Josh Smith: Bedlamites, Battles has returned with their second full-length, Gloss Drop! Jack Mueller: One God damned odd LP. JS: It is odd, but in such a great way. JM: I don't know about that. Hell, they're actually weirder now than they were when they had the goofy chipmunk vocals. JS: The loss of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton had a huge impact on this record. They actually had an album nearly completed with Braxton, and when he split, they scrapped it and started over from scratch. JM: And the result is this choppy, blippy cluster-fuck. This album sounds like R2D2 tripping balls and vigorously fucking a TurboGrafx-16 in the back of an ice cream truck to the X-Files theme song. JS: I... don't even know how to respond to that. JM: Perfect. Are we done here? JS: Not quite. I can't completely argue with you, but this is not the big glitchy mess you think it is. There is some serious funk at the core of all that angular twinkling.
JM: “Angular twinkling?” Is that a new kiddie porn fetish? What the fuck are you talking about? JS: Yeah, that, uh, didn't come out quite right. It's just hard trying to describe what this band does. JM: I already did. Here are the highlights: R2D2. TurboGrafx. Fucking. JS: And I'm standing by my statement that there is a lot more at play here. These aren't just slapped-together, programmed loops synched up with lifeless beats. This is three immense talents weaving intensity with playfulness on actual instruments. There are several passages that sound like each band member is taking turns at throwing the other two off of the tracks, which just makes for an engaging listen.