Battles: Mirrored

Battles: Mirrored
Warp: 5/22/2007

Having heard and loved Battles' three EPs a couple of years ago, Mirrored, their proper full-length debut, came as a surprise to me. I was expecting more of the same, but Mirrored is tighter and more propulsive than any of their early work. Their new sound isn't a huge departure from their old one, but Mirrored combines their math rock sound with influences from post-rock and krautrock. It's much more rhythmically oriented, and hence danceable, than the early EPs. There are even vocals on some of the tracks, though they are so heavily distorted that it's not clear whether the songs can be said to have lyrics. With Mirrored, Battles are beginning to go strange new places and silence the critics that had labeled their EPs as mediocre.