Pitchfork

On this year's Mirrored, Battles' intricate, muscular sound is already genre-agnostic-- ganking moves from heavy rock, jazz fusion, IDM, Gary Glitter, and the Chipmunks. Even so, eyebrows jumped when the New York four-piece announced they'd be bringing in Brooklyn rapper Joell Ortiz for a guest verse on their forthcoming Tonto EP. This weird fusion seems less unlikely on hearing DJ EMZ's remix of Mirrored track "Leyendecker", which smoothes the original's spasmodic jerks into a smoky, futuristic backdrop, with well-placed scratches and rattling guitar textures. In some decent rhymes, Ortiz plays up what he and Battles have in common-- a certain good-sized Apple-- touching emphatically on 50 Cent, Bruce Wayne, and the World Trade Center. "I don't even know what you call this shit, hip-hop, rock?/ I just know it feel good, and it's New York," Ortiz concludes. Tell that to Battles' Tyondai Braxton, whose high-pitched vocal samples still sound like they're from a slow jam on another planet.