Hyper-creative weirdo rock group Battles are back for the first time in four years for a new album. It’s called Juice B Crypts, because of course it is; and it’s out October 18 through Warp.
After the exit of vocalist Tyondai Braxton in 2010, the band earlier this year announced further refining with the departure of multi-instrumentalist Dave Konopka, leaving who I would (very smarty) term the essential mitochondria of the band: drum ruffian John Stanier and everything-else player Ian Williams.
But it’s totally okay! Because Battles have new friends, and they’re all on the new record! We’re talking guest spots from weirdo rap group Shabazz Palaces, weirdo indie pop team tUnE-yArDs, weirdo prog rock frontman Jon Anderson, weirdo soul purveyor Xenia Rubinos, weirdo Taiwanese experimentalists Prairie WWWW, and the very normal Sal Principato (of weirdo post-punk funk band Liquid Liquid)! I’m pretty sure that covers all the musical bases.
Here’s Williams on the record about the record:
It’s about chord progressions, resolutions, returning home. Take that and throw it into a blender of modern electronic tools like glitching devices, or use melodic lines and take them and regurgitate them and pulverise the traditional stuff but at the same time try and retain harmonic relationships while completely smashing them up.
Truly weird!
But despite the unconventional entourage and rhetoric converging around this juicy LP, this has all been a pretty industry-standard album announcement, which means there can only be one thing left: the debut a new song! And, yep, here it is: right under these PR grafs about how the album captures the sound of New York: it’s called “Titanium 2 Step” and it features the aforementioned Sal Principato dancing his voice along the twin Battles staples of mutilated melodic loops and propulsive grooves. Listen below!
Pre-order Juice B Crypts, the title of which sounds like a mix between a Welch’s corporate mascot and the Crypt Keeper’s lost cousin, here, and check out the full tracklist below.
Juice B Crypts tracklisting:
01. Ambulance
02. A Loop So Nice…
03. They Played It Twice (feat. Xenia Rubinos)
04. Sugar Foot (feat. Jon Anderson & Prairie WWWW)
05. Fort Greene Park
06. Titanium 2 Step (feat. Sal Principato)
07. Hiro 3
08. IZM (feat. Shabazz Palaces)
09. Juice B Crypts
10. Last Supper on Shasta Pt. 1 (feat. tUnE-yArDs)
11. Last Supper on Shasta Pt. 2 (feat. tUnE-yArDs)