Battles / Dirty Projectors

The cool kids are out in Newcastle tonight. Scratched into a rock somewhere on Mount Sinai is a proverb that says it is stylish to have big hair and a crap dress sense. It is the little known 11th Commandment - "Thou shalt not be inoffensively attired in public" - and these guys are avid theists.

	"the night’s gig has that underground feeling, especially as Northumbria Union is a bit dingy at the best of times"

Lessons on being fashionable were obviously lost on the first support act (whose name I missed) who resembled a bunch of nomads, wandering the Stage 2 grounds and banging into bits of equipment at almost indiscriminate moments. Their entire set consisted of, as far as I was aware, one ‘song’ which lasted a full twenty minutes, during which two girls lay almost motionless on the floor next to a bassist who flopped his hair up and down as if trying to fan them out of a drug-induced oblivion. One guy just wandered around the stage and hit random bits of metal before collapsing onto a drum kit and seemingly passing out. When he awoke after the clatter ended I asked him if the set was rehearsed. He simply replied “Nah man” and I wondered if he had even ever met the rest of his bandmates before.

How they got a slot supporting such an up-and-coming band as Battles I will never know, especially as the other support act were so good. Dirty Projectors genuinely gave Battles a run for their money, producing a set with depth, ingenuity and musical insight that belied their apparent youth. They had an unfortunate appearance; the frontman Dave Longstreth looked a bit like Jim Carey in ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and the two female guitarists, Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, resembled a couple of terrified and malnourished young teenagers which, when flanking the older lead singer, carried slightly sinister undertones. But boy could they sing. Harmoniously tight, surprisingly dynamic and altogether damn impressive, don’t be surprised to see big things from them in the not so distant future.

Battles are a band who are making waves in the music industry, indeed BBC music recently said they were “the best band on earth today”, perhaps a bit histrionic but nevertheless their ability cannot be denied. They have managed to stay relatively beneath the radar and the night’s gig has that underground feeling, especially as Northumbria Union is a bit dingy at the best of times.

I noticed their set consisted of only nine songs including the encore and this gives some idea of the type of music they play, long instrumental pieces that are full of dirty energy and musical passion. Any band that thinks they can carry off a headline slot with only nine tracks is obviously both confident about the music they perform and ambitious enough to let their songs do the talking. I think ambition is the underlying factor in their sound; they want to pursue this genre of what has become know as ‘Math rock’, a technologically enhanced, formulaically-based variation of Prog. Rock that works on combinations and principles. Think of it as being to music, what Heston Blumenthal is to cooking. And he’s Michelin starred.

Battles opened with ‘Race : Out’, building up to the song with the use of numerous samples which they recorded live on stage. Layering these up on top of one another gave a unique insight into the composition of their music and the intensity it incorporates. It is extraordinary to believe that only four musicians can accumulate such a depth of sound, especially on a live stage.

The excellent ‘Tij’ follows and it is becoming increasingly obvious that the band are keen on maintaining their mystique with minimal communication and constant concealment behind their various monitors and keyboards. Drummer John Stanier is pushed to the front of the stage to receive the majority of the applause for his exertive drumming which tends to hold the songs together, giving it a direction and an audible rhythm.

This seems to be their major flaw in live performance. The multitude of layers means that it is hard to determine the individual component parts whose subtleties make Battles such an exciting and unique band. The recorded version shows these up perfectly, to the detriment of the slightly indeterminable nature of their live recitals. Don’t get me wrong, it is still damn impressive live, it just doesn’t do them justice entirely. I love the film ‘The Shining’ as much as anybody, but have you read the book by Stephen King? It’s so much better.

‘Tonto’ added some much needed vocals to the fray with vocalist Tyondai Braxton creating live voice samples to compliment his excellent guitar work, before new single ‘Atlas’ was performed to enthusiastic applause. Both are stand-out songs, fluctuating between melodies and rhythms but being driven along by thrusting beats and quirky vocals that please the ear and quicken the pulse.

‘Race : In’ sees Braxton demonstrate his beatboxing abilities and makes me wonder what else he might be capable of. He was obviously that kid at school who could do everything and who people like me hated because he could not only do all that, but he also looked like a model and was actually still a nice guy.

But before jealousy could start to rear its ugly head, Battles were gone from the stage only to return for a short encore performance of ‘Bad Trails’ and some thanks for a great European tour.

The evening seemed to show me the entire scale of interpretation on Prog. Rock from the clueless, misdirected attempts of the start, through the quirky and melodic stance in the middle, to the darker and more technical approach of the last. All three were completely different and that goes to show this genre is a wealth of variety and originality. I wonder how long it will be before people start embracing it for its inimitable musical insight rather than criticising it for its pretentiousness. Not too long on this showing.

FUTURE GIGS