KEY POINTS:
Don't be put off this exciting and stark-raving bonkers album by the heavily processed vocals akin to the Chipmunks. Thankfully, Battles' excellent debut is mostly instrument based because those crazed vocals on Atlas would get tiring if they were constant.
You may have seen the video to that song, where Battles are playing in a glass cage? But really, these guys need sturdy iron bars to keep them and their mad music restrained.
Then again, why keep the world safe from this inventive mix of avant-garde, thrash, post-punk, free jazz, and groove-laden dance music with a little rabid Chipmunk thrown in? Bring it on. It might sound all over the place, but on repeated listens it is hypnotic.
The most notable member of this experimental quartet is probably Helmet and Tomahawk drummer John Stanier.
Moving from the sprawling and out-of-kilter eight-minute epic, Rainbow to the lucid drum'n'bass of Snare Hanger and on to the frantic agitation of Tij, Mirrored is an album for fans of Can, TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta. While it's not as berserk as the latter it's no less strange and breathtakingly fresh. As the duelling discord of guitars and Stainer's sloppy, yet bludgeoning beats close out the album on Race: Out you won't want it to end.
Label: Warped/Border
Verdict: Someone lock these crazies up.
