Features Albums Of 2007: #3 Battles - Mirrored

Ah, how we’d love to be in a band like Battles. Of course we can’t; not only did we fail to reach even the preliminary grade in any formal musical tuition (the cello, in case you wondered), but there isn’t ‘a band like Battles, there is only Battles, and debut album ‘Mirrored’ proved to be more than we’d even have hoped from the New York complicated types.

First off, there were vocals. Battles’ previous efforts, ‘EP C’ and ‘B EP’, featured only a smattering of beatboxing, and not only did ‘Mirrored’ feature singing, it did so in style; ‘Atlas’ is by now surely the stuff of legend. For a band so deliberately complex and calculated, it is perhaps surprising that ‘Mirrored’ is as listenable as it has proved: it’s almost experimental rock for people who’d rather play it safe, despite being about as safe as using a toaster in the bath.