My first experience of Battles was a baptism of fire. A friend offered me a spare ticket to their Concorde 2 show and, “no, I didn't have to pay for it: as a proper music fan I just needed to see this band,” he'd said! What an endorsement and Battles did not disappoint, I was right at the front watching the action with my jaw almost hitting the floor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It was 2007, shortly before the release of their début album Mirrored and Battles were making experimental, semi-instrumental music in the most incredible way – David Konepka, so adept with a loop pedal, was building up a floor from layers of complex sound from effects-ridden guitar and bass. Ian Williams was finger-tapping a guitar with one hand whilst playing the same melody on the keyboard with the other and Tyondai Braxton was live-sampling his vocals, running them through a myriad of processes until they sounded other-worldly, more instrument than voice. At the heart of it John Stanier, a drummer I already knew from one of Mike Patton's many amazing side-project's (Tomahawk), was absolutely killing it.

I wasn't sure how something so alive, so expressive and seemingly free-form could translate on record but heading home after the show I listened to their single 'Atlas', a glorious 7-minute glam-stomp and soon after I bought their début album Mirrored. Somehow they'd made it work, this mad music was just as vital on record. There were crazy moments, abstract moments that seemed in danger of wandering off topic but enough groove and melodic sense to keep me hooked throughout. That record was a triumph but the follow-up Gloss Drop, just didn't work as well for me. I'd heard that Tyondai Braxton, son of renowned avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton, had left the band part-way through the process of recording the follow-up. The band decided to start from scratch, inviting various performers including Gary Numan, Matus Aguayo and Kazu Makino from Blonde Redhead, to fill the gap he was leaving. I felt that Battles were making themselves a vehicle for these singers, rather than the other way round. That was what made Braxton's role so powerful and effective in the band in the first place: singing but not as we know it.

In hindsight I probably judged Gloss Drop a little too harshly based on the handful of tracks I'd heard with vocals but to some extent I stand by my analysis. Overall that record left me with a sense that they'd refined what they do into something too concise and too deliberate, producing all the rawness out of the mix. With sections that could easily have been built on a computer rather than played… which brings me squarely at last to new album La Di Da Di. This just feels to me like the perfect Battles album: Konepka, Williams and Stanier are on incredible form. Vocals have been banished completely and their fusion of minimalist composition, experimentalism, groove and rock have come together in it's most convincing form on record yet. Opening track 'The Yabba' starts us on our journey, moving freely through time signatures with counter-point melodies floating around one another. There's a distinctly cod-Asian feel to the melodies, naively so, like when you first try playing all the black keys on the piano and discover the unusual scale that creates. It all comes together for moments of funky toughness before fading away in a bubbling concoction of delay-soaked, stacked motifs. 'Dot Net' flies along in 4/4, pulsing, grooving drums providing momentum to a glitchy series of riffs and a squelchy synth melody providing the top-line.

'FF Bada' is one of the tracks the band previewed online before the release of album. Again there's a far-eastern feel to the melodic content but this track seems, as Battles tracks often do, like a musical conversation with counterpoint melodies and contrasting sections talking to each other before building to choral moments that seem to recall dense city traffic then break down again. 'Summer Simmer' comes in with a strong groove, led by Stanier's unmistakable shimmering hi-hats. There's a dense fluttering bass and mid-range synth that keep up the momentum throughout with a repetitive riff, while the guitar leads us on a journey via chord stabs and ponderous melodies. Eventually the beats and insistent riff fall away and now those same chords sound mournful and we have a moment that resembles the slow fade at the end of 'Tonto' from Mirrored.

'Cacio e Pepe' is a diversion, leaving out the drums and sounding like it could be music made by computers for computers. Synths and effected guitars blend together until they are indiscernible while the whole track is propelled by the pulse of a strange metronomic arpeggio. 'Non-Violence' picks up the pace again, it's aggressive exotica with tropical plinky guitars contrasted by distorted power chord stabs, wonderfully syncopated by the drums. It's restless music, once you start to feel you know where you are another layer is dropped, shifting the feel of the entire mix. 'Dot Com' is clearly intended as a partner to 'Dot Net', beginning with a quiet glitchyness that vaguely resembles the countdown music, or an out-take from the jolly synth danger-music of Beverley Hills Cop, before opening into a nice steady rock rhythm, optimistic bass groove and up-beat melodies.

'Tyne Wear' emerges from the calm at the end of 'Dot Net' and brings us some percussion that evokes Santa's sleigh-bells before a broken beat enters with a chunky riff that doesn't quite assemble into the monster you might expect. It's a short diversion before 'Tricentennial' enters with what, at first, seems like it's going to be another 'Atlas'-esque glam-beat, rolling round the tom's, however it never quite falls together in the same way. Disparate elements work against each other, creating tension with a push and pull to the arrangement, full of anticipation and expectation. That expectation is finally delivered on by 'Megatouch' which begins sounding like it could make a great theme for a sci-fi version of the Prince of Persia computer game before taking a pretty extreme left turn.

Quite often Battles shorter songs sound like interlude's but “Flora > Fauna” begins sounding like it's going to be one of their meatier propositions before it ends abruptly. Final track 'Luu Le' introduces us to some sounds we've not heard yet on the album at the beginning. There are long cymbals, snare rolls and crashes along with synth pads that end up sounding quite orchestral, like a military march from Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite' but simultaneously pure Battles. After a bit the groove totally changes before returning to a hybrid of the two styles. The track keeps leaping between different focuses until they all become one, led through the adventure by Stanier's consistently clever drumming. At the end the song fades on a fragment of some loop component, slowly dying, a digital recreation of tape echo that gorgeously, slowly distorts and breaks-up as it gets further away from us… It's a fabulous close to a fantastic album. This really sounds like Battles' finest and freshest work to date, at no moment does it feel like it is missing an element by not having any vocal additions. The studio sound is excellent throughout, those drums are so meaty and all the parts sit comfortably together, beautiful separation and articulation without losing the sense this music has an incredible live band at it's heart. It feels like they've learnt from their previous outings – this album is a lot more concise than Mirrored, which is given to long off-topic meanderings, and a lot less contrived than Gloss Drop, which can feel too eager to please. A convincing third outing which cements Battles peerless position at the forefront of American experimental rock.
Adam Kidd

Website: bttls.com