Gloss Drop by Battles

Gloss Drop, the second studio album from New York experimental rockers Battles, came out on Warp in June 2011, the first after Tyondai Braxton's exit left Ian Williams, John Stanier and Dave Konopka to carry on as a trio. With no singer of their own left, they turned the mic over to guests, including Gary Numan and Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, and kept most of the record instrumental.

It's math rock with a sugar rush: Stanier's drums hammer out rigid, relentless patterns while guitars and keyboards loop, chirp and ricochet over the top like a pinball machine with a sense of humor. "Ice Cream" led the way as the first single, pressed on 12-inch vinyl in 3000 copies across strawberry, vanilla and chocolate colors, with a video by the Barcelona collective CANADA. "My Machines", with Numan singing, came next. Then the whole album got remixed across four Dross Glop EPs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.