The Top 100 Songs of 2011 -- #22: "Ice Cream" -- Battles feat. Matias Aguayo

Despite losing guitarist/singer Tyondai Braxton in 2010, New York experimental/math rock band Battles trudged on in 2011 with the release of Gloss Drop, their first record in four years. And in releasing the record, they showed that while Braxton's contributions were obviously appreciated, the now-three-piece could get along quite well without him.

Chilean singer Matias Aguayo joined Battles on "Ice Cream," Gloss Drop's second track. He provided vocals pretty much no one can understand to this day, but damn if they weren't catchy as all get out.

But of course, this is a Battles song, so one can almost always expect some fantastic instrumentation to go under the vocals -- if there even are any. The men of Battles did not disappoint in the slightest.

Slowly but surely picking up pace at its beginning, like a train rolling to life, the song exploded with a jangly riff, followed by the systematic drumming of John Stanier. From there, "Ice Cream" is pure chaos -- but with an underlying precision that keeps the whole thing from falling apart.



It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, or even what language you speak -- "Ice Cream" is universal. Now, altogether now -- "Dame un helado derritiéndose!" (...that's what he's saying, right...?!)