If the departure of Tyondai Braxton has effected BATTLES' sound in the least, that's news to me. Admittedly, I haven't spent enough time with their newish LP, Gloss Drop, to really make a statement regarding its validity in comparison to Mirrored, which was on some other shit entirely. But when placed alongside material from the debut in a live setting, as it was last night at Royale, their new stuff holds its own.