Battles, the seminal avant-garde math rock band out of New York, have been bringing their cerebral and vibrant sound to stages across the world for over two decades. While their 2007 release Mirrored became a high point for the indie scene there and then, the band has only grown and evolved since then - finding intrepid invention and dexterous technicality to their swirl of prog rock, post punk, electronica, psychedelic, and digital rock - bordering their scope and idiosyncrasies with the release of 2011's Gloss Drop, 2015's La Di Da Di, and 2019's Juice B Crypts. Helmed and presently heralded by Ian Williams and John Stanier, Battles will be returning to China!

Battles: Redefining the Boundaries of Sound

Often mislabeled as "math rock," they prefer to call their music "Free Spirit Music"—eschewing formulas in favor of freedom, humor, structure, and improvisation. Their work is a fusion of electronic tools and organic instrumentation, proving that technology, in their hands, is never cold but an extension of raw feeling.

Battles’ music unfolds like an evolving sonic architecture: rhythm drives the narrative, melodies loop and reassemble in collaged fragments, and sounds oscillate between calculated order and visceral tension. Their four albums trace a journey of reinvention, each reshaping their self-defined grammar while retaining a sharp, cohesive aesthetic core.

Discography: A Blueprint of Evolution

2007 - Mirrored

A explosive debut that cemented Battles’ avant-garde status. The original quartet—Ian Williams (guitar/keys), John Stanier (drums), Dave Konopka (bass/sound design), and Tyondai Braxton (vocals/electronics)—crafted a labyrinth of tribal rhythms, sliced vocals, and deconstructed riffs. The album’s mirror-themed visuals, designed by the band, became a metaphor for their philosophy: music as a malleable, reflective material. Pitchfork hailed it as one of the "most distinctive and unexpected debut albums of the 21st century."

2011 - Gloss Drop

After Braxton’s departure, Battles embraced collaboration, inviting guests like Gary Numan and Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead). The result was a vibrant, open-ended structure where electronic, industrial, and global rhythms coexisted. The pink-slime album art embodied their ethos: uncertainty as part of the design.

2015 - La Di Da Di

A return to instrumental purity. The trio honed in on internal sonic logic, pushing African polyrhythms, reggae syncopation, and dance electronics to hypnotic extremes. Like its breakfast-food collage cover, the album felt both playful and meticulously engineered.

2019 - Juice B Crypts

Now a duo, Williams and Stanier doubled down on density. A tribute to New York’s pulse, the album fused data-like precision with bodily groove—"encrypted" rhythms meeting "juicy" energy. The cover’s color-coded abstraction mirrored its digital-age tension.

Live: Where Machines Meet Muscle

A Battles performance is a high-precision sound installation. Williams orchestrates guitar loops and live sampling like a sculptor, while Stanier’s ritualistic drumming—his signature high cymbal a visual metronome—anchors the chaos. Together, they physicalize electronic music, making the technical tactile and the cerebral visceral. For Battles, the best music isn’t about labels—it’s about dismantling them entirely.