Pitchfork

There are few bands I'm more willing to give the benefit of the doubt than Battles. Luckily, I don't have to-- at least not yet. While the world patiently awaits a proper Battles full-length, the newly released EP C / B EP, their new UK-only double-disc debut for Warp Records, offers no new material at all. Instead, it compiles two of the band's previous EPs, proving the only thing stronger than their power to obliterate is their will to beguile: My copy's labels were switched, so C became B, and vice versa. Not that titles help contextualize things much-- most of them are acronyms like "SZ2" and "Tras 3" and "Bttls". For those of you wondering where A went, though, Battles have so far worked backward from C (as in cryptic), presumably saving the scarlet letter for their next Warp release.

So why do they have my confidence? Because Battles are tough without being confrontational, innovative without recourse to bells and whistles, and completely transparent in process. When they're good, they're great; when they're anything less than good, they're so thrillingly alien it doesn't matter.

This compiled material basically amounts to a black hole: 66 minutes of the most hypnotic instrumental music currently being purveyed outside techno or Japan. But whereas semi-analogous Sunn O))) and Boris administer hypnotic assaults through deep immersion in drones and brutal low-end, Battles bring the fury with rigorous, unrelenting grooves. "Tras2" hits its stride at the halfway mark, before its odd-metered drum loop starts to decay: Drummer John Stainer gradually drops pieces of the beat until there's nothing left but jerky, decontextualized snare/bass unisons. "Hi/Lo" is a lurching upbeat stomp that leaves gaping-wide chasms for keyboards to fill with carnival pinwheels.

Many Battles songs ask the same question: Can challenging, flex-your-brain-muscles music be harsh, bombastic and unsubtle as well? "SZ2"'s proposed solution calls on prog-rock chop-worship, attacking nerve centers by force of sheer volume. Check how the guitars keep three polyrhythms airborne while Stainer beats like an ogre beneath, insisting his 2/4 backbeat take primacy. "B + T", meanwhile, pivots around linear guitar/bass/drums interplay, each member handling a complex figure but never stepping forward for more than a brief flare. So many notes, yet Battles play each like a one-time shot-- a thousand winning swings at the carnival Test-O-Strength. They never flub. End of story.

The long, inchoate noise pieces that occasionally crop up here aren't meant as palate-cleansers but can serve that purpose if you insist. B, truth be told, comes padded like a rubber room-- the hushed, found-sound-sounding "Bttls" writhes like a tree full of electronic crickets for nearly half the EP's length (not counting "Tras", a carryover from the band's Tras, Fantasy single). Night-and-day comparisons become inevitable once "Dance" breaks the silence, its blippy, scat-like organ lines pushed by a hurried beat. Only eight-minute "Fantasy"-- basically a SETI-watcher's idea of a drum circle-- seems extraneous.

Of course, most of us are happy enough just rocking out, cocks optional. When the kids truly bring it, you hear about them, be they adderall-popping mall-punk naifs or tech-metal swordsmiths. But Battles start where most are content to finish; a well-toned muscular sound is their bedrock, their means to an end. Who knows where they'll take it next? Surprise has so far been their only guarantee.