Battles - Atlas Single Review

Battles
Atlas
Single Review

What was initially a part-time hobby for Tomahawk's John Stanier has now developed into a fully-fledged microcosm of it's own, and if 'Atlas' is anything to go by, looks set to engage itself in countless music-orientated heads and hearts this planet over.

There is no easy way to describe this record, or indeed its creators for that matter, except to say that everything about it demands the impossible, whether that be the semi-jazz, salient hardcore drum and bass intro that builds and builds into a torrent of autistic prog-noise before giving way to a vocal that can only be described as like Stephen Cox's Munchkins after swallowing a bottle of washing-up liquid and sucking it back up through a helium infected straw.

This then gives way to a trance-like beat that would actually justify any kind of new rave tag that may (but sadly won't due to its origins) be attached to it as the seven minutes it takes for 'Atlas' to get from start to finish really does open many new avenues in rock's relentless efforts to hook up with the dance genre and create a new hybrid.

Of course there will be some who may merely dismiss this record as pure novelty. It's their loss, as Battles have quite clearly raised the bar that any so-called original artist will need to aspire to if they want their own unique methods of creativity to be kept apart from the chagrin of plagiarists in the future.

Groundbreaking.

9/10
Dom Gourlay

Watch the video for Atlas here