Battles turned quite a few heads with 2007’s Mirrored. Like Tortoise, the band took experimental prog rock and made it cool for the lo-fi/postpunk set.
My current favorite all-format album is the Raveonettes' Raven in the Grave (Vice), which sounds smoky-fab whether I'm listening to it via CD, MP3, or LP. I asked Raveonettes co-founder Sune Rose Wagner, 38, how the band (Wagner and co-conspirator Sharin Foo) corrals the backbeat for its 21st-century-cool Wall of Sound. Read on for his answers (and for a listen to "Forget That You're Young," a track from the new album.)
THE BEATLES:Love (Apple/Capitol). Mashups from the Cirque du Soleil show. Unavailable at press time, but billed as "first Beatles album in 5.1": CD+DVD-Audio!
JOHN:The U.S. vs. John Lennon (Capitol; 4-½ stars). Edgy songs from the doc. Also out: Give Peace a Song (Hip-O DVD), Sean Lennon's Friendly Fire (Capitol CD).
The genius of Pink Floyd's music is intertwined with the genius of the recording of the music. And the innovative studio techniques used by the band and its producers and recording engineers are integral to the music. It's impossible to imagine The Dark Side of the Moon without vital creative touches such as the sound of clanging money or thumping heartbeats. Perhaps no other band has pushed the technical envelope so aggressively, or profited from it so enormously. The catalog of their works is one of innovation - both musically and sonically.
