Mirrored by Battles

Battles
Mirrored
2007
Math Rock
Warp

1. Race: In
2. Atlas
3. Ddiamondd
4. Tonto
5. Leyendecker
6. Rainbow
7. Bad Trails
8. Prismism
9. Snare Hangar
10. TIJ
11. Race: Out
(Also included is a 600x600 album cover .jpeg)

People won't be people when they hear this sound
It's been glowing in the dark at the edge of town

"Atlas"

After going on a long phase of listening to more natural sounding pop, rock, and folk music, I'm finally starting to get back into the ol' electronic state of mind. Battles definitely falls into that category, with a sound so truly unique, that it defies description completely. But I'm willing to give it my best shot. Battles are a math rock band. If that means nothing to you, here's a short little explanation of the genre: fun with rhythm. Math rock bands will do anything in their power to play with strange rhythms and create them in the strangest of ways. The result is complicated rock music that explicitly demands close attention to be followed. In a good way.

Battles takes a more electronic approach to the sound than most math groups. Their instruments all rely heavily on effects processors, samplers, and looping. They also use vocals as an "instrument," meaning that they actually treat a voice like a way to make music instead of a way to make a point. Most all of the songs have vocals, but only 4 have lyrics. And if you heard those 4 songs before you read that last sentence, you probably wouldn't have been able to make out any words, and would've marked them as gibberish. Vocals are highly effected, like the rest of the instruments, and sit nicely in the middle of Battles' waves of music.

But fear not, those of you who are wary of instrumental music. Unlike their past EP's, Mirrored keeps everything interesting all the way through. The guitars crunch, the keyboards float, the bass thumps, and the drums shock and awe the whole way through. There's great variation here, and this album is really where Battles shows their versatility. "Ddaimondd" features a grinding keyboard riff that'll have you up and dancing, while "Tonto" and "Bad Trails" sound almost like a bouncy, old western soundtrack. (If they had ring modulators, of course) Perhaps the high point of the entire album, "Atlas" relies on dirty sounding Marshall stacks and distortion pedals to really melf your face off while blowing your mind with it's pulsating rhythm section.

Check this one out, or you'll never know what you're missing.

Click here to download part 1 (73.63 MB)
Click here to download part 2 (42.78 MB)

Buy it!
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