There is a surreal tangibility to the sounds on La Di Da Di. The building blocks Battles have created, despite having no real world analogue, sound frustratingly like they ought to. The sound that is the foundation of opening track ‘The Yabba’ (it has to be onomatopoeia) has such a squelchiness to it that a decent liar could convince me it was a field recording.

This simultaneous groundedness and impossibility also comes up in how the blocks are put together. Other than the drums, it’s never really clear what these sounds are or who (if anyone) is actually playing them. Keys and guitars are run through effects and loop pedals create something uniquely disorientating.

This is what makes the album so fun, it allows you to get lost in somewhere strange and unfamiliar, but unchecked this has its drawbacks. La Di Da Di is the first completely instrumental Battles album and without vocal the band have had to fill that void with something. They have upped the loop density and solos play a much more central role than they have done on past records with the result being some tracks feeling aimless and busy. As though sounds and loops came first without any thoughts as to how they might be structured.

I think the most useful point of comparison for La Di Da Di is industrial music, especially in its use of loops and sound design fetishes. The differences lie in their aesthetics, Industrial music worships the discipline of pure repetition and mono-chromaticity are a dour reflection of reality. La Di Da Di in contrast, reflects another world, one that is as light-hearted and care free as its name.

Daoud Al-Janabi