Battles

La Di Da Di

(Warp)

Now a three-piece following the departure of keyboard player Tyondai Braxton, the now entirely instrumental New Yorkers return with their third studio album. Gnomic statements from them about La Di Da Di's "organic techno thrum of nearly infinite loops" suggests a release lacking in colour, shade and nuance, but that isn't the case. True, John Stanier's propulsive drumming is to the fore and tracks like Summer Simmer load the heavy riffing guitars of Dave Konopka and Ian Williams onto a funk-flavoured groove, but the band's provenance in the great musical melting pot that is New York has dealt them a strong hand in terms of influences, and they continue explore that variety here. On FF Badu, for instance, the scratchy guitars take on the tone of the West African kora as the mischevious spirit of Fela Kuti is unleashed across the sprawling rhythm track, while the opening passages of Cacio E Pepe recall Miles Davis's 1970 track Honky Tonk. Elsewhere there's playful electronica on Dot Net and its companion piece Dot Com, and a hint of Japan's Brian Eno-influenced atmospherics on closing track Luu Le.

Barry Didcock