Battles

"Atlas” first hits with a mighty "WTF?!!?” It does that to everyone, don’t worry, it’s not just you. With the calculated combination of Tyondai Braxton’s space invader vocal flirtations, the churning machine-like gurgles, riffs and stabs, and not to mention the bumpity unyielding pace of John Stanier’s rhythm, everything sounds so inhuman and far too impossible coming from four men. But then you see them live or in the single’s video, and it all makes sense: Battles are unlike any other band. Few videos were as synonymous with their songs as "Atlas.” It’s almost impossible to hear the song without replaying the video in your head, watching them perform inside that mirrored glass box mysteriously hovering in some black hole. But that’s the beauty of hearing a song that sounds like it was constructed by an army of robots, and in essence, also the beauty of Battles: actually seeing them perform helps you the monstrous force of precision and expansion they truly are.