album they did is okay but one of the members left and you can hear it in the change of their sound.

[@MrKrayer]

Battles! This stuff is crazy. I saw them tour live on the prior album and it was nuts. Ian Williams (from Don Caballero) plays the synthesizer and guitar simultaneously and the John Stanier (from Helmut) puts his crash cymbol at standing height so he has to reach up to use it.

[@RyleyAtk]

Just want to say your album reactions are really great listens to get me through a day at work. There is something so satisfying about getting to listen to an album in full, patiently, with someone else offering insights. As for this record, I think it’s handily the weakest of the four Battles albums, precisely because it is the most lacking in melody (and also notably the only one that’s fully instrumental - they even brought guest vocalists back for the 2020 follow-up). For that reason I come back to this less than their others, and I’m sympathetic to your lack of connection with it given how stagnant it can get. The Yabba is fantastic though. Great video as always!

[@johnseward2934]

Battles is a group that really likes to toy with the audience and subject them to their own experimentation and type of sonic fun, often in a cruel kind of way. Like they know its not going to be very palatable for long, and will throw some really unexpected hair pin turns in the music. Seen them live twice when I lived in NYC, and I always left with the impression that they were orcas silently hunting the audience in what seemed like a playful way that could turn deadly in a moment. I don't dislike nor like Battles, I sometimes want their weirdness and sometimes don't. I will say, its great house cleaning music.

[@CriticalReactions]

That makes me feel a little bit better about my reaction 😅

[@steinblitz1506]

I'm back from the dead to recommend the massively underappreciated Carolina Crown 2019, more DCI shenanigans 😂 it features a lot of pasodoble, think bullfighting Spanish-Latin music, along with the best ballad and closer segments OAT. Still loving your content man!

[@CriticalReactions]

Thanks for the reminder. I've made a note to check out some DCI in July.

[@steinblitz1506]

@@CriticalReactions hooray 🙂

[@cybersnap6072]

This one bounced off me the first couple of times too but I've definitely come around to it. This may be a hot take but I almost want to call this a new wave album. A lot of it reminds me of a wonky talking heads album

[@GGRRIITTZZ]

Hell yeah not enough people listen to this band Highly recommend gloss drop next

[@TheMetatron333]

I like the sound palette.

[@gonoannowhere]

Fucking love battles. This album is so good.

[@WordToMomsYo]

i dig Battles... but i was a huge Don Cab fan.. listen to Don Caballero's "What Burns Never Returns" LP or "American Don" LP...

[@MrJsut]

Were you thinking of Clown Core (or Louis Cole more generally) for the drum + synth combo?

[@CriticalReactions]

I looked it up just now to reply to you. The group is called LXMP. The specific song I heard was Torreador Janusz

[@MrJsut]

Cool thanks, I hadn't seen that one before so new discovery for me.

[@robdaniel3211]

I prefer only the early Battles singles/eps