Abe Vigoda

• Skeleton [PPM, 2008] A-
• Reviver [PPM EP, 2009] **

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Skeleton [PPM, 2008]
No Age too brutalist for you? Here's a heedlessly beautiful alternative. Read the misspelled lyrics and you might take these young Angelenos for lost post-collegians or just figure they're children in search of a magic place. But since you can't understand a word they sing, in the end you'll go with a sound that subsumes those vocals in an exalted high-speed weave. It's what might have happened if Steve Reich and Philip Glass had started a no wave band instead of leaving the job to Glenn Branca. It's what people like about Battles unless what they like is the airless precision. A-

Reviver [PPM EP, 2009]
If this EP marks their transition into a song band, somebody tell them mixing the voices up front won't do the trick ("The Reaper," "Don't Lie"). **