Battles Mirrored CD

Battles: David Konopka (bass guitar); John Stanier, Tyondai Braxton, Ian Williams .
Personnel: Tyondai Braxton (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Ian Williams (guitar, keyboards); John Stanier (drums).
Audio Mixers: Battles; Keith Souza.
Recording information: Machines With Magnets, Pawtucket, RI.
Photographer: Timothy Saccenti.
If modern day indie music appears to consist of an endless queue of groups that are either bland emo retreads or glitzy disco punkers, it is then that much more refreshing to encounter a band like Battles. With a lineage that consists of some of indie rock's most accomplished musicians, Battles is a veritable neo-prog supergroup, though one that embraces the possibilities of technology used in tandem with instrumental virtuosity.
MIRRORED, the band's debut full-length makes its intent clear from the onset--to ingest 50 years of rock history and regurgitate it as fractilized micro-symphonies. Rhythms bounce whimsically from motorik krautrock beats to glammed up T. Rex shuffles; such stop-on-a-dime surprises seem to be offered up at every turn. Tyondai Braxton's bizarre vocal gibberish--pitched up and looped in real-time--recalls similar experiments by the Animal Collective, while simple, repetitive note progressions give way to full-on guitar bombast (courtesy of Don Caballero's Ian Williams). But the Battles-plan cannot be reduced to mere quiet verse/loud chorus formula. Featuring a generous dose of improvisatory interplay, MIRRORED is tightrope-walking post-rock with a technology-driven edge.
It's official: in 2007, it's all come full circle. Prog rock has made its way into the indie scene. Battles' Mirrored, their debut full-length after three EPs, makes that plain. Messrs. John Stanier of Helmet and Tomahawk, guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress, guitarist David Konopka of Lynx, and avant solo musician Tyondai Braxton have constructed an album that combines the best of Van Der Graaf Generator, Magma, Krautrock, and math rock, while coming up with something that stands so far out on the fringe that it is in a league of its own. That so much of this music is created via the magic of software and combined with one- or two-note keyboard and guitar patterns makes it the Philip K. Dick equivalent of modern rock. The intro, "Race: In," comes flying out of the box with a series of rim shots and repetitive guitar lines before Braxton comes whistling into the front end. This is a Disney tune for Snow White by the Seven Dwarfs run amok. The abstract patterns introduced by the keyboards and bassline serve to underscore the melody, complex though it may be, and the sampling sound of hammers creates, at least momentarily, the image of "Whistle While You Work" before the guitars enter full bore and transform it into a full-blown prog jam with tight turns, momentary riffs all the while keeping a motorik drumbeat whether on a snare or a tom-tom. The whistling and wordless vocals that reflect another set of keyboard sounds add depth, humor, and warmth to this underground rainbow. On "Atlas," the title track from the band's last EP, the sound is one of futuristic dragon music à la the conceits of T. Rex without the clever lyrics. Here, the drum shuffle of so many great T. Rex tunes introduces a single guitar riff, warped by sonics and growled vocals that sound like a pig snorting. The intoxication of rhythm is inescapable, even as the David Seville Chipmunk-style vocals -- which could be backmasked -- create a progression for the tune to lift off from. It's tribal and slick, both at the same time. There is even a manipulated -- via the wonders of electronics -- "oo-ay-oo" from The Wizard of Oz scene where the evil Wicked Witch of the West henchmen sing as they march in guard formation around her dark palace.
But this music is anything but dark. It's insistent, playful, and planned down to the distorted bass loop and pulsing guitar and keyboard notes that are layeredRolling Stone (p.72) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "This New York quartet gives ancient prog-rock moves a makeover -- and a kick in the pants."
Spin (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "For rock that's both fist-pumping and forward-looking, this album suggests that Battles have few peers."
Alternative Press (p.151) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "Battles have minimized the ambient filler and added some bizarre processed vocalizing and increased electronic counterpoint to their already bafflingly contrapuntal, loop-heavy attack..."
Magnet (p.90) - "They stretch their instrumental prowess wherever their textural whims take them, often by trapping melodies inside an intricate instrumental web where rhythmic shifts signify the verses."
The Wire (p.47) - "This time Battles sound like they're actually having fun, relishing the opportunity to stretch out over the length of an album and sounding an awful lot like King Sunny Ade interpreting early 70s Yes..."
The Wire (p.37) - Ranked #9 in The Wire's "Top Ten Records of the Year 2007" -- "On-a-dime virtuosity combined with sever compression, to claustrophobic but exhilarating effect."
Vibe (p.70) - "MIRRORED is propulsive and ragged, matching Teutonic firmness with drunken collapse."
Q (Magazine) (p.125) - "[T]hey executed a radical and complex synthesis of Krautrock, experimental jazz and Queens Of The Stone Age."