3 out of 5

Produced by: Battles

Label: Dim Mak

Battles’ B EP is, I’d say, exactly what its creators intended: A partial nod to things past; a partial demo of things to come; and a partial fuck you.

As the first formal post-Don Cab non-Damon Che project from guitar maestro Ian Williams, I certainly wasn’t alone in hoping for / desiring some tongue-waggling instrumental dynamics, especially when the artist was paired with notable Tomahawk / Helmet drummer John Stainer and Warp guy Tyondai Braxton.  B’s first track – SZ2 – is that payoff, a pants-wettin’, grooving track of noodling fireworks and explosive but precise drumming.  It’s satisfaction; you tear open the Village Voice in search of show dates.  A brief exploratory ambient track – TRAS 3 – cools you down, leading into the propulsive but short IPT2, which is more indicative of the dance floor pace the group would employ on their albums to come; it’s not initially as impressive as the opener, but it’s fun.  The next track clicks on, and if your player is so inclined to show you a track length, you see it’s 12 minutes; you see the name is BTTLS, like a freaking battle cry.  Your Don Cab fetish tingles.

And then for twelve minutes you get to listen to minimalist computer bleeps and feedback; no beats, no rhythm.  I… hate this track, no matter how many times I listen to it, no matter how I try to justify it.  And I really feel like it’s the payback for the first song, telling us very clearly: This is not Don Caballero, fuckhead.

So as not to end on a sour note, B tosses in the sizzling skins workout of DANCE, which is pretty dynamic and awesome, but, if listened to in sequence, only barely helps one to recover from BTTLS.

This didn’t stop any of us from buying the other EPs, of course, and Battles ended up in a great place.  But the initial listening experience of B stung a bit, even if I sense that was the partial intention.