Battles

Battles, Fuck Buttons, Dirty Projectors at London Astoria, Wed 14 May

Review by Charles Ubaghs

As Tyondai Braxton reminds us tonight, it’s been just over a year since Battles released their debut LP Mirrored. This is a fitting victory lap»

Astoria

Capacity: 2,000

Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road

Ah, the Astoria - home of all those mid-level bands who will play venues a third of the size everywhere else in the country. Anyone who's anyone has played here.

You get free roam of the venue's three levels. There are enough bars to get served quickly enough at and you can escape the music at the middle bar if it all gets a bit too much for your poor little ears. There is a 'VIP' round the sides of the stage on the second level.

Acoustics can be dodgy depending on where you stand.

- Adie Nunn

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Battles

Battles are:

Ian Williams (Don Caballero)
John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk)
Tyondai Braxton
Dave Konopka

Mirrored (2007)

Photograph from the band's MySpace page, here.

Fuck Buttons

Euphoric, expansive, inspired melodic-noise brilliance. THE UNIVERSE IS SCREAMING.

Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors is the name Dave Longstreth chose after releasing his first album The Graceful Fallen Mango under his own name. Playing with Brian Mcomber (drums); Amber Coffman (singing, guitar) and Angel Deradoorian (singing, bass), he has released 4 albums The Glad Fact ( 2003 Western Vinyl ); slaves's graves of ballads ( 2003 Western Vinyl ); The Getty Address ( 2005 Western Vinyl )and Rise above ( 2007 dead oceans ) as well as an EP new attitude and an internet-only compilation of early works Morning Better Last!.

A creative artist, Dirty Projectors mixes classical orchestration with samples, electronic and strange vocals.