Battles – Gloss Drop
aaamusic | On 17, Mar 2012
Experimental rock trio Battles are doing a bit of Radiohead. Following in the footsteps of The King Of Limbs remix album ‘TKOL RMX 1234567’, which was a compilation of remix EPs, Battles are readying the release of a remix album of their own, landmark 2011 record ‘Gloss Drop’, which will – like Radiohead – be a compilation of separate, remix EPs.
Ahead of that full remix album, the American instrumentalists release the third EP in the ‘Gloss Drop’ remix series – through the legendary Warp on March 19th. Alongside remixes by Silent Servant and Qluster sits Kangding Ray’s reworking of Battles’ instrumental interlude ‘Toddler’. Kangding Ray – aka David Letellier – is a French-born, Berlin-based producer, and he’s flattened out the understated ‘Toddler’ into 7.37 minutes of dark and progressive minimal techno. Its tone is similar to Trentemøller at his most ambient, and its texture is not far off the moody electronica of Burial at his most atmospheric.
This is graveyard dance music – not suitable for the club, and certainly not suitable for rock fans, not matter how musically intellectual and progressive they maybe. But, like everything Warp has a hand in, Kangding’s remix of Battles’ ‘Toddler’ is unusually rich in emotion – especially for minimal techno orientated remix. And my-oh-my are those sinister synths crisp.
Clive Rozario
