Battles blow my mind, let them blow yours
Have you ever been completely surrounded by geeky men losing their shit and wigging out to a bunch of geeky men wigging out and losing their shit onstage?
Well, that's what I witnessed last night when NYC music merchants Battles took over KoKo. Last time I saw them was at Field Day in Victoria Park where their boob tingling blend of stomach socking beats, Oompa Loompa stomps and sinister loops sounded like it was coming out of my grandaddy's transistor.
Not so last night. Their awesome musical maelstrom blasted through the air to electrify the largely male audience. It felt a lot like this:
(Remember this ad from the 80s? Can you remember what it was advertising? Maxell CASSETTE TAPES!! 'No other tape delivers higher fidelity' Hahah!)
For over an hour the super nerd foursome ripped through offerings from their latest record Mirrored. Songs bled seamlessly into each other allowing barely a pause for applause, (but plenty of dropped jaws), while ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier switched between time signatures so incongruous, you were sure he'd messed up, only for the rest of the band's bleeps and riffs to fall precisely into place. Meanwhile everytime he reached up to smack his cymbal, hiked three feet above his head, the crowd erupted.
Of course it was former single Atlas that brought the house down, but Leyendecker with it's hip-hop beats and vocalist Tyondai Braxton's pitchshifted vocals proved to be an eerie, groove-laden crowd pleaser. The sort of thing you could imagine Dr. Octagon sampling into a paranoid, tripped out tune.
With their guitars/bass hoiked up around their necks Ty, Ian Williams and Dave Konopka layered and looped and multi-tasked to bewildering effect - Ty frequently playing the neck of his guitar and the keyboard simultaneously. And then he starts to beatbox. Like, WTF! There is no end to this man's talent and collectively Battles plough an instrumental furrow all their own.
Make sure to watch our exclusive video interview with the guys upstairs at the Old Blue Last. They talk OAP fans, lyrical nonsense and the power of the Lord's Prayer. Definitely amongs my all time fave interviews with a band.
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