What happens to a band when one of its core members – in the case of Battles, Tyondai Braxton – decides halfway through a recording session that this whole band thing just isn’t for him? Well, I suppose there are a few options: Stay the course, stop the ship, or recalculate your bearing. Battles has chosen the latter, and they’ve set their sights on dancing. Next port of call? Grooving.
Going into Battles’ show on Wednesday night at Le Poisson Rouge, questions abounded. Sure, I’ve done my fair share of listening to Mirrored, the band’s stellar debut album. But what’s next for the band? Would they play songs from that album? Would they play only new stuff? And, most importantly, how would it all sound?
Well, I can tell you this: Battles’ new iteration is a branch off of the old tree, a sunnier update to the icy sounds of Mirrored. Gone is Braxton, widely considered to be the driving force behind the quartet’s debut release, but rather than try to fill the gap left by his departure, the band has swallowed that space whole. More or less overnight, Battles has become a three piece outfit, and they’re not spending too much time looking back.
Wednesday night’s show consisted of entirely new material – tracks from the trio’s upcoming release, Gloss Drop. Continuing onward rather than grasping for glory days, the band ignored tunes from Mirrored in favor of jaunty new songs, heavily centered on John Stanier’s drums. The songs are less introspective, but are also sunnier, seeming to lend themselves better to live performance. I never had the chance to see Battles play prior to Braxton’s departure, but I have a hard time envisioning Mirrored’s tracks coming alive along a groove in quite the same way.
To be sure, Braxton’s departure did not go unnoticed. It’s clear that Battles has been hit hard by the loss and the members are attempting to find balance on stage without a clear focal point. Mainly, Braxton’s absence is felt in the vocal channel. On the few songs that did feature lyrics and vocals – although feature is perhaps not the best description – the vocals were exclusively samples, accompanied by two projector screens of various singers mouthing along. It was hardly a replacement for the dynamism of a live vocalist. Despite Stanier’s best efforts, the band lacks a true figurehead.
Indeed, on Wednesday night Battles flirted just a few paces away from true jam band indie rock territory. Don’t get me wrong; though jam-band indie rock may smack of negative connotation, it’s actually a fairly true-to-life and complimentary way of describing Battles’ live set in its current form. The band locks on to a driving groove and pounds that rhythm repetitively for a good five minutes. It’s not your Phish/Trey noodling and exploration, but it’s that same sort of repetitive structure away from which small excursions are made. These songs still make you want to move your feet, but the textures and jumps found on Battles’ recorded tunes aren’t faithfully recreated on stage. The live show, in many ways, is reminiscent of Thee Oh Sees – not life changing, but damn fun to rock out to.
The decision to lock onto a groove and pound it home is for the best. When Battles did indulge their noodling side, twiddling knobs and cutting and splicing various loops as they did at the beginning of their encore, the show lost its direction, slowly sinking into a fairly standard exploration of chopped sonics and basic embellishment. Those moments are easily forgotten. The band was at its best when it settled into its new mood and acknowledged that the live show is a different environment for their music. On record, Battles skirts the edge of dance music; in concert, they make no bones about their dancey purpose.
Battles is still a band searching for its identity after the abrupt departure of one of its key elements. But that doesn’t mean they’ve lost their mojo. For a band still working to settle into a comfortable spot, they sure know how to hit a groove.
