Battles

Some say Battles are snobs. Others that they're too cerebral. Too technical (too good, even?). Stanier, Williams, Braxton and Konopka delivered a show of such intensity and precision that it left the large crowd at Bologna's Parco Nord breathless, detractors included.

There's surely no need to dwell on the technical skill of the four musicians, though that skill wouldn't in itself be a conditio sine qua non for judging a live show good or bad. Watching them, though, you're witnessing living proof of just how beautiful the marriage between razor-sharp technique and wild creativity can be.

The performance delivered at Bologna's Estragon further cements them as one of the most original and explosive bands on the scene, taking the direction charted on "Mirrored" and on the EPs a step further, less polished but, in its own way, perfect.

What's astonishing about Battles' live show is the sheer amount of sound they manage to produce, sound that always seems to be teetering on the edge of chaos: lopsided guitar arpeggios (the ones Ian Williams has turned into his trademark) meeting split-second, mirrored responses from the black and white keys of the keyboards, real-time loops shaped on the fly (Dave Konopka, almost always in the background, is masterful) and rhythmic figures underpinning wildly shifting time signatures.

Yet chaos never wins out: everything comes back together into a design full of flourishes, but organized, orderly. Mathematical in a different way from the equations once worked out by Don Caballero and Storm and Stress, say.

Among the various pieces, the highlights of "Mirrored" stand out: the guitars, loops and synths chasing each other in the intro of the glorious "Tonto", each finding its own tempo, creating obsessive dissonances before being called back to order by Stanier's thunderous entrance (for the record, a man who could carry the whole show on his own), and the martial drums of "Atlas", which live grabs the crowd and carries it away. Some jump on the spot, others can't stop nodding their heads, almost hypnotized by the relentless rhythm.

Tyondai Braxton plays with his voice and thrills the crowd, Williams is the wildcard, playing guitar and synth as if they were a single instrument, while Konopka, together with Stanier, holds up the abstract instrumental wanderings of the other two, almost forming, alongside the former Helmet drummer, the solid foundation over which the two six-string-and-keyboard geniuses can leap around at will.

In short, the more the free-jazz legend's son and the former Don Caballero man push things to extremes, the stronger the rhythm section becomes to provide an anchor. And the trick works.

It's not pop, it's not post/math rock, it's not avant-garde, and it's not electronic either.

It's a crazy blend of all four things.

The feeling, by the end of the show, is that these four are currently putting on the best live show around.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google