Battles

damonjewel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLAN29W-4w&feature=related

Was reading about this band in the paper today and checked out this on You Tube, I think its really cool, lovely angular jazzy guitar licks which remind me of early Fripp. Its probably a bit monotonous for some but I like that repetition and layering.

I think some of the regulars on this board will appreciate it!

MoominPapa

Pretty good. Kinda reminds me of the Redneck Manifesto

John

I couldn't get into the album at all. Too... wacky I suppose.

Somnus

Thats certainly inbteresting alright! Quite like it. Is most of their stuff fairly instrumental?

adox

Have the album a while now and really like it.

They actually remind me a bit of an early 902 group called Loop Guru who were a bit more dance mixed with old world instruments. Different genres but the two bands seem to be working off the same pulse.

Dregon

First heard them play Atlas on Jools Holland, got the album a couple weeks after that.It is a bit wacky, but some goos songs. It's their first Album and the first time that they've used lyrics on a record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5LvoBRS1Mk

pariko

People went APE over that Mirrored record this year; every single indie music site/blog/webzine bent over backwards every five seconds to tell everyone how fantastic it was and as a result it became hideously trendy and overrated. Check out any "best of 2007" album lists and it's right up there in all of them.

I f*cking hate it. The single and pair of EPs that preceeded the album are more listenable because they hadn't yet decided that putting godawful Tellytubby vocals over their music was a great idea, but at the end of the day, for me at least, they come off as a poor man's Don Caballero (Ian Williams' old band, he's one of the "guitarists" in Battles) with a few totally superfluous WHACKY bells and whistles tacked on to make everybody go "ohh that's so quirky and new and different!". Balls.

KrazeeEyezKilla

Just because something is trendy doesn't automatically meant it's bad.

But those 'vocals' would be a bit much over an album. Atlas is one of the best songs of the year but what little I've heard of the EP's seem as good as or better than a lot of Mirrored.

Creamy Goodness

enjoyed the music on mirrored but them vocals are awful

Zoton

Was gutted to have missed their gigs here earlier this year. Really like the album, it's a breath of fresh air in an underwhelming year for albums. (There were some great albums this year, but not a huge number). The "chipmunk" vocals are used sparingly on the record so if you're concerned that they'd become tiresome or irritating then don't be. However if you've heard the singles and didn't like them then it's unlikely you'd enjoy the album.
They get a solid thumbs up from me anyway.:)

pariko

Zoton wrote: »

it's a breath of fresh air in an underwhelming year for albums.

Disagree strongly with both parts of this sentence. Battles don't really bring anything new to the table in my opinion, and there was LOADS of great music this year!

projectmayhem

great songs, writing etc. but i could never get over the vocals, which is a shame.

qz

I really like Atlas but the other songs on the album are bit, weird.

Creamy Goodness

actually on par's recommendation i sourced the EP C / B EP and it's great, no vocals at all (actually only got one cd of it, mate can't find the second cd :rolleyes:)

ThousandLeaves

Saw them at Tripod in August, excellent gig.

The vocals seem to be the make or break part, they seem to piss some people off, but I like them. I like how his natural voice fades in and out behind the pitch-shifted part, and the chipmunk thing didn't really occur to me until other people started mentioning it.

Mirrored was definitely one of the best of the year, and it hasn't been a bad year.

leninbenjamin

I just got into these guys over Christmas. I really like them, it's got a sort of an unintended ethnic flavour to it in parts. I like the vocals, much more interesting than the usual dour and/or pretentious crap that's out there a lot.

fortuneg

Really enjoy these guys, saw them at Lowlands back in August & they put on a great performance.
It was great to see so much energy from a band even when they were stuck behind keyboards or playing two instruments at once!

FunkZ

I didn't like them when I first heard them but they grow on ya a bit. I'd say they'd be great live!