{"id":3572,"date":"2011-08-21T09:01:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T16:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2011-08-21T09:01:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T16:01:16","slug":"battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/battles\/","title":{"rendered":"BATTLES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

BATTLES<\/h1>\n

How to avoid the sophomore slump? Scrap the second album altogether<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A year ago, the members of the experimental, largely instrumental math-rock band Battles faced a challenge that even their astounding technical wizardry might not help them overcome. Specifically, how to forge ahead as a three-piece following the departure of multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton, and what to do with the already completed tracks planned for their highly anticipated sophomore effort. \u201cWe could\u2019ve easily been like, \u2018Everything sucks, we\u2019re cursed, this is a total pain in the ass,\u2019 and felt bad for ourselves,\u201d admits\u00a0guitarist Dave Konopka.<\/p>\n

He says the group had fallen into complacency when Braxton, drummer John Stanier and guitarist Ian Williams and he convened to write and record the follow-up to 2007\u2019s Mirrored<\/em>, an album that debuted to critical acclaim and a near-instantaneous cult following thanks to the pedigree of the players involved. (Stanier had been the longtime drummer for Helmet, while Williams played for influential math-rockers Don Caballero.) Work on the group\u2019s second album trudged throughout the spring and summer of 2010, even though no one in the band liked the direction it was heading\u2014or wanted to admit it. \u201cWhat we had from the sessions when Tyondai was still involved was a very uninspired, lackluster approach to an album,\u201d Konopka concedes.<\/p>\n

So when Braxton ultimately left the band in August of last year, the remaining members started over\u2014and emerged with the new Gloss Drop<\/em>. A surprisingly accessible and effervescent effort given the hardships required to complete it, the album features guest vocals from the likes of synth-pop pioneer Gary Numan and Blonde Redhead\u2019s Kazu Makino. But at its center remains the jaw-dropping musicianship of Konopka and company, who can veer wildly from progressive rock to metal to jazz-influenced instrumental breaks. \u201cAudiences are way more sophisticated nowadays than even 10 years ago, in the sense of accepting weirder music,\u201d Konopka says. \u201cThat\u2019s a privilege we\u2019re benefiting from, to have people interested in some more abstract forms of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a style that Konopka himself struggles to describe. \u201cIt\u2019s totally contextual and depends on whom I\u2019m talking to,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cThere\u2019s no right way to sum up Battles. It all comes back to the listener and how they interpret it. Everything\u2019s working out fine, so no complaints here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jesse Thompson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BATTLES How to avoid the sophomore slump? Scrap the second album altogether A year ago, the members of the experimental, largely instrumental math-rock band Battles faced a challenge that even their astounding technical wizardry might not help them overcome. Specifically, how to forge ahead as a three-piece following the departure of multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2461,2462,2467,2466,2464,2463,1636,2468,2465,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3575,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions\/3575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}