Battles Mirrored CD

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.

Battles (New York): Tyondai Braxton, Ian Williams (guitar); Dave Konopka (bass guitar); John Stanier (drums).Rolling 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."