Battles (band)

Battles is an American experimental rock group, founded in 2002 in New York City by Ian Williams (formerly of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress). The current line-up is guitarist/ keyboardist Ian Williams, guitarist/ bassist Dave Konopka (formerly of Lynx), and drummer John Stanier (formerly of Helmet).

Career

Following a string of EPs, the band released their debut album on the Warp Records label in February 2006, which was titled EP C / B EP. It is a compilation of their early releases, EP C, B EP and the single "Tras".

Mirrored

Their first full-length album Mirrored, recorded by Keith Souza at Machines with Magnets, was released on May 14, 2007. The album received positive reviews and appeared on several top album lists for 2007.

The first single from the album, "Atlas", was released on February 21, 2007 as streaming audio, and the accompanying streaming video was released on February 28, 2007. It was voted "Best Single of the Week" by NME magazine, and received a glowing review in the British Clash Magazine, as well as ranking at number one in the second Dandelion Radio Festive Fifty. The song was performed by the band on BBC television's Later With Jools Holland in November 2007.

Battle

Generally, a battle "is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. A war sometimes consists of many battles. Battles generally are well defined in duration, area, and force commitment.

Wars and military campaigns are guided by strategy, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as operational mobility. German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of strategy.

Etymology

The definition of a battle cannot be arrived at solely through the names of historical battles, many of which are misnomers. The word battle is a loanword in English from the Old French bataille, first attested in 1297, from Late Latin battualia, meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing", from Late Latin (taken from Germanic) battuere "beat", from which the English word battery is also derived via Middle English batri, and comes from the staged battles in the Colosseum in Rome that may have numbered 10,000 individuals.

La Di Da Di

"La Di Da Di" is a hit rap song performed by Doug E. Fresh the beatboxer, and MC Ricky D (later known as Slick Rick) as the rapper. It was originally released in 1985 as the B-side to "The Show". The song has since gained a reputation as an early hip hop classic, and has been sampled or referenced in numerous other hip hop songs since its release (see below).

Different edits

There are two releases of the song. The original vinyl and cassette versions contain sung lyrics from "Sukiyaki" by A Taste of Honey, but due to a lack of clearance, CD versions are missing the following refrains in the middle of the song, most likely because of copyright issues:

Cover versions

Snoop Dogg covered "La Di Da Di" as "Lodi Dodi". Mindless Self Indulgence also covered the song, with some changes in lyrics. The song has been covered live by Chuck Brown and also by Korn.

Snoop Doggy Dogg version charts

Samples and references by later artists

"La Di Da Di" has gained a reputation for consistently being sampled and referenced by many artists. The following is a list of other songs that referenced "La Di Da Di":

Warp (record label)

Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is an independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, specialising in experimental electronic music and Intelligent dance music.

Warp was founded by Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who had both gained experience working at Sheffield's FON record shop, alongside record producer Robert Gordon. The name was chosen because the original name, 'Warped Records', was difficult to distinguish over the telephone. Warp soon became home to artists who would be influential in electronic music.

History

1989-1995

The first release (WAP1) was by Forgemasters (produced by Robert Gordon), whose 500 copy pressing of "Track with no Name" was financed by an Enterprise Allowance grant and distributed in a borrowed car. It set a trend for the early releases both in terms of sound, and the use of purple sleeves (designed by The Designers Republic). The follow-up was Nightmares on Wax's "Dextrous", which sold around 30,000 copies. This led to greater commercial success; by its fifth release the label had its first Top 20 chart entry with LFO and their eponymous single, "LFO", which sold 130,000 copies and peaked at #12 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1990; by coincidence, that same month another Warp act, Tricky Disco, reached #14 in the UK chart with another eponymous single, "Tricky Disco".

The Creators

The Creators is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1992 and is the second volume in what has become known as the Knowledge Trilogy. It was preceded by The Discoverers and succeeded by The Seekers.

Contents

The Creators, subtitled A History of Heroes of the Imagination, is the story of mankind's creativity. It highlights great works of art, music and literature but it is more than a recitation or list. It is a book of ideas and the people behind those ideas. It encompasses architecture, music, literature, painting, sculpture, the performing arts, theater, religious expression and philosophy. It can be viewed as a companion to The Discoverers which chronicled the history of invention, exploration and technology. The Creators traces the creative process from pre-history Egypt to modern times and like The Discoverers, follows both a topical and chronological structure. Boorstin writes in "A Personal Note to the Reader", "After The Discoverers... "I was more than ever convinced that the pursuit of knowledge is only one path to human fulfillment. This companion book, also a view from the literate West, is a saga of Heroes of the Imagination. While The Discoverers told of the conquest of illusions - the illusion of knowledge - this will be a story of vision (and illusions) newly created..." If The Discoverers is the story of the inventive human mind then The Creators is the story of the searching soul. The work is in twelve major parts that have been grouped into four books.