Battles and Tom Vek

US mathrock act Battles and London born Tom Vek are both releasing sophomore albums in the coming week. This is very very very exciting news as the debut albums from both of these acts were favourites of mine.

Battles‘ brand of quirky experimental rock music blew me away when I first heard their debut album Mirrored, released in 2007. I saw them live that year in Tripod and they were phenomenal. I particularly loved John Stanier’s unique drum set-up with his ride cymbal dangling high above his kit so he had to almost jump out of his seat to hit it! The second album from the band has been four years coming and I’m hopeful that it’s as good as Mirrored. The album, called Gloss Drop, is to be released on the 6 June and you can catch some of the songs at the band’s gig at Forbidden Fruit Festival in Dublin this Sunday.

Here’s my favourite track from Mirrored:

Tom Vek‘s debut album, We Have Sound, was released in 2005 when I was living in London. It became the soundtrack to that year for me and even now when I listen to it I am transported back to my flat in Tufnell Park and life in London. Tom then took a six year break from the music industry thus bringing anticipation for his second album almost to boiling point! It’s called Leisure Seizure and is also released on June 6th. The first single is called A Chore and is available to view on his youtube channel.

Here’s my favourite track from We Have Sound. How I adore this song: