Eight years ago, the New York computer rock band Battles was on the cusp of crossing over into the territory of general popularity. They were stylish modernists with backgrounds in math rock and hardcore metal, playing a groove-heavy music where the human parts (vocals and some instruments) were made to sound like they were coming from computers, and the computer parts (beats and loops) seemed solidly under the control of humans. They had a personality in lead singer in Tyondai Braxton, a quirky sound and an air of a secret late-night party in an abandoned industrial space in Brooklyn or Queens. It was the sort of music that indie nerds loved and industry people looked on as “interesting” or “having potential.”
Battles last came to Taipei six years ago, when all that buzz was still surrounding them and their 2007 debut album, Mirrored. Now, two albums later, they are back to perform next week at The Wall, but with a different sound.
From an indie rock perspective, it’s pretty clear that Battles never crossed over to pop or even wanted to. They’re back to playing all instrumental music, artistic compositions of loops and instrumental grooves, with cool minimalist video projections making live shows into heady happenings worthy of a contemporary art gallery. Their lead singer — who wasn’t a band founder — is long gone; Braxton left after the first album and they never really replaced him.
Photo courtesy of Feedback Asia
In some ways, the music is better than ever. Battles’ latest album, La Di Da Di, released just three months ago, is less glitchy and jerky than the earlier two albums, feeling more like Philip Glass than Aphex Twin (with whom Battles share a record label in Warp Records). Reviews have been largely positive, though it’s also pretty clear they’re directed towards a niche audience that likes arty, experimental rock.
In a recent online documentary made by the band, The Art of Repetition, band members speak quite candidly about how they love to interpret conceptual ideas through technology.
“Repetition is something that’s really interesting to us,” says Dave Konopka, who plays guitar and bass.
Then picking up the theme, drummer John Stanier, who used to play for the art-metal band Helmet in the 1990s, adds, “Looping is the backbone of this band, for sure. Especially as the drummer, I can’t even imagine not playing to a loop anymore. It allows me to be more melodic… It’s freeing for me as a musician.”
Band founder Ian Williams, on guitar, keyboard and various electronics, makes a number of speculative declarations in the mini-doc, like, “I’m interested in complicated things. Truth is revealed through...a sort of mystical machine of chaos.”
In terms of style, Williams describes Battles’ sound as a marriage between his love of complexity and the stripped-down minimalism favored by Konopka (who comes at it from electronic minimalism) and Stanier (whose background is hard-core punk).
But however you mix this martini, it’s still solidly in the territory of shoegaze, laptop pop, dream pop, post-rock and all other indie styles that are frequently described as “cinematic.” To their credit, Battles pull it off with a high degree of virtuosity, and that’s what keeps it interesting. Performing at a 500-capacity venue like The Wall, their show should be a proper experience.
P FESTIVAL FINALE
If “futuristic” music is your thing, then Christmas is definitely coming early. The day before Battles, The Wall will also host a double bill of Danish post-rockers Sleep Party People and German classical-electronic trio Brandt-Brauer-Frick as the finale of P Festival, a concert series in its second year for innovative music using piano or keyboards.
Kicking off in September, this year’s P Festival has hosted nine artists, most of them international, including great shows by Andrea Neumann from Germany, Haruka Nakamura from Japan and Balmorhea from the US. The seven concerts in Taipei and Tainan were all held in cozy venues and saw three sold out shows. The final show in the series features two groups.
First, Danish music project Sleep Party People — group founder Brian Batz insists they are not a “band” — return to Taipei for a second time. They are grown men who wear black hoodies with home-made bunny masks out of shyness and perform Nordic post-rock in the vein of Sigur Ros. Its an amplified mix of ambient music and traditional instruments and has been described as perfect accompaniment for a mug of tea at the end of the evening.
Brandt-Brauer-Frick is something more outwardly energetic and unconventionally experimental. They’re known for performing techno with the instruments of traditional chamber music, such as pianos, cello, tuba and drums. Of the three bands mentioned above, they are certainly the weirdest, and probably also the most “rocking.”
■ Battles perform with WWWW (落差草原) on Wednesday at 8pm; Sleep Party People and Brandt-Brauer-Frick perform on Tuesday at 8pm. The Wall, B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Tickets for Battles are NT$1,800, or NT$1,600 in advance through www.thewall.com.tw or www.books.com.tw; Sleep Party People and Brandt-Brauer-Frick are NT$1300, or NT$1,200 in advance through iBon. For more info, check: www.pfestival.tw.
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