"I can't imagine making a more difficult album," says Battles drummer John Stanier when asked to describe the process behind Gloss Drop, the first full-length in four years from the recently downsized (once a quartet, now a trio) post-math-rock ensemble.
While the band's 2007 record, Mirrored, catapulted the previously cult group into a broader indie-media syndicate and the international mega-festival circuit -- including an upcoming curatorship at the annual All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmare Before Christmas festival in England -- that crossover success didn't contribute to a smooth follow-up.
While Stanier describes the past four years as "incredibly difficult" and rife with "personal issues" and "a lot of heavy stuff," he also admits that, when it came to the band, much of the stalling came from recently departed second guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Tyondai Braxton.
Stanier cites Braxton's reluctance to tour as one crux of the band's tension, "He didn't want to tour. He didn't want to work, really." But the drummer also notes a shared displeasure among Battles' members with the direction of their music as shaped by Braxton's vocals.
Up to Mirrored, Battles had displayed an incredible knack for the kind of intricately experimental compositions (not unlike Steve Reich rock epics) that would dominate the group's breakthrough album. But the record also debuted Braxton's heavily effected, high-pitched chipmunk vocals, slathered all over the group's signature pulsing, slowly morphing aural fractals.
"We are a group that doesn't have a lead singer," Stanier says, almost as though it were the moral of the story.
That realization, and Braxton's parallel departure, forced Battles to "reinvent ourselves in the middle of making the record," an arduous process that included deleting parts, reworking material, and coming up with new songs altogether. "Many seasons came and went," Stanier says.
Despite these tense and tedious circumstances, Gloss Drop not only features a pronounced return to the complex, instrumental-driven experiments of Battles' early work, it also features the band at its most joyously celebratory. "Inchworm" displays the groups signature math-y chops while bouncing along with playful steel drums and sleigh bells. The rock intensity and swelling digital flourishes of "White Electric" endow the song with the triumphant bravado of a grand symphony. And "Dominican Fade" wouldn't be out of place blasting at a Carnival street party.
"There's a lot of escapism going on there," Stanier says of the album's unmistakeable joyousness.
But while Gloss Drop has refocused the band as a primarily instrumental affair, four of the album's 13 tracks feature superdeliberate, handpicked cameos from big indie rock and experimental music names like Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, Yamantaka Eye from The Boredoms, and Chilean producer Matias Aguayo. Plus, Gary Numan, of all people, appears as well.
These four collaborations are best-case-scenario products from the band's trial-and-error dalliances with vocals. Where Braxton's presence on Mirrored may have been too pronounced and even goofy, the guest spots on Gloss Drop give the record an appropriately measured dose of pop.
Battles. Thursday, October 27. Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami. The show starts at 10 p.m. and tickets cost $15 plus fees via fla.vor.us. Call 305-377-2277 or visit grandcentralmiami.com.
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