Battles

A mercurial band given to both the strictures of math-rock and the wonders of only partly controllable noise, Battles has grown big behind 2007’s Mirrored, which is a mesmeric album that sounds like it was downloaded from a BitTorrent site in the distant future. The mix of Mirrored draws in part from the group’s intriguing lineup; it includes two guys who played in Don Caballero and Helmet, as well as Tyondai Braxton, a sort of wandering mystic of aural processing. Braxton’s since moved on, taking his sometimes-intelligible vocals with him, but on 2011’s Gloss Drops, the remaining trio finds suitable replacements in Gary Numan and DJ Matias Aguayo, particularly on the sugary jam “Ice Cream.” The band even found room to mess around with existing work on this spring’s Dross Glop remix album.

Updated 05/22/2012