Let's anticipate the monument of 2007, Battles "Mirrored"

i like their older stuff much better.

great album, especially when driving through farmland.

great album. atlas is deliberately irritating, and by some way the album's worst track. it still makes me move though.

It was a great show last week, but my brain kinda killed my Atlas enjoyment during the show, as it suddenly started singing the Brother Rat (NoMeansNo) lyrics at me and ever since I can't stop hearing the influence :-(

(I automatically kick into "the beautiful people, the beautiful people, aaaah" upon hearing the intro)

lol! next time we see them we should sing that out loud, both of us.

This is a really curious album! I wasn't sure I liked it at first, I'm not big on proggy stuff and I couldnt really see the 65dos parallells/spiritual link, but on a few more listens it has grown on me. Race:In and Race: Out are awesome bookends and Snare Hangar rocks.

Note to self: not a good thing to listen to when one is stressed to the heavens and has just flooded the hall carpet with a rogue washingmachine accident.

My ex loves it. He sees some Mr Bungle similarities.

I have this and it has slowly been growing on me. Race:In is as wonderful as everyone says, Snare Hangar is also one of my favourites. The other longer songs (i.e. those which are not Atlas) will take some more digesting before I can comment.

Atlas sounds like some kind of pirate sea shanty sung by the Smurfs to me.

I'm totally cold for this. It reminds me of Primal Scream in some kind of odd isomorphic way.

first impressions... not really 'getting' this :/

Primal Scream? That's possibly the most unexpected referrence point so far.

"Atlas" made me think of Gary Glitter with the stompin beat. Or like someone said above, the start of Manson eek :/ Its ok, I'm not too sold on the helium vocals but it'll grow on me, Mercury Rev took time too.

I'm not crazy about this band on record.

But they were intense live this evening.

WOW. It's so upbeat. Best instrumental/post/whatever rock album in years.

best live band around! not as keen on the silly bits on the record, but there's still nothing like this around. It manages to rock and sound totally abstract at the same time

I'm into it. The sing-songyness kind of tempers the metrically crazy shit.

And I don't mean the vocals, just the parts in general sound sing-songy to me.

(although there are a couple moments on the album that sound straight Dream Theater :>)

"Atlas" sounds pretty much exactly like the intro of "Step Into My Office Baby" followed by the breakdown section of "So Many People In The Neighborhood."

I liked "atlas" 'cause it sounded like some weird new direction, math rock by way of eno's pop albums. but the rest of mirrored sounds like trans am and I'm like isn't this post-rock thing out of our system yet? granted, I missed 'em live and that's supposedly their strong turf.

or tortoise. or whatever you post-rock hipsters were listening to in '97.

I love these guys live - they're like a giant eukaryotic cell where each dude is a different organelle doing its own weird pulsating thing in a a different direction and they all somehow, mysteriously contribute to a larger life form.

My first exposure to them was the video for "Atlas" on my local video channel. I was initially unimpressed and didn't really get the acclaim. I'd heard "prog," "math rock" and "heavy" tossed around and was disappointed that they weren't Meshuggah-lite or robo-bpm Kyuss.

Decided to give the album a try when I learned they were playing in town next weekend. Suddenly it all fell into place and I love the damn thing now (I suspect hearing it on price-o speakers vs. hearing it on television helped).

I'm seeing them live next week. It will be awesome.

I don't know why I said "robo-bpm Kyuss" as though Kyuss is a prog band.

Was anyone else at the show in Boston last night? They burned the house down. Best show I've seen all year.

I saw them at pitchfork fest and was sad that I hadn't stopped to see them in iowa city two days earlier. Great show.

i'm breaking about as much news as if i announced that JFK died, but they fucking tore it up in miami... best show i've seen all year by far, one of the best ever, etc. etc. etc.

anyway, i was surprised at how delicate their music is when i was watching them, how much they rely on non-verbal cues and how they all looked really relieved when weird time changes went down right. really endeared them to me.

I really wanted to see them in Milwaukee, but was just too tired :(

'in my house, Duran Duran-ness is something one works to achieve...'
-SFJ

also, i didn't realize that the frontman was anthony braxton's kid!

Jordan: I concur. It looked like there were times when their loops wouldn't record correctly, so they had to try a couple times, and they seemed so happy when it all ended up sounding great anyway. And during all of this, John kept pounding away on his kit.

Then he went right out to the merch table to sell t-shirts, which all ended up covered in the sweat that was dripping off his soaked shirt.

My biggest regret at Pitchfork was that I missed their set.

I'm not that into the album but now I'm thinking I should go see em live

they're playing for free at South St Seaport in NYC at the end of August ...

Definitely go. The Seaport shows are usually a lot of fun even without Battles (I saw Animal Collective and Menomena there). I'd go just to see them a second time but I'll be back in Ithaca.

yeah I was bummed to miss AC. couldn't go. but I've been to a few of the Seaport shows the past couple years.

i thought their live set was pretty tedious, but w/ brief moments of glory. parts of it reminded me of primus while other parts seemed flown in straight from 2017. overall, i guess it was better than watching tv at home

they're playing for free at South St Seaport in NYC at the end of August ...

Also on Friday at Studio B.

at the studio b show...what should i have told the girl who kept saying they sounded like rage against the machine? other than i love her.

I've finally gotten round to this album, and the big surprise is that I love it. And Atlas is incredible. Hmmm.

parts of it reminded me of primus

OTM

Battles are playing a gig in Melbourne in September! AWESOME. I am totally looking forwards to that.

I like it - reminds me of instrumental King Crimson circa Lark's Tongue or Red. That said, I have a hard time seeing it as a "monument of 2007" or any other year. It's good, but doesn't blow my mind.

alright i just bought the actual cd and the packaging is breathtaking.
it's like a present that never stops being a present.

I was at the Boston show. What really struck me is how exhausting their music is to play--they're never at rest onstage, always making loops and setting up the next parts of songs. When they really got going it was pretty incredible (Race: Out as the opener really killed), but I thought one or two songs (ATLAS) were better on the record than they were live. Stanier is just unbelievable though, he's a machine.

If anything breaks down, he just keeps going without ever perceptibly getting off beat. Solid!

Agreed on race:out, at the time it jumps back into the main guitar part you get that moment of recognition from earlier in the show/album and it's a great bookend.

way late on this, but boy is it good. total late/mid 90s math rock dudes trying to make "my life in the bush of ghosts" but better than that sounds....hella tried to do some shit like this but this does it way way better...takes all the don cab and goes disco which is great....love all the electronic vocals and other studio fuckery...reminds me once again why TV on the Radio, as much as i wanted to like them is just mediocre (that and the new blonde redhead)...

real great awesome album cover. kind of reminds me of, which probably isn't bad ref. either for this:

http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/images/FE-NP.jpg

I didn't listen for agres either, M@tt. But I totally love it.

i like Mirrored ok, but i must say: worst car music ever

this reminds me of neither fripp/eno, byrne/eno, blonde redhead, or tv on the radio, wtf are you on about?

this is a good gym album.

it doesn't really sound like those. it reminds me of if a math rock band kinda took the idea of sounding like bush of ghosts or something, that just came into my head when i heard it. it sounds like itself.

it reminds me of what i wished tv on the radio sounds like.

it doesn't sound like blonde redhead, i was just saying that was another kinda arty produced rock record this year that reminded me of why i don't like tv on the radio so much.