MIRRORED

Over 40 years after the term came to be, Battles has perfected the idea of "Cosmic Jazz" with "Mirrored", a math rock album that knows no equal in sound engineering, technical proficiency or pure melodic bliss.

"Mirrored" is one of those albums that pulls the listener into a musical vortex-it has elements in common with but is vastly different from the music you know, and yet you are eager to venture forth and explore its radiant tapestry. Similarly to Brian Eno's "Another Green World", this is an album that pulls idea from sheer sound and gives it life in the form of melody. The closest album to approximating a deep-space acid trip since "Wish You Were Here", "Mirrored" transports the listener into the world of its music with the same, or greater, focus that so many space-rock albums before it have achieved.

If making so many comparisons to other albums and styles of music makes the record in question seem derivative, I encourage you to drive such sentiments out of your head-Battles have created an album that defies standard labeling, no matter how hard critics and listeners like myself may attempt. From the first track you know you're in for something special, and by the time you reach "Atlas" that "special" turns into "magical", roping you in with a mixture of thumping, danceable rhythms and an Ennio-Morricone-from-Jupiter scale of grandeur. There's not one nut or bolt out of place on the entire album-John Stanier plays his drums with nearly robotic precision in time signatures that would drive other drummers into madness, and the production rings like little else this decade. It's an album of big sonic ideas, engineered by only those worthy enough to give Battles' sonic vision the clarity it deserves.

There's a reason that I don't give 5 star reviews very often-I always find I wind up having little to say about the things I truly enjoy. Simply put, "Mirrored" defies explanation: It's the spiritual tone of Pink Floyd combined with the relentless complexity of Don Caballero and produced with the cleanness of an R&B radio hit, and even that doesn't quite describe what you're getting into. If you have any love for instrumental music, experimental rock or any sense of cosmic scale when it comes to music, "Mirrored" is an essential album.