2 out of 5

Label: Cold Sweat Records

Produced by: Emery Dobyns (recorded by)

Of course I bought Battles’ material as it was coming out, slobbering over the thought of bringing Don Cab’s guitar dynamics via Ian Williams to the forefront of a band. 

The next couple EPs following Tras had much promise, if somewhat feeling like the band was looking for motivations to add shape to their sound. But as things began, with Tras, I was really wondering if Battles was just made to fuck with our expectations. 

One side of this single – the title track – is chipper, and representative of the boppy, mathy complexity that would be the highlights of EP C and B, and the basis of some of the then forthcoming album, Mirrored. Tras is fun, but I might say it’s exactly what we assumed Battles “should” be doing based on their pedigree, re: expectations. 

Then you get Fantasy, which is 8+ minutes of an electro beat, absolutely unchanging the whole way through. Not only does that seem like a purposeful hard left from the upbeat lead-in, but it’s also trolling: like how far can we push ‘artistry’ until it becomes… not that. 

That the track is “concluded” by short, 4-second tracks of a fading beat further tosses fuel on the art-for-art’s-sake wankyness. 

More directly: I never had much need to revisit this single.