KOKO Asia News
Fight Club: Battles Live In KL
Date: 03 March 2009
Fresh from the success of the recent Mogwai concert, local independent promoter, Soundscape Records is proud to present New York based band Battles on 19th March.
March 2007: Battles release a willfully arty and experimental sounding album simply called Mirrored. Today, that album is heralded as one Pitchfork Media's best albums of recent times and Battles are a highly sought after live commodity, playing everywhere from Tokyo, Berlin to Bonnaroo.
What's so unusual isn't necessarily all the acclaim and plaudits that the band have grown to receive - that's to be expected when something as unique as Mirrored comes along - but just how foreign and strange sounding music like theirs - sometimes calculated, sometimes slapdash, other times jagged and propulsive - has managed to cross over to a wide international audience.
For uninitiated, Battles is a critically acclaimed American experimental/math rock band. The band's line-up includes ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier, ex-Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, ex-Lynx guitarist Dave Konopka, and Tyondai Braxton (son of avant-garde jazz musician Anthony Braxton).
Formed in 2003, the band stood out from other bands making experimental music because three of the members come from very successful, cult post metal, hardcore backgrounds, Stanier drummed for Helmet and continues to drum for Tomahawk, while Braxton comes from a reputable musical heritage.
Whilst they are almost a traditional rock set up, they deliver mind boggling poly rhythms, complicated time signatures and abstraction that crosses electronic and guitar band lines with intense and captivating power and force
Most bands are easy to place by scanning their musical influences. Battles, on the other hand can be best described by what they don't sound like. Certainly, they fall between the lines of easy musical categorization, not quite this or that. Even within Mirrored itself, there's plenty of conflict to go around. "Tonto" is frantic and catchy enough to recall LCD Soundsystem, but "Bad Trails" sounds like some obscure African war chant transmitted through space.
Thus far, Battles has avoided the standard composition style of a rock song, eliminating the voice as a vehicle for lyrics but using it instead as a distinctive instrument. In most of the songs that include an audible voice, it comes distorted and computerised and mangled beyond recognition. Avant garde? You betcha.
The traditional rock instruments are also used in strange ways, even for a band whose style borders on the dreaded prog rock. While Battles may have never recorded a traditional guitar solo, almost every moment in every song teems with a compositional complexity the likes of jazz dons Miles Davis and Charlie Parker would have been proud of.
If Mirrored’s sophisticated prog rock workouts are any indication, it would appear that the group have managed to refine their sound, progressing on the sheer inaccessibility of their' earlier eps. Locking down a tight groove that ebbs and flows with he best of them, Battles are beginning to grow a notorious reputation as a live act.
For those interested in being lab rats in Battles' crazy sonic experiments, the band are currently touring Asia and they will be hitting Malaysia on March 19, playing at the Orange situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on Jalan Kia Peng.
Soundscape Records, those lovely KL based indie label and promoters responsible for organising some of the great indie shows that Malaysia has to offer over the years like Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky have partnered with Tiger and Orange Club to announce a one-night-only show for this critically-acclaimed New York based experimental band in Kuala Lumpur.
Supporting on the night are are KL based indie nosieniks Killeur Calculateur and popular KL based deejay collective Twilight Action Girl. Tickets are priced at RM88 (Pre-sale) and RM108 (At the door). Tickets are available at Rock Corner outlets in the Klang Valley:
So just to recap: Battles will be making their Malaysia debut on March 19 at The Orange, on Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur.
For email bookings, Contact the promoter at: ticketing@soundscape-records.com
For more details, log on to: http://www.soundscape-records.com
To find out more about Battles, please visit http://www.myspace.com/battlestheband
