Battles

Battles, steered by Ian Williams and John Stanier, fuse disparate styles into music that proves both immediately gripping and marked by technical mastery. Their buoyant approach merges post-rock, prog, psych, electronic music, post-punk, and further strands through vivid, perpetually shifting arrangements. The 2007 debut Mirrored—the group’s sole album featuring Tyondai Braxton—cast them as avant-rock futurists, yet after his exit Battles expanded their range. Gloss Drop in 2011 spotlighted the most accessible facets of their experiments via multiple guest vocalists, while the all-instrumental La Di Da Di from 2015 confirmed that their material retained abundant hooks without words. By the 2019 release Juice B Crypts the lineup had contracted to a duo, though the humor and exploratory drive in their sound continued to intensify.

Battles originated in New York City in 2002 with guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams, drummer/percussionist John Stanier, bassist/guitarist Dave Konopka, and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Tyondai Braxton. Each brought substantial experience from experimental rock circles. A native of Pittsburgh, Williams performed in local bands through high school before joining the acclaimed math-rock group Don Caballero in 1992 for eight years; he also played with Chicago’s avant-garde trio Storm & Stress from 1997 to 2000. Stanier, raised in Pittsburgh and Florida, participated in a Florida drum corps’ winter and spring camps without formal drum-set instruction and studied orchestral percussion at the University of South Florida. He blended that preparation with a devotion to hardcore punk to develop a commanding style refined in Helmet and Tomahawk before Battles. Braxton began writing and performing in Middletown, Connecticut, in the early 1990s after composition studies at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, while Konopka arrived from Boston’s math-rock band Lynx and established himself separately as a graphic designer.

Although their résumés were strong, the musicians sought fresh challenges and devoted extended time to shaping a sound that drew on electronic music and global influences. Following more than a year of extended jam sessions they enlisted friend Emery Dobyns to record them at New York’s Dubway Studios during late-night hours. Their first EP, C, surfaced on Monitor Records in June 2004; the B EP on Dim Mak appeared that September. The releases’ kinetic character attracted Warp Records, which signed the band and issued the compilation C/B in February 2006. At the same time Battles developed their first full-length with Keith Souza at Rhode Island’s Machines with Magnets studio. Released in May 2007, Mirrored enlarged their palette with more ambitious songwriting and Braxton’s heavily processed vocals, earning broad critical praise; that June the album reached number 26 on Billboard’s Independent Albums Chart. The Tonto+ EP arrived in October, adding further layers to one of Mirrored’s central tracks.

After touring behind Mirrored, Battles began writing material for a second album. In mid-2010, however, Braxton departed to concentrate on his solo work. Within months the remaining members reworked their existing songs and recruited vocalists including Gary Numan, Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye, and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino. Gloss Drop, which also contained the buoyant Matias Aguayo collaboration “Ice Cream,” appeared in June 2011 and peaked at number 19 on the Independent Albums Chart. The following year Battles issued remixes by Gui Boratto, Kode9, and Hudson Mohawke, among others, first as separate EPs that were later collected as Dross Glop in April. For the next album the band returned to an entirely instrumental format. Working again at Machines with Magnets, they incorporated Afro-beat, reggae, and techno influences on September 2015’s La Di Da Di, which reached number 33 on the Independent Albums Chart the next month.

After the album’s release and tour, Battles took a hiatus during which Stanier performed with the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth Meyers and collaborated with producer Rone, appearing on his 2017 album Mirapolis and joining him onstage. In 2018 Konopka left the band, and Williams and Stanier began performing as a duo. For their fourth album the pair worked with producer/mixer Chris Tabron at Brooklyn’s Rumours studio—their first recording session in their hometown. Following the approach taken on Gloss Drop, Stanier and Williams enlisted an array of guest vocalists such as Liquid Liquid’s Sal Principato, Yes’ Jon Anderson, Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, and Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler. Drawing inspiration from New York City, October 2019’s Juice B Crypts presented some of the band’s most seamlessly integrated rock and electronic textures; that November the album peaked at number 23 on the Independent Albums Chart.