Ryan's Top Ten Albums - Mirrored - Battles

 Mirrored - Battles

Released 2007 - Genre: Math Rock, Experimental Rock

This is the album that helped me discover math rock, which is essentially normal rock made more complicated by nerds. I think Battles is such a great band because they create music that is technical and uniquely-structured, but it is still fun to listen to. Oftentimes I’ll listen to other bands within the genre and think: “man this is cool but it sounds terrible!” I feel there is definitely a borderline where if music becomes too technical it just becomes grading to listen to, but an album like Mirrored doesn’t have that problem because it still has catchy hooks and grooves you can move to. It is an album built on repetition, with most songs beginning with just a few essential components, but then building into an intricate piece that leaves you captivated. The second track, “Atlas,” is a great example of this, as the shuffling beat of the drums and synth lines remain largely unchanged over it’s seven minute runtime, but more instruments are added in throughout that flow into the songs closing minutes. Other songs like “Ddiamondd,” and “Snare Hangar” offer shorter, more straightforward pieces that still stand on their own as interesting tracks.

Mirrored is structured in a very unique way, with several longer tracks that explore a variety of different ideas, and grooves to experiment with, and then shorter more compact tracks sprinkled throughout. The fifty minute runtime of the album feels much shorter if you put the album in the background, which it lends well to as it is mostly instrumental. It is one of the few math rock albums I have heard that I feel can still appeal to people other than hardcore musicians, because it puts pop sensibilities first before pure technicality. 


-Ryan


Atlas (Live on Jools Holland) - Battles performing “Atlas” live in 2007, it’s very cool to see songs this complex pulled off in a live setting!

Battles (Live at Lowland Fest 2007) - Another live video of the band, John Stanier (their drummer), is one of my favorites

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