‘When it comes to the progressive ingenuity of yesteryear few records could even conceive of doing battle with Gloss Drop: an explorational work of avant-garde invention, it saw the streamlined New York outfit punch well above their weight. It is and was their opus, and it remains revolutionary. This time however, although it may again be Battles’ name on Dross Glop (the droll epithet attached to this collection of radical overhauls) and even if their madcap freeform fingerprints may be smeared indelibly all over it they’ve handed the gloves over to a plethora of pioneering genre straddlers to beat the thing into varying degrees of pulp. And the resulting molten mêlée is arguably enough to prompt the disremembering of “the first time”…’
Having outed odds and sods from Dross Glop on the ridged sides of a series of limited twelve inchers, Battles next week release the exhaustive rework record in its entirety via Warp. Handily however, it now streams below.
‘Truthfully the Forum is too great, grand, and ultimately grandiose for THEESatisfaction’s brand of charmingly scuffed throwback hipping and hopping, a brand that resembles Irons’ well-worn Converse that perennially retain all pseudo-chic originality. However, from the squelchy thump of the perfectly lethargic Cabin Fever to the groggy, oomphed-up soul of Do You Have Time the success accrued off the back of Bandcamp is both impressive and quite impressionable and, although the mixtape vibe eliminates much opportunity for personalisation and consequent interaction, their unflappable assuredness proves infectious.’
A couple weeks back a couple remixes of tracks once entangled in the globular glory of Battles’ Gloss Dropwere reinterpreted by both Gui Borrato and The Field for the first 12” in their Dross Glop series. The second release, it’s now been revealed, features Kode9 assaulting Africastle and The Alchemist taking down Futura, while yet another particularly radical overhaul is delivered courtesy of Sup Pop’s ‘avant rap’ free hip-hop pairing, Shabazz Palaces: decelerating White Electric to a sluggish groan that’s equipped with chilled-lip moans, the ‘Palaces provide a startlingly grizzly interpretation of a once-vibrant chocolate sprinkle of a track.
Dross Glop 2 is released February 20th, while Battles have been announced as part of the initial Bloc. line up scheduled to take place on July 6th-7th.
