Their performance of it live on Jools Holland is one of the best performances I've ever seen on that show. Also the full length version of this song is the way to go, fantastic song.
Yeah, so, never heard that before. Loved it! I loved the first version as well, but was impressed with the live also, might even put it on my playlist, really interesting, really catchy, vocals were weird, but weird is my comfort zone, so yay! Thanks for another amazing new experience guys. ❤
@@christhecurator I've just returned from a trip through the 'Battles' wormhole. I've been listening to everything I could find from them, and what a blast! I don't know how I missed that collab with Gary Numan, as I don't miss much he does, but it's fabulous. So I just wanted to thank you once again. ❤
There were a lot of whacky tracks doing the rounds in the mid-2000s. A few of my personal faves are "Run to Your Grave" by The Mae Shi, "I'll Believe in Anything" by Wolf Parade and "I Luv the Valley OH!" by Xiu Xiu. Heady days in the music biz.
I discovered this song a WHILE back on the videogame Little Big Planet and fell in love with it (also the stage it played in was super fun to play). To this day I still listen to it whenever it shows up on my playlist. Glad to see people reacting to it, thank you :D
Chris sure has the ability to sneak some really interesting music in for you boys to enjoy. I can't say I have ever heard Math Rock played quite this way; Battle makes the incredibly complex sound relatively simple. I think it is a fantastic song, but I agree with Alex, I don't think I could sit through an hour of it. However, for 10 minutes, it's brilliant. I was actually pleasantly surprised that Alex or George go-to-town on the vocals. Very often I see commentors of, shall we say, our vintage, get on their high horses about filters, effects and tuning being used on vocals. Somehow their use equates to cheating, being used to hide poor vocals, instead of being viewed as a style choice to add interest and character to the vocals. The same commentors are usually full of praise for modulation effects on instruments. George raised it here when he said that for some reason, we as humans, like some distortion or dirty sounds from instruments. Many will salivate on hearing a guitarist use their pedals to alter the tremolo rate or depth, or their whammy bar to alter the vibrato. They also seem happy to hear a pass filter on drums to simulate electronic pads and then fade to a normal kit. That seems fine, but a vocalist like the guy featured here, or even the vocal loopers are often caned mercilessly. I'm happy that didn't happen here. This was a great reaction to some really interesting and superbly performed music.
I agree Len, I thought the music brought out one of the best musical dialogues these two have had! I consider the track to be a great example of it's genre, and a real earworm that brings me back on the regular. Glad you enjoyed it!
@@christhecurator Thanks Chris, I think their score was about right, but my musical tastes would have scored Battle slightly higher. I'm splitting hairs, I know. I am not well-informed on Math Rock, but from what I have seen, these guys are very good.
Nobody wants to hear an hour of atlas. HOWEVER, an hour of the album MIRRORED? WHY, YES! That album is a masterpiece and I really don't take that term lightly.
The singer (at least for this era) is the son of Anthony Braxton saxophonist (+badass chess player), who's done some crazy jazz albums. Tonto video is well worth a look too - it's super pretty :) The album's shy of an hour and really well-paced. The drummer - John Stanier was in Helmet and Don Caballero - both awesome, Don Cab are crazy math rock. You'll definitely dig "Tonto".
This band is incredible, I’ve follow them since 2007. Now they are a duo, but If you like different, interesting and fun music, you definitely need to listen to their discography (EPs too). Also their videos are soooooooo cool and different.
Nice new glasses Alex! And I'm not saying that in a George-making-fun-of-you way. Again, not my genre, but I can't help but admire how skilled these guys are. Really odd (but interesting) use of distortion. And that super high high hat. The drummer really did set a great tone for the track. On top of that, how brave are these guys to even attempt that? The fact they can do it live is really incredible. I think I'll send this one to my brother after work today as he is heavily into techno music and this seems right up his street. A long way from mine, but still enjoyable for a while.
Surely Math Rock needs to be scored with multiples of Pi or Planck’s Constant or some such thing? 🤣 Yeah, it’s a fair call, very cool and well done to be able to do it live. I couldn’t listen to extended periods of it. It’s worth just thinking about the rehearsals and recording of stuff like this. There would potentially be an engineer who was near to sniping from a bell tower after recording and mixing a track like this. 😂😂😂
George, I had a reaction opposite of yours: I preferred the performance at Pitchfork to the studio recording. For myself, the studio recording was interesting for about a minute, but then I got rather bored with it. When I say that I preferred the "live" performance, I don't mean by a lot, to be clear. I agree with Alex too, that I can understand how their music gets used in video games and on soundtracks. Scoring? It's an ok track, with some interesting parts, but I'd rate around a 7 to 7.5. Cheers!
I don't think people seem to realize that every song on this album is quite different and this song isn't capturing the 'essence' of the band or anything. People are so conditioned to crap music, labels, artists whom do stuff like that they think that's just how all music is. You hear a track, you get a feel for the band and what they do, right? WRONG. You don't know anything. Yes, you reading. You know nothing until you experience it so TRY TO FUCKING EXPERIENCE IT! WITH AN OPEN MIND! ALL OF IT!!!!!!
![Battles - Atlas [Reaction]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PXSwuiJmVgA/mqdefault.jpg)
Their performance of it live on Jools Holland is one of the best performances I've ever seen on that show. Also the full length version of this song is the way to go, fantastic song.
Yeah, so, never heard that before. Loved it! I loved the first version as well, but was impressed with the live also, might even put it on my playlist, really interesting, really catchy, vocals were weird, but weird is my comfort zone, so yay! Thanks for another amazing new experience guys. ❤
It does a great job of getting into your brain! Really glad you enjoyed it!
You should! I put it on my playlist
@@christhecurator I've just returned from a trip through the 'Battles' wormhole. I've been listening to everything I could find from them, and what a blast! I don't know how I missed that collab with Gary Numan, as I don't miss much he does, but it's fabulous. So I just wanted to thank you once again. ❤
There were a lot of whacky tracks doing the rounds in the mid-2000s. A few of my personal faves are "Run to Your Grave" by The Mae Shi, "I'll Believe in Anything" by Wolf Parade and "I Luv the Valley OH!" by Xiu Xiu. Heady days in the music biz.
@@tetleyT indie was trendy during that time. Guess what? That scene never ended. Only got more interesting and weirder. Get after it! lol
Also there’s just the drummer John Stanier and Ian Williams now. The other two left. John Stanier used to play with Helmet.
you two should react to one of their other songs Tonto off of the same album as Atlas, i personally thinks its better than Atlas!
Oh they used to KILLLLL this live as a 4 piece. Each time they lost a member the quality of the show and albums went down a notch
I can see how that happens!
I discovered this song a WHILE back on the videogame Little Big Planet and fell in love with it (also the stage it played in was super fun to play). To this day I still listen to it whenever it shows up on my playlist.
Glad to see people reacting to it, thank you :D
Chris sure has the ability to sneak some really interesting music in for you boys to enjoy. I can't say I have ever heard Math Rock played quite this way; Battle makes the incredibly complex sound relatively simple. I think it is a fantastic song, but I agree with Alex, I don't think I could sit through an hour of it. However, for 10 minutes, it's brilliant.
I was actually pleasantly surprised that Alex or George go-to-town on the vocals. Very often I see commentors of, shall we say, our vintage, get on their high horses about filters, effects and tuning being used on vocals. Somehow their use equates to cheating, being used to hide poor vocals, instead of being viewed as a style choice to add interest and character to the vocals.
The same commentors are usually full of praise for modulation effects on instruments. George raised it here when he said that for some reason, we as humans, like some distortion or dirty sounds from instruments. Many will salivate on hearing a guitarist use their pedals to alter the tremolo rate or depth, or their whammy bar to alter the vibrato. They also seem happy to hear a pass filter on drums to simulate electronic pads and then fade to a normal kit. That seems fine, but a vocalist like the guy featured here, or even the vocal loopers are often caned mercilessly. I'm happy that didn't happen here.
This was a great reaction to some really interesting and superbly performed music.
I agree Len, I thought the music brought out one of the best musical dialogues these two have had! I consider the track to be a great example of it's genre, and a real earworm that brings me back on the regular. Glad you enjoyed it!
@@christhecurator Thanks Chris, I think their score was about right, but my musical tastes would have scored Battle slightly higher. I'm splitting hairs, I know. I am not well-informed on Math Rock, but from what I have seen, these guys are very good.
Thanks Len.
Nobody wants to hear an hour of atlas. HOWEVER, an hour of the album MIRRORED? WHY, YES! That album is a masterpiece and I really don't take that term lightly.
@@lencooke944 Incredible. They're way better when you stop trying to label them as well. They don't really fit any of the labels anyway.
This is a great record. I discovered Battles ten years ago, they are different.
The singer (at least for this era) is the son of Anthony Braxton saxophonist (+badass chess player), who's done some crazy jazz albums. Tonto video is well worth a look too - it's super pretty :) The album's shy of an hour and really well-paced.
The drummer - John Stanier was in Helmet and Don Caballero - both awesome, Don Cab are crazy math rock. You'll definitely dig "Tonto".
Very cool. Thanks for
Ha, nice. Haven't heard this in a while. Bold pick guys.
Bold like my sweater
RIght when this came out, I told everyone I knew about Battles and only got, "er, that's weird." Maybe Battles time has finally arrived.
This band is incredible, I’ve follow them since 2007. Now they are a duo, but If you like different, interesting and fun music, you definitely need to listen to their discography (EPs too). Also their videos are soooooooo cool and different.
Allman Brothers Whipping Post Filmore East vs Call Me the Breeze from same concert as free bird
Yes they can do it live. I’ve been to a few gigs. Love this band.
With Alex on this one. As a petit hors d'oeuvre for special occasions fine. But not a main course.
Well said!!
Nice new glasses Alex! And I'm not saying that in a George-making-fun-of-you way.
Again, not my genre, but I can't help but admire how skilled these guys are. Really odd (but interesting) use of distortion. And that super high high hat. The drummer really did set a great tone for the track. On top of that, how brave are these guys to even attempt that?
The fact they can do it live is really incredible. I think I'll send this one to my brother after work today as he is heavily into techno music and this seems right up his street. A long way from mine, but still enjoyable for a while.
Hope the bro enjoys
live? how else do you do it
Surely Math Rock needs to be scored with multiples of Pi or Planck’s Constant or some such thing?
🤣
Yeah, it’s a fair call, very cool and well done to be able to do it live. I couldn’t listen to extended periods of it.
It’s worth just thinking about the rehearsals and recording of stuff like this. There would potentially be an engineer who was near to sniping from a bell tower after recording and mixing a track like this. 😂😂😂
:)
it gets even better live
That would be great to see
George, I had a reaction opposite of yours: I preferred the performance at Pitchfork to the studio recording. For myself, the studio recording was interesting for about a minute, but then I got rather bored with it. When I say that I preferred the "live" performance, I don't mean by a lot, to be clear. I agree with Alex too, that I can understand how their music gets used in video games and on soundtracks. Scoring? It's an ok track, with some interesting parts, but I'd rate around a 7 to 7.5. Cheers!
Thanks for joining in the scoring! More of that to come
it's all about THE BUILD MAN!!!!!
Can’t you see marshal tucker. Dust in the wind Kansas a duel
I don't think people seem to realize that every song on this album is quite different and this song isn't capturing the 'essence' of the band or anything. People are so conditioned to crap music, labels, artists whom do stuff like that they think that's just how all music is. You hear a track, you get a feel for the band and what they do, right? WRONG. You don't know anything. Yes, you reading. You know nothing until you experience it so TRY TO FUCKING EXPERIENCE IT! WITH AN OPEN MIND! ALL OF IT!!!!!!
Got it! Thanks
Not for me. Interesting
Sorry showing my age for me sounded like a clip from sesame street
Ha ha