Terrific stuff.   Full text...

To set out with the goal of doing something different from what is currently being done is always a challenging mission, one that is rarely accomplished, in any arena, with 100 percent success. Orson Welles did it with Citizen Cain, Alfred Hitchcock did it with Psycho, and Huey Lewis and the News did it with Sports*. I'm not saying Battles is the next Huey Lewis and the News, but this album has the markings of a next step for future generations.   Full text...

Battles’ music has been described as “math rock”, which gives an indication of its intricate rhythms and the way that it is built up in layers.  Full text...

Mirrored is Battles at their most experimental and their most immediate, their most wanky and most focused.  Full text...

Occasionally, just occasionally, the great subterranean machine that picks the NME's single of the week throws a wobbly, and before the evil technicians that maintain it can repair it, fires off a left-field pick straight to the heart of the printers.  Full text...

It seems to encapsulate the musical imagination at the moment better than most. Just as Battles begin to sound like they have a few discernable influences, the track switches up again. Largely due to its 7 minute length, “Atlas” recalls countless acts but as a whole can only be identified as a Battles effort.  Full text...

It's music of great technical difficulty that hopes listeners are seeking to be impressed rather than entertained; as such, it shares something of the pungent odour that hangs about the decomposing carcass of jazz.  Full text...