“Gloss Drop” is an upcoming album from Battles – New York band that includes members of Helmet, Don Caballero and Lynx. It is scheduled for June 7th release via Warp Records.
“Gloss” is their second studio record and a follow-up to 2007 “Mirrored“. The album will feature plenty of guest appearances – including Gary Numan and Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead).
As Stereogum points out in their premature evaluation of the album:
The departure of multi-tasking vocalist Tyondai Braxton created a hole that Battles spend the duration of their sophomore full-length Gloss Drop filling — with various guests. You’ve likely heard the sunny, funky, sweetly titled (and almost too poppy) lead track “Ice Cream” with Chilean-born Kompakt-associated producer Matias Aguayo. It’s the album’s red herring. Elsewhere Gary Numan is Gary Numan on the noisier, more fulfilling “My Machines,” Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino does up-tempo sultry on “Sweetie & Shag,” and Yamantaka Eye goes off (but maybe not off enough) for closer “Sundrome.” There are also eight head nodding instrumentals that offer some of Gloss Drop’s most satisfying excursions — see the swinging, polished, blown-out quasi-Caribbean vibe of the 16+ minute triad of “Futura,” “Inchworm,” and “Wall Street,” their steel-drummed aesthetic cousins “Dominican Fade” and “White Electric,” the briefly heartbreaking “Toddler.” In fact, Ian Williams, Dave Konopka, and John Stanier are so obviously capable of carrying a tune by their lonesome, and inserting a huge emotional weight without words, that you have to wonder if — outside Newman, moments of Eye (who could’ve easily been inserted as a sample) — adding the occasional outside vocal chords was worth the effort.
Tracklist
01 Africastle
02 Ice Cream [ft. Matias Aguayo]
03 Futura
04 Inchworm
05 Wall Street
06 My Machines [ft. Gary Numan] (Live Video)
07 Dominican Fade
08 Sweetie & Shag [ft. Kazu Makino]
09 Toddler
10.Rolls Bayce
11 White Electric
12 Sundome [ft. Yamantaka Eye]
More Info: Battles – Official Site | Warp | Georgetown Voice | Stereogum
Pre-order the album on Amazon
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