Battles

Experimental / Progressive

New York

Billboard

2007 has been the year for Battles. With the release of their highly accomplished and frankly peerless debut album Mirrored in mid-May. The release transformed.Battles from a hot transatlantic buzz band with an exemplary live reputation - the tastemaker's choice, to an outfit internationally renowned.

Battles have been developing a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts to grace the earth, with a legacy of much talked about sell out performances and the highlight of many underground music festivals such as ATP (picked by Mars Volta to play twice) and Triptych. With strong word of mouth spreading, is it any wonder they have accumulated such a stronghold of fans?

The release of Mirrored captured the imagination of all manner of music lovers and with it came immediate critical acclaim and a sell out two month European tour that ended in June with an audience of 5,000 at Barcelona's Primavera, on the main stage for the last performance of the festival. July saw Battles play to 10,000 people at Fuji Rock - and the area had to be cordoned off due to overcrowding.
The summer saw a string of festivals, including headline appearances at Field Day and Green Man and a prime slot at Reading/Leeds. Even Bowie was spotted at a show!

This autumn sees Battles returning with the velocity of a steamer to deliver the single 'TONTO' - an immense 8 minute colossus - due October 22nd. This immense single comes in a deluxe EP package with impressive live festival tracks, remixes courtesy of Four Tet and Kompakt's The Field, a reworking of Leyendecker with Brooklyn rapper Joell Ortiz and bonus DVD disc with the Tonto and Atlas video and some very special behind the scenes footage, offering insight beneath Battles's mysterious veneer.

As demonstrated by Atlas, the cosmic debut single whose video has reached half a million views on you tube in six months, Battles have the unique ability to straddle absolute creative ingenuity with infectious melody, inimitably in all that they do. It seems that the phrase 'Puzzle Pop' coined by the NME is an apt one.

Single of the Week, NME April 2007 // Album of the Week NME May 2007

Out to defy all expectations.... a new force to be reckoned with' Rock Sound Feb 2006

'Monumental Sound' The Independent

'The cream of underground avant garde jazz and post-rock... mind bending. Devilishly complex' The Observer

"THE BEST BAND ON EARTH TODAY" BBC Music