aaamusic | On 20, Nov 2011

2011 has been the year which saw New York trio Battles release Gloss Drop – the follow up to their critically acclaimed debut Mirrored. Gloss Drop which features guest vocals from the likes of Gary Numan, MatiasAguayo and Kazu Makino received unanimous praise across the board.

After a summer of triumphant festival appearances including headlining Standon Calling Battles returned to the UK for a headline November tour, which concludes this Monday 21st November at London’s HMV The Forum. Battles along with Caribou and Les SavyFav will be curating a day of ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas.

Current cover starts of Artrocker magazine and proud recipients of three Artrocker Award nomination, Dave Konopka from the band had this to say. “This is a very exciting time for Battles. We have been working very diligently all year at paying homage to an album that, to say the least, we are all very proud of. To be recognized by Artrocker Magazine in the three categories of International Band of the Year, Album of the Year, and Video of the Year and to share these nominations with such excellent company is not only an honor, but an absolutely humbling experience in the wake of all of our efforts this year.”

Fresh from a sold out performance at London’s XOYO, Hudson Mohawke is set to play a secret DJ set at Battles Forum show. Put simply, 2011 is the year that saw Ross Birchard (aka Hudson Mohawke, or HudMo) become the producers’ producer, the artist’s artist, and a 25 year old former DMC champion on the edge of a nascent breakthrough. Hudmo’s EP ‘Satin Panthers’ which is out now on Warp Records has received massive critical acclaim with Mixmag  simply stating “Every track on his ‘Satin Panthers’ EP a smash, our only problem was picking one.”

BATTLES UK LIVE DATES:

Nov 21st: London, Forum
Dec 9th-11th: Minehead UK – ATP Nightmare Before Christmas (performing + curating)

ATP INFO: Battles’ picks so far: Underground Resistance, Flying Lotus, Gary Numan, Bitch Magnet, Washed Out, The Psychic Paramount, Thank You, NisennenMondai, Walls (live), Phil Manley Life Coach, Dead Rider. Also curating this weekend are Les SavyFav and Caribou.