Battles - Atlas

Erm… OK. I’m not really sure what to do here. I’ve just submitted a review for which I gave 5 stars, only to then listen to a piece of music that completely blows it out of the water. Can I give this one 6? The easy part of reviewing this song is that it’s clearly absolutely brilliant. There’s no agonising over that. The far more difficult part of reviewing this song is how to begin to describe how it sounds or explain just why it is that brilliant. Here goes…

First, the facts. Following 2006’s series of EPs, the New York based, critically acclaimed and unbearably cool Battles release this single as a preview of their hugely anticipated debut album ‘Mirrors’. Loosely placed in the Math Rock genre, this band, with this single particularly, defy the limitations of labels and pigeonholes. One label of note, though, is Warp. For Battles are the latest in a long line of pioneering bands to put out records through this most influential of innovative music purveyors

Second, the song. The process of listening to ‘Atlas’ is a bit like the song itself: hundreds of individual components, of abstract thoughts, all twist and turn and merge together to make a whole that seems to make sense, but you’re not quite sure why. Like the soundtrack to a futuristic robot horse race, it kicks off with thundering drums before the android-on-helium commentary kicks in. This is the first time Battles have used vocals on their records, but to actually call them that is slightly misleading as their otherworldliness allows them to retain the Battles twisted leftfield aesthetic. The song then spirals onwards and upwards with blips and bips and bleeps and bass layered over the relentless beat of those robot hooves, before returning to where it started and disappearing into the ether.

‘Atlas’ may not be THE music of the future, but it sure sounds like music from the future. If it had been released a few years ago it would have surely have featured alongside hover-cars on Tomorrow’s World (RIP) with claims that this is the kind of music our children would have plugged directly into their brain. In a genre of the unusual that generally belies a phrase like “anthem”, ‘Atlas’ is just that. Walking a fine line between the dark, distant past and the sci-fi noir future, it is at once both deeply primal and utterly innovative. Seven minutes plus may seem a lot for a single but you get the impression that if one solitary element of this strange song was missing it just wouldn’t work as well.

Third, the verdict. Well, clearly 5 stars. And it’s worth every last twinkle on your screen. Buy it, love it, get lost in it, dance to it, surrender to it.

*****

First published on www.rockfeedback.com. See it here.