8/10

After setting themselves up brilliantly as the future of abstract and experimental rock music with their debut album 'Mirrored' and its subsequent follow-up 'Gloss Drop', the Battles camp seemed to go quiet for quite some time. Now returning four years after their second studio release, the band have reinvented their sound once again and look to take us on an audible journey unlike any other with their latest full-length 'La Di Da Di'.

While the debut featured former member Tyondai Braxton on vocals, he was replaced with a series of guests for their follow up. But this time, there are no guests and no vocals at all. 'La Di Da Di' is a completely instrumental release with all the challenges you would expect to keep a lyric-less rock record entertaining. But if there is any band you can rely on to reach into the depth of musical exploration, it is Battles as this new album shows them unleash a whole range within their musical dexterity to release an ever-changing record of loops, riffs and explosive drums.

The band do ultimately admit that a repetitive nature has always been the core to their sound, but this album feels a lot different. The constant, unending rhythms that swell to gargantuan size are restrained to a few bars as each track simply aims to push the boundaries of their own creativity and create more of an improvised experience. It is certainly something hard to find the words to explain but brilliant in almost every way.