Battles – La Di Da Di – 2LP

Battles unleash their much vaunted third album “La Di Da Di” for Warp. Twelve tracks that, whilst sticking with the group’s trademark blend of organic repetition through playful melodies and seriously flexible drumming, continues the journey started on “Mirrored” and continued on “Gloss Drop” to excavate a sound built around infinite loops of experimental instrumentation.

Starting off with lead single “The Yabba” the group throw a curve ball through with a wall of noise slowly building for a few seconds before everything swirls into place and that synth riff that will be stuck in your head for days to come yearns into place and the drums gallop into stride with that twitchy, twangy groove. Its a proper banger this one and sets the pace for the rest of “La Di Da Di” perfectly.

Second coming “Dot Net” rolls into place for round 2 with a drum and bass combo that could almost be an acoustic take on the second side of deejay selek, a short ‘n’ sweet roller that paves the way forward into “FF Bada” where the instruments literally chant with a can’t stop gloss bounce. It’s hard to pick a favorite or single out any tracks as absolute highlights as each piece perfectly folds into the next while maintaining a singularity absent from a lot of modern groups. Tracks like “Cacio e Pepe” that give a downbeat spun out heady euphoria shuffle up next to full scale epic sliders like Tyne Wear which is just begging to be turned up LOUD and proper solid synth gear as crafted on “Dot Com”. Three albums in and at the top of their game and way ahead of all the contemporaries, “La Di Da Di” will satisfy fans of old while giving newcomers a perfect entrance to the visionary world they inhabit that sounds quite unlike anything else out there today.