3 out of 5

Label: Southern

Producer: Steve Albini

I know, I know – when I first bought this album, I was totally nuts about it.  And I sort of expected to still be nuts about it.  I’ve certainly given it many a’listen between now and then, but if I tune out the memories, it seems I’m more a fan of aggressive Dianogah than the Tortoise-y quiet stuff on this album and ‘Brazillians.’

Battle Champs is still an early version of the band, when the focus was on the bass interplay over finding a groove, but the faster pace set by ‘As Seen From Above’ is dismissed pretty quickly by the quiet intro track ‘Kaisakunin’, which, by being comprised solely of quiet ‘high’ bass, also serves as an intro to the increased dynamic range the album uses.  The basic template of two bass, drums, wacky and smooth time signature changes and a couple vocal tracks with Jay Ryan doing the talky monotone singy thing is still in full effect and my feelings aside, this is still a thoroughly enjoyable album and technically beautiful and startling.  But it lacks a punch.  If we go with the Tortoise records, those that stick out the most to me are the ones that burst and bubble at select moments.  Minimalist instrumental albums can also have emotional impact, of course, but it’s a different game, and ‘Battle Champions’, sticking very much in the midrange as it does on almost every track, doesn’t achieve that impact for me.  Even the singing tracks have a different feel from album one, a bit more contemplative over the notes of sadness on ‘As Seen.’  The dynamic range I mention is that Dianogah is willing to stretch up and down the frets this time around, increasing the palette intriguingly but bringing the sound closer to a traditional one.  Interestingly I feel like they would shift back to a mostly lower noise spectrum for ‘Millions,’ but they maintained the peace-out mantra that seemed to back the songwriting here.

Some highlights of post-rockness drum up loud and proud, with fittingly witty song-titles – ‘Indie Rock Spock Ears’ – but buffered with those short, minute long pleasant plucking tracks, instead of making the album feel more thematic, break up the flow for me.

Still, Dianogah is one of those groups that provides a different template for their sound on each album.  They’re all enjoyable, and backed by undeniable talent, but each of us will pick our fav based on our tastes.  I’m not of the Tristesa / Pele / Temporary Residence crowd, I’m more down with, uh, Del Rey, to name a once labelmate of Dianogah’s, so I’m partial to heavier stuff.  You: you’re just heavier.  Heh heh heh yaaaayyy friends