Nuevo disco de Battles

Uno de los QGN del año para mi! Cuatro años después de lanzar el dicazo "Mirrored", Battles vuelven como trío tras la marcha de Tyondai Braxton con el disco "Gloss Drop" previsto para el 7 de junio.

Para suplir la marcha del multiinstrumentista han reclutado a unos cuantos invitados de nivel como Gary Numan, Yamantaka Eye (Boredoms), Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead), y Matias Aguayo (Kompakt Records).

El tracklist será el siguiente:

01 Africastle
02 Ice Cream [ft. Matias Aguayo]
03 Futura
04 Inchworm
05 Wall Street
06 My Machines [ft. Gary Numan]
07 Dominican Fade
08 Sweetie & Shag [ft. Kazu Makino]
09 Toddler
10.Rolls Bayce
11 White Electric
12 Sundome [ft. Yamantaka Eye]

Hace un tiempo estuvieron hablando con Pitchfork sobre el tema...

Pitchfork: When Tyondai left the band, did you guys think about ending Battles or changing the name of the group?

Dave Konopka: Not at all. It wasn't even a consideration. I'm not going to candy-coat it-- the situation was kind of dark. The three of us argued and were pissed off after Ty left but we were like, "Fuck that. That's chapter's closed. Let's move on." From there, the most important thing was to maintain the integrity of what the band means to us and to carry on with it. When Ty left over the summer, we were close to having an album's worth of material-- we had put so much energy into the project and then we had to re-establish ourselves as a three-piece. The end result is a culmination of reworked things we'd been putting together the past couple years and some newer songs.

Pitchfork: So you guys were in the studio when he left?

DK: Yeah, we were getting close to what we were going to commit to as an album. Looking back, I totally would have regretted releasing the album that we had at that point, though. Not that the music was bad, but there wasn't a team effort. Around that point last year, we started booking shows for October. It was a wake-up call, and Ty didn't feel as committed to upholding our commitments and obligations. I think he was just overwhelmed with the amount of work that it takes to be a successful band on the road, which is totally fine-- it's just one person's perspective versus any other's.

But playing live is really important to the three of us, and it brought up a fundamental disagreement about the future of the band. I was not willing to let Battles become more of a side-project type of band. We have so much invested in this-- it's our livelihood. Battles isn't just a garage band to us. It's unfortunate that Ty leaving the band is part of the narrative because it's really more about Ian, John, and I rising to the occasion and creating an album that we're all very happy with.

Pitchfork: How did the lineup change affect the songs on the new album?

DK: There was a lot of new space to work with but the album is still crazy-- it doesn't sound like we're a three-piece. It also opened up a lot of doors for us to collaborate with some really great vocalists like Matias Aguayo from Kompakt Records and Eye from the Boredoms. There are two more guests I can't talk about just yet. And all the vocalists are really integrated into the music, it's not like, "Why is Chris Martin on this Battles song?" [laughs]