Battles
Heaven, London
08/06/2011
 
The million dollar question upon Battles’ return is whether they’ve come through the departure of Tyondai Braxton, the sort-of-frontman whose absurd vocals were critical in making landmark single ‘Atlas’ and subsequent album ‘Mirrored’ so remarkable.  It’s certainly true that new album ‘Gloss Drop’, the product of a complete overhaul of what was to be the second LP prior to the change in personnel, is initially a somewhat challenging listen, perhaps wilfully so.

And tonight, in front of a capacity crowd, they’ve got to answer the same questions live. What’s immediately apparent is that centre-stage drummer and Battles big dawg John Stanier remains the real live pull. He not only performs with energy and discipline that leave the viewer transfixed, but he holds the whole thing together – harnessing the chaos of the band, if you like. But what’s also inescapable, after twenty minutes and of course more so by the conclusion, is that there are no real standout tunes – or, to underline the point, if you’re being less polite, it’s on the whole indistinguishable and rather one-trick. Shunning the entire first album in favour of ‘Gloss Drop’ – and in the process removing any glint of familiarity – doesn’t help, but however dynamic a live band Battles are, it’s their output that suffers the most.

Whether the obvious scapegoat is responsible we can only speculate, but while the screen displaying the guest vocalists – Matias Aguayo, Gary Numan and Kazu from Blonde Redhead - works visually, the songs seem too anonymous to record any other impact. Battles are a thrilling live proposition, but sadly, there’s something missing tonight.
 
Andy Slocombe