Battles – La Di Da Di

4.5/5

When a band’s music is “experimental”, that can generate an array of possibilities in the listener’s mind: “is it going to just be strange spoken word passages?” “Are the tracks going to be 10-minute melody loops” and most importantly “am I going to enjoy it?” These preliminary assumptions are taken a step further when the term instrumental is thrown in as well.

Although New York rock band Battles is experimental – looping, unpredictable melodies, trance-like rhythms – it is also captivating rock music. Their third album La Di Da Di has the trio shifting the boundaries of the genre with futuristic effects and non-traditional song form. But it’s not pretentious; it’s done artfully, with acute detailing, and as the band does the “we make music we want to hear” thing, fans and new-coming listeners also want to hear.

Battles (Photo courtesy of MapleMedia) — Battles
(Photo courtesy of MapleMedia)

The complete absence of vocals has been a slow transition for Battles from their 2007 full-length debut Mirrored, which featured the often-manipulated vocals of Tyondai Braxton before he left the band the same year. Gloss Drop, their 2011 follow up record, instead featured guest vocalists scattered throughout the record overtop their staple clockwork musicality. Now onto their third album, La Di Da Di dropped the inclusion of human sound and instead devoted itself entirely to mathematically timed instrumentation and virtuosic performances.

(Atlas, Mirrored – 2007)

Without vocals, the synthesizer, guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums each alternate between lead roles or combining everything together to create a large mass of sound. “Summer Simmer” allows both guitar to take centre stage or the large mass to take over, while album closer “Luu Le” is dominated by keys and synths. Giving a nod to their technological inclusion, “Dot Com” shoots forward with a catchy, synth-pop riff amidst their usual chaotic intensity, while the machine that is Stanier comes out once again on “Tricentennial” with the drums taking forefront.

Guitarist/bassist Dave Konopaka, guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams, and drummer John Stanier all come from math-rock based projects prior to forming Battles and the technicality is undeniably present throughout La Di Da Di. Opener and album favourite “The Yabba” gradually dives into their loop-mashing sound and it takes almost two minutes before the arrival of Stanier’s percussive hypnosis draws in the listener at full fledge with melodic riffs and sonic textures in hand. Choppy repetition becomes fluid; hypnotic becomes stimulating.

And once you’ve stepped into the world that is La Di Da Di, it is near impossible to leave. The playfulness of the record is initiated in the “Dot Not” with trumpeting synthesizers and dance-rock drumming, as “FF Bada” gracefully shuffling in with similar stuffy-dance-synth fashion, stirring to mind Toronto experimental electro-rock band Holy Fuck and their 2011 album Latin. The transition between tracks is smooth and almost unnoticeable, making the 12-song LP seem like one enormous piece.

Find more of their music at their website and order La Di Da Di today.