Battles - La Di Da Di (2015)

Ahora el Mago Alberto nos trae un disco de los Battles, y a no confundir con The Beatles porque esto se trata de puro math rock con muchos trazos electrónicos y destellos de distintos estilos. Vigoroso, hiperactivo, rítmico, atrevido, arriesgado, experimental, todo eso es este disco porque todo eso representa a Battles.

Artista: Battles

Álbum: La Di Da Di
Año: 2015
Género: Post Rock / Math rock
Duración: 49:13
Nacionalidad: EEUU

Lista de Temas:
1. The Yabba
2. Dot Net
3. FF Bada
4. Summer Simmer
5. Cacio e Pepe
6. Non-Violence
7. Dot Com
8. Tyne Wear
9. Tricentennial
10. Megatouch
11. Flora > Fauna
12. Luu Le

Alineación:
- Dave Konopka / bass, guitar, effects
- John Stanier / drums
- Ian Williams / guitar, keyboards

Durante la última década, Battles ha establecido firmemente un estilo y un sonido particular (música sudorosa, construída a partir de instrumentación, loops y bucles en vivo), así que es sorprendente darse cuenta de que los músicos tienen sólo tres álbumes, más o menos siguiendo la misma fórmula. En 2007 su debut generó en los aficionados una admiración por su ritmo e hiperactivo impulso. Después de la salida del guitarrista y vocalista (hasta ese momento eran un cuarteto y quesó reducido a trío) llegan a "La Di Da Di", otro disco rítmico, con temas que compiten y se superponen, detrás (o "en") el math rock aparecen capas de repetición que se despliegan cada vez más entrandole tanto al funk o la música bailable, mientras el baterista actúa como el interruptor entre la agresión punk y lo bombástico de su propuesta.
As{i que aquí llega el comentario del Mago Alberto que es quien nos trae este disquito con el que empezamos el día.

Battles es quizás una de las tantas bandas modernas que mixturan integrantes de otras bandas conocidas, quizás no superbandas pero conocidas al fin, y en el caso de Ian Williams ex integrante de Don Caballero, es por donde pasa quizás todo el espectro sonoro de Battles, Williams se encargó de ponerle sello propio y en su guitarra se definió casi un nuevo género musical como es el Math Rock, nadie como él enfermó a más de uno con el chingui chingui chingui típico del Math y hasta la posición de la guitarra casi en el pecho terminó por darle personalidad a lo que vino después, hasta podríamos afirmar que fue una especie de Bob Marley del Math.
El tiempo pasa y también para IW, por ello se encargo de darle otra vuelta de rosca al Math y es en Battles donde la guitarra dejó su desnudez de sonido y el señor se encargó de cambiar el chingui chingui por la distorsión y otros efectos varios y cambio drásticamente la trama musical para dar paso a algo totalmente novedoso y hasta diría experimental.
Esto es totalmente distinto a la monotonía del math, es atrevido, arriesgado, muchísimo más disfrutable, este es el típico material sonoro que uno va descubriendo de a poco y demenuzando por momentos. Esta es su última producción.
Los Battles estuvieron hace muy pocos días en Buenos Aires y este material es una especie de tributo a esta gran banda que ojalá continúe porque realmente tienen muchísimo para dar.
Los amantes del math y seguidores de Williams se van a llevar una sorpresa. Esto es otra cosa. Esto es novedoso y bien podría seducir al más ortodoxo del RIO. Aquí también esta John Stanier ex Helmet y Tomahawk, Dave Konopka ex Lynx. El tiempo dirá que rumbo toma la nave Battles.

Mago Alberto

Como nota (notaza) al margen les cuento que los tipos han colgado un breve documental llamado "The Art Of Repetition" por medio del que muestran como ha sido la creación del álbum, entre otras cosas.

Y como no tengo nada más por decir los dejo con los comentarios de terceros que van dando su opinión sobre este trabajo tan particular.

Les traigo este grandioso disco, de talentosa banda neoyorquina Battles, que en efecto, ha sacado nuevo material después de que nos tuvieron un tiempo sin novedades.
"La Di Da Di" es su tercer album, tras habernos impresionado y dejado en nosotros una gran espectativa desde su primer disco "Mirrored", la banda siguio haciendo lo propio con su segundo album, siendo fieles a sus inicios.
No es la excepción de este tercer disco. Una obra de arte en su totalidad, han vuelto a volarnos la cabeza con su estruendoso sonido y progresiones versatiles en sus ritmos.
Es un disco menos bipolar, por llamarlo de alguna manera, con esto me refiero a que en ese aspecto es diferente al primero en el cual era un cambio constante de ritmos y sonidos que podian pasar de un caos total y estruendoso a sonidos mas amigables y digeribles.
Han hecho un uso mas constante de la repeticion de sonidos y en ese avance evolutivo de los temas, agregar sonidos con sus sintetizadores, guitarras, etc. todo eso para, como ya habiamos mencionado, crear unas progresiones asombrosas, siempre teniendo de base ciertas melodias.
Las texturas sonoras que se aprecian son simplemente asombrosas, una diversidad bastante amplia que hace un disco muy avant-garde. Cabe mencionar que es el primero album que la banda hace cien por ciento instrumental, asi que a pesar de para mi ser un excelente disco, podria resultar un tanto tedioso para algunas personas, pero en realidad vale la pena darle una oportunidad.
Por ultimo, quiero hacer mención del arte del album. Me parece bastante acertado con la personalidad de la banda, el hecho de ver esas imagenes en colores tan vivos sobre un blanco puro, los hace resaltar perfectamente. Lo primero que vino a mi mente, claro, son las texturas que se pueden apreciar ahi, teniendo congruencia con lo que ya mencione de sus melodias. En cierto punto musica e imagen bastante divertidas para su sentido correspondiente.

Ozioadikto

La Di Da Di, último disco del grupo neoyorkino Battles, quienes pronto darán paso a una gira, en la que estaré presente en uno de sus conciertos, en el Nos Primavera Sound concretamente, del cual escribiré cuando llegue el momento.
En este disco, la electrónica está bastante más presente que en los anteriores trabajos de los neoyorkinos, además de que no existe ninguna presencia de voz en todo el LP; es un disco difícil, pero no por ello menos interesante, ya que resulta incluso atractivo por ver lo que nos ofrece este trío. El disco comienza con un ritmo y unos oscuros y fríos efectos electrónicos que nos llevan a un ambiente inquietante, que continuará en golpes de guitarra superpuestos a estos nerviosos efectos, que cada vez serán más rápidos y agitados. Más calmada será su siguiente pista, Not Yet, pero cuidado, que no podemos calmarnos, que esta ansiedad seguirá con ella.
Hay un respiro en la tercera pista? Lamento decirlo a los que deseaban oírlo, pero no. En FF Bada se incorporan elementos a medida que avanza, construyendo un histérico ambiente sobre la potente batería. A lo largo de esta estridente odisea, tendremos Dot Com, un tema más tranquilo (tranquilo como concepto relativo), en el que veremos jugueteos de guitarra sobre un ritmo algo más “relajado”. Respiro también nos puede dar la siguiente a esta, Tyne Wear, en la que se incorporan menos elementos de los acostumbrados, aunque después el disco vuelve a sus comienzos. La Da Di Da es un trabajo que a pesar de su complejidad, puede llevar a ser cansino al final del mismo, y en la que se echa de menos algún atisbo de voz para digerirlo más fácilmente.

miguels26

Y como siempre algunas cosas en intlés...

In which Battles channel Ratatat and Jaga Jazzist.
The general course of Battles's career has been a flashy march towards ever greater grooviness, so that for what "La Di Da Di" lacks in impact it makes up for in sheer joy. As it turns out, the willingness to let "Gloss Drop" be worked over by remixers as "Dross Glop" was a signal that they were ready to follow Jaga into the realm of electronic jam prog. If you dig that kind of fun, and don't mind it not having the experimental edge of Jaga or "Mirrored", then you're in for a treat. The groove picks up right from the start and never lets go. The math they codified on "Mirrored" is now more than ever electronically modified and adjoined, not for purposes of misplaced perfectionism but of finding new sounds and building jams. And never has the angular side of math sounded so right. This is nothing short of a ball, and I had no choice but to round up to five stars.

Kelvin W.

What a pleasure to hear something new and original. As with all new music, it isn't as if this trio is doing something truly unique; they simply compose music with the tools they know and understand. No, what sets these three apart is their attitude-- that's what makes Battles so interesting and what makes this third studio issue so very listenable, even exciting. The band tends to end up in the 'Indie' category, which is fine, as Battles are wholly independent. They are real artists.
The sound of Chiptune is ever present, the band generating waveforms marbled through hard rock with complete abandonment of any established approach, metastasizing a mix that will hit on a particular style without any allegiance to it. Only nominally "Postrock", these guys don't care and you gotta love that. If it were the late '70s, Stanier, Williams and Konopka would probably be a punk group. Cosmic dust morphs into blurpie trance for 'The Yabba' with vintage subspace nebulas and textured guitar calliopes, and 'Dot Net' is high-end squeak & Skweee showcasing the bangin' traps of John Stanier.
A little Surf opens 'FF Bada' reminding now & then of Tortoise, 'Cacio E Pepe' is industrial, and 'Non-Violence' rocks. Battles create paintings in sound and require some space to do so. Like good cheese or wine, they have to come to room temperature and begin to breathe in order for the flavors to bloom and be fully appreciated. 'Dot Com' is John Carpenter meets Blondie, 'Tricentennial' has Ian Williams' delicious vibrating-iron guitars, Glitch of 'Megatouch', and adorable 'Luu Le' make for one incredible musical statement.
A band that will surely go down as one of the best of the Post era though their legend may take a few more years to solidify, and in the wake of Hip hop's possession of popular music, Battles are one of the most fresh and bold of this fascinating and marginalized time in rock. A masterpiece of progressive rock music? You better believe it.

David

The Battles are perhaps the most original and fresh rock band I've heard in the last few years, and this extends easily to La Di Da Di. Characteristic for the band and particularly this album is the combination of electronic loops with very energetic but still precise drumming, which means that the whole thing is dominated by rhythm and a very physical affair. La Di Da Di has a bright summery feel and should put a smile on your face. It's all instrumental. It's also quite addictive. At the moment I get more and more into the state that I want to listen to this again and again. It's just the kind of music that in certain (rather light-hearted) phases of life can become a persistent feature. Yeah, let's listen to Battles once more. It wasn't exactly love at first sight, and I can still see certain flaws in this. There isn't much fascinating melody to follow here; much of the melodic material has a rather repetitive merry-go-round kind of style, and often presented in a percussive attitude that makes it rather part of the overall rhythmic stream than something to appreciate on its own, and it depends on the mood to what extent this is rather part of the fun or rather a defect. Many of the tracks follow a similar recipe (there are some different degrees of drum dominance and intensity, though), although in exchange, at times we get some unexpected twists within the same song, and the dynamic is strong throughout.
Overall it's not perfect and I could see some potential for broadening the approach of the band, but this doesn't take away from the freshness and fun.

Lewian

Experimental rock outfit Battles exploded onto the indie scene in 2007 with Mirrored, an album that scratched a particular itch in the folds of the brain, causing listeners to bounce and dance jubilantly while also attempting to figure out exactly what was happening. The then-quartet had a strong joint resume that included work in noise and math rock acts including Helmet, Lynx, and Don Caballero, but few expected the propulsive compositions they unleashed. John Stanier brought furious, precise drumming, Ian Williams nimbly looped and layered stretches of synth and guitar, Dave Konopka tapped out interlocking guitar and bass, and Tyondai Braxton seemed to lead the way, doing some multi-instrumental looping of his own as well as pitch-shifting and twisting his voice into alternately cute and eerie cartoon tones. Braxton left the band abruptly prior to followup Gloss Drop, and the remaining band members grasped at straws to find a replacement, using guest vocalists to fill his absence.
Their third album, La Di Da Di, reveals that there never really was an absence. Gloss Drop treated Battles’ formula as though Braxton’s voice were the pop element, the door that allowed listeners into their complex architectural structures. They recruited the likes of Gary Numan and Matias Aguayo, musicians who innovate and experiment, but lead the way with clear-ringing vocals. It was no wonder that the track featuring Yamantaka Eye, the Boredoms vocalist with an immense range and feral delivery, was the album’s strongest. Something about the clear vocals of Gloss Drop slowed the experience down; in actively pulling out the lyrics, you weren’t just letting the combustive music take you wherever it went.
Braxton’s vocals rode the crests of waves, but they were as much (if not more) an instrument as they were communicative tool. I still sing along with “Atlas” every time I hear it, even if I’ve had dozens of arguments about what he’s saying and still don’t know for certain. I’m as likely to try to sing along with some of the key and guitar riffs on La Di Da Di as I was Braxton’s vocals. The opening run of “The Yabba”, “Dot Net”, and “FF Bada” dazzle, immediately establishing that these three musicians don’t need a vocalist to have a voice.
“The Yabba” begins simply as off-kilter synths spin around Stanier’s steady mallets. The camera zooms out, revealing other orbits: distorted guitar sweeps, nail gun cymbals, staccato synth pulse. Over nearly seven minutes, the paths loop in and out of each other, creating eclipses where one overpowers the rest and points at which they all array in perfect harmony. “FF Bada”, meanwhile, stutters out a couple layers of math guitar chug before Stanier splashes his way into the picture, pushing the guitarists faster and faster, the precision of their pieces never flagging despite the ratcheting tempo. Its a stunning display of musicianship, but more than that, it’s a track where the drums sound like giant typewriters and the guitars like factory machinery and it still manages to be entirely fun and groovy. “Dot Net” shifts inside the machine, all squonk and squiggle in the synths; “Dot Com” later works like a glitzier version of the same thing, the synths a little brighter, growing a little wilder amidst the mechanical chug.
This is essentially the first time Battles are taking this approach, so there are some growing pains to be heard. A few brief tracks work essentially as interludes, songs that aim to build atmosphere and wind up sounding half-sketched. The guitars on “Cacio e Pepe” use long, drawn-out tones, a relative rarity for Battles; it’s an interesting version of their sound, but without the push-and-pull, the song lingers too long in open air without compelling movement. “Flora>Fauna” similarly could be fleshed out into a full-blown gem, but fades in and out on a repeating loop pattern without their usual dramatic arc.
Rather than chase after past successes, Battles use La Di Da Di to begin something new. Williams, Konopka, and Stanier no longer even sound cognizant of Braxton’s absence. They prove on their third album that they don’t need any extra help to deliver exciting music. By all indications, they don’t need anyone else’s help in telling a compelling story, either — that all comes in the way they build and remove layers. They had one extra layer to work with when they had vocals, but they can just as easily add in another layer of synth or guitar. When they shuffle enough elements around on La Di Da Di, it’s a thrilling experience to try to keep up with.

Adam Kivel