Battles - Gloss Drop
John Stanier steals the show in that rarest of things: a superior second album. In 2007 the debut record, Mirrors, from the New York City boys Battles, took to critics' hearts - earning pretty much universal praise and positions (86/100 on Metacritic; #105 on Pitchfork's top albums of the decade). This time around they're without singer/keyboarder/guitarist Tyondai Braxton (due to those pesky solo work commitments), adding pressure to an already sizeable task: improve upon the first. Not that it needs improvement. You know what I mean. And from the very beginning there's a massive assault on the ears: 'Africastle' is a monster of heavy drums from John Stanier but the focal point of the track is really the strings-effects that chime and clash uneasily throughout, leaving me a touch bewildered, a touch in awe at what's about to happen. Around the fourth minute it suddenly caves in on itself for what can only be described as the soundtrack for an 80s film car c...