For the most part art seems to prevail. Especially the divergent scrappy thrashing kind of art associated with Hudson Valley based Battle Ave. Amid the blessing of fatherhood, challenges of graduate school, new members, the cancer diagnosis of drummer Samantha Niss and six years since their sophomore album, "Year of Nod", the band is poised to released their self titled EP this October.
The track "My Year With The Wizard" exquisitely blends smashed bits of 80's post rock with bigger bits of glam, space wave and spiraling psychedelic as to sound like a burning moon fever dream. Push comes to shove and I am thinking of an amalgam of MGMT, Be Bop Deluxe, Bruce Wooley and the Camera Club and Syd Barrett. I am in utter bliss (UTTER BLISS) when the lead guitar follows the vocal melody - "what do you want for me?".
God damn it, art does prevail.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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In the six years since Battle Ave’s last release, Year of Nod, the Hudson-Valley based band have navigated fatherhood, graduate school, new members, and the cancer diagnosis of drummer Samantha Niss . Now, they’re ready for a reintroduction. Originally formed in 2009 by Niss and guitarist/vocalist Jesse Doherty, the group connected over their love of ambient arrangements, orchestral epics, and the ramshackle indie-rock of the early 90’s. Armed with more experience than ever before, their new self-titled EP expertly stitches together these influences through an intuitive shared language. It’s the kind of creative collaboration that can only exist through sustained friendship and trust.
Battle Ave was largely recorded and arranged remotely, with Doherty describing it as “like a game of Exquisite Corpse… the band mostly cobbled their parts together without knowing what anyone else was going to do.” This resulted in the EP’s dense melodic haze. On opener “My Year With The Wizard,” moody, distorted guitars and piercing drums are juxtaposed with a bright indie-pop chorus, as Doherty considers the transience of friendship and the danger of forgetting yourself in your relationships. “Fear Of” sees sustained pedal-steel wails and a bright, waltzing piano craft a stage for Doherty’s beautifully lethargic vocals, while the meditative, instrumental kaleidoscope “Kingston South Cuties” functions as both intermission and palate cleanser.
The second half of the EP starts with “Cell,” a surging, existential call into the void, with Doherty lamenting “I lost myself all by myself” as the music careens chaotically forward. At almost eight minutes, the closing track “There Can’t Be Love” pieces together a patchwork of lo-fi arrangements underneath stirring guest vocals from And The Kids’ Hannah Mohan, creating a celestial instrumental blanket that morphs into a poignant acoustic finale. Doherty’s persistent final refrain—“there can’t be love in everything”—becomes a coda for the EP as a whole, which is focused on the importance of critically interrogating your life and everyone whom you share it with.
Battle Ave is a wizened throwback to various beloved cult catalogues which manages to shake off any nostalgic fog and avoid anachronism by employing a detailed focus on the here and now. The EP quietly points to the effort it takes to keep going, and the work it takes to be tender towards even our most intrusive thoughts. The band crafts an evocation of the human experience that is characterized by determination, strength and wonder. “We were gone for six years,” Doherty says. “But that doesn't mean we were dead.”
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Bandcamp
YouTube
SoundCloud
In the six years since Battle Ave’s last release, Year of Nod, the Hudson-Valley based band have navigated fatherhood, graduate school, new members, and the cancer diagnosis of drummer Samantha Niss . Now, they’re ready for a reintroduction. Originally formed in 2009 by Niss and guitarist/vocalist Jesse Doherty, the group connected over their love of ambient arrangements, orchestral epics, and the ramshackle indie-rock of the early 90’s. Armed with more experience than ever before, their new self-titled EP expertly stitches together these influences through an intuitive shared language. It’s the kind of creative collaboration that can only exist through sustained friendship and trust.
Battle Ave was largely recorded and arranged remotely, with Doherty describing it as “like a game of Exquisite Corpse… the band mostly cobbled their parts together without knowing what anyone else was going to do.” This resulted in the EP’s dense melodic haze. On opener “My Year With The Wizard,” moody, distorted guitars and piercing drums are juxtaposed with a bright indie-pop chorus, as Doherty considers the transience of friendship and the danger of forgetting yourself in your relationships. “Fear Of” sees sustained pedal-steel wails and a bright, waltzing piano craft a stage for Doherty’s beautifully lethargic vocals, while the meditative, instrumental kaleidoscope “Kingston South Cuties” functions as both intermission and palate cleanser.
The second half of the EP starts with “Cell,” a surging, existential call into the void, with Doherty lamenting “I lost myself all by myself” as the music careens chaotically forward. At almost eight minutes, the closing track “There Can’t Be Love” pieces together a patchwork of lo-fi arrangements underneath stirring guest vocals from And The Kids’ Hannah Mohan, creating a celestial instrumental blanket that morphs into a poignant acoustic finale. Doherty’s persistent final refrain—“there can’t be love in everything”—becomes a coda for the EP as a whole, which is focused on the importance of critically interrogating your life and everyone whom you share it with.
Battle Ave is a wizened throwback to various beloved cult catalogues which manages to shake off any nostalgic fog and avoid anachronism by employing a detailed focus on the here and now. The EP quietly points to the effort it takes to keep going, and the work it takes to be tender towards even our most intrusive thoughts. The band crafts an evocation of the human experience that is characterized by determination, strength and wonder. “We were gone for six years,” Doherty says. “But that doesn't mean we were dead.”
words by Sammy Maine
Battle Ave, indie rock, alternative rock, dream pop, shoegaze, art rock, post punk, art punk, Hudson Valley, New York, divergent pop, rock kaleidoscope, "My Year With The Wizard", self-titled Battle Ave EP,
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