Battles have released arguably the best album of the year, and now they have given the best concert I've seen this year -along with Mew. Musical craftsmanship at it's finest. Every member of Battles has already achieved success under another moniker, most notably the brilliant drummer, ex-Helmet's John Stanier. Watching Stanier perform with unparalleled intensity and focus is akin to watching any of the masters of instruments we worship today. It's beautiful stuff. He provided the base for the other 3 to show their unbelievable talent as well. Don Caballero's Ian Williams seamlessly switched between guitar and keyboards, providing such overwhelming content to the songs you wonder how he had time to get it all in there.
Tyondai Braxton (yes, the son of Toni) masters a second keyboard and provides the otherwise placable vocals behind the few tracks that contain indistinguishable words -or a voice. His tone and range synchronize perfectly with the mathematical structure of the music which is highlighted by stimulating, addictive melodies. Then there's the rad bassist, david Konpaka, who could have been president of his fraternity or perhaps an investment banker...just doing his thing, performing some intoxicating solos in the back. Battles also performed probably the single impressive live song I've heard this year, "TIJ," which along with "Atlas" sounded like the biggest crowd-pleasers of the night. Yeah I may have used a few hyperboles- but Battles made me do it.
www.bttls.com
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