Battles

Add Date: June 7 

Artist: Battles 

Album: Gloss Drop 

Label: Warp 

Genre: Rock, experimental 

Comments: Even with the departure of vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Tyondai Braxton, there's still an awful lot happening on Battles' second LP, Gloss Drop. To be fair, we're not exactly talking about an inexperienced bunch, as the three remaining members all came from established bands: drummer John Stanier from Helmet, guitarist and keyboardist Ian Williams from Storm & Stress and Don Caballero, and bassist and guitarist Dave Konopka from Lynx. And though their debut full-length Mirrored didn't surface until 2007, the band has been playing together since 2002.

To account for the loss of Braxton, Battles have brought in four guest vocalists: Kompakt electronica artist Matias Aguayo (on excellent lead single "Ice Cream"), Blonde Redhead's Kazo Makino, Boredoms frontman Yamantaka Eye and the legendary Gary Numan all appear on Gloss Drop. And the instrumental compositions are very interesting as well, although I don't think a studio record quite does them justice. See them live if you can.

Angular, electronica-tinged rock that might get tagged as "progressive" or "math", but Battles is pretty much impossible to label. Spin tracks 2, 8, 6 and 1.