Artist: Battlestations
Label: Self-released
Release: 2012
Length: 44:37
Rating: 4.9/5
In a cold embrace. The title of the new album from post-rock innovators Battlestations promises a fresh wave of dark, melancholic and, without a doubt, experimental music. The band’s self-titled debut caught the whole post-rock scene off guard with its unclichéd, atypical mash-up of genre elements poured into one post-rock stew, full of chaotic dissonance and anti-melodies. Their second release, the EP Return / Mr. Abject, works as a kind of bridge between the chaos of the band’s early days and a clearer concept, which they dig into on the latest In a Cold Embrace.
To this day, Battlestations keep their identities secret. That puts the music front and center as the only thing worth our attention – the members clearly don’t want any kind of self-promotion. These faceless Belgians project their mystique through their music, and not just mystique, but something unidentified, unknown, something with an element of innovation that hasn’t fully revealed itself yet.
In a Cold Embrace is split into five parts – »Prologue : Nature morte // You’re not welcome here«, »Comrade // The way we grieve, Interlude : Time stands still«, »Breaking bad news // The faces we remember«, »The semblance of fate // Epilogue : Citizen creep // The end« – but just like the self-titled debut, it plays as one single composition, one single musical story. That’s also why dissecting individual tracks isn’t just unnecessary, it’s pointless.
The whole of In a Cold Embrace flows pretty evenly, despite all its variety. It isn’t just tied together in the classic »storytelling« sense; something deeper binds the music. I wouldn’t say it’s composed in a similar manner from start to finish, because it’s far too dynamic and varied for that. It’s a kind of deep connection that very few bands manage to create so clearly and effectively, and so transcendently at the same time. A sort of chaotic minimalism that finds its straight line in non-Euclidean space gets woven into a broader concept of psychedelia and post-rock, with influences from classical composition and the sweeping possibilities of modern electronic production. The music draws on so many different, seemingly incompatible styles that pinning it down critically is tough. So I can only rely on my feelings and try to find the right words to go with them.
In a Cold Embrace is definitely an album that plays on the listener’s emotions as much as it possibly can. The structure of the individual parts hits so hard mostly thanks to its suppressed dynamics and its strange, varied construction, which leave you at least a little uneasy about what you’re hearing at any given moment. There are unexpected musical twists that demand your attention. There are tiny fragments of musical texture, single threads of a huge spider web, that stir up our curiosity. These carefully placed fragments are practically countless, little pieces that then fuse in every possible way into an ambient construct in the literal sense of the word. Atmosphere is definitely the Belgian crew’s forté. An atmosphere built from elements you’d hardly think of as ingredients for ambient music. White noise, sharp slices of melody, dissonant sounds… Battlestations take the ugliest and noisiest stuff, rework it and assemble it into a mosaic of beautiful, whispering post-rock minimalism.
In a Cold Embrace is another Battlestations album that surprises so much you’ll wonder how they keep pulling it off. Their ability to compose the most interesting musical textures, sounds, melodies and rhythms is truly incredible, and it’s even more striking that the band barely leans on any established blueprint. The 21st century, and with it the music of a new era, can only belong to bands that know the need for eternal striving toward innovation, invention and new approaches. Bringing people closer to this purest abstraction of the cosmos in the most interesting way possible. This era surely belongs to bands like Battlestations. And so this era is already the era of Battlestations.
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In a cold embrace. The title of the new album of the post-rock innovation called Battlestations is screaming darkness, melancholy and, since we know Battlestations, musical experimentation. The band’s self-titled album took the whole post-rock scene by surprise with its uncliché and untypical genre fusion into their post-rock whole, full of chaotic dissonance and anti-melodies. The second band’s recording, an EP called Return / Mr. Abject, represents a bridge between the chaos of the first album and the more wholesome concept of the new album, In a Cold Embrace.
The members of Battlestations are still unknown. With this move the band shifts the focus from the individuals and their potential fame to their music. The Belgians without a face reflect their mystic-selves through their music, but they reflect through it much more than only that – their music is still something that cannot be identified, that can be known as such, something that is so fresh and new that you can’t really put a finger on it.
In a Cold Embrace is divided into five parts – »Prologue : Nature morte // You’re not welcome here«, »Comrade // The way we grieve, Interlude : Time stands still«, »Breaking bad news // The faces we remember«, »The semblance of fate // Epilogue : Citizen creep // The end« – but, like its debut predecessor, works fluent as a whole, like one composition. It would be therefore pointless to indulge into describing each of the five tracks as a separate part of the album.
The album itself is, despite its diversity, fluent through and through. It’s not only connected in some kind of a musical story, the thing that connects it goes deeper than that. I would be difficult to simply say that the whole album is made in a similar fashion, because it’s too dynamic, too diverse to say something like that. The fabric that connects the music on the album is rooted so deep that it transcends your usual conceptual albums. The somewhat chaotic minimalism is always around, and this is tied in a larger concept of psychedelic and post-rock sound, influenced by such different genres as classical music and electronic music. Battlestations’ music simply takes its material from so many musical genres that seem to be completely unrelated and unmergeable, which makes the job harder for the music critic. Therefore I can only rely myself on my feelings when I listen to the music and trust the word associations that pop-up upon hearing the band’s work.
It is obvious for In a Cold Embrace to be an album that really plays on the listener’s emotions. The whole musical construct has such a huge influence because of this suppressed dynamics and really unusual and diverse compositions that leave the listener at least uncomfortable upon hearing a certain part. There are many unexpected musical turn-outs that really attract the listener’s attention. But the most intriguing are these little pieces of the musical fabric that stand out. These little details are practically infinite, but they are connected in such a way that they result in an ambient music par excellence. Because ambiance is what Battlestations are all about. They take the seemingly ugliest and noisiest and combine them into a whispering beauty of a post-rock minimalism.
In a Cold Embrace is another Battlestations album that is going to sweep you off your feet. Their ability to compose the uncomposeable, to put passivity into a rhythm and to make a noise sound like a whisper is beyond this world. But the most surprising thing is that there are no obvious band influences, nothing to reference. Battlestations stand alone in their music. They are the future of this era of innovation, of possibilities, of musical discoveries. They are everything that is right in today’s music scene.
Line-up
Unknown.
Tracklist
1. Prologue : Nature morte // You’re not welcome here (13:17)
2. Comrade // The way we grieve (9:59)
3. Interlude : Time stands still (2:37)
4. Breaking bad news // The faces we remember (6:55)
5. The semblance of fate // Epilogue : Citizen creep // The end (11:48)
