Battle Tapes is an Electronic Rock band from Los Angeles, California. To quote The Other Wiki: "The band originally consists of Josh Boardman (vocals/guitar/synth), Riley Mackin (keyboards/programming/vocals), Stephen Bannister (bass guitar) and Pete Kraynak (drums/percussion). Battle Tapes is known for its live performances, fully sequenced lighting and visuals and integrating electro and indie influences into its music and image." They were founded in 2010 and released their first song, "Sleepwalker," in 2011, but really started attracting attention when "Feel the Same" took off in 2013.
They seem to have a knack for getting Colbert Bumps - quite a few Battle Tapes fans mention having been introduced to them through hearing "Feel the Same" on Radio Mirror Park in Grand Theft Auto V or "Belgrade"'s use as the Real Song Theme Tune for gen:LOCK.
Their discography to date is as follows:
- Sleepwalker EP (EP, 2011)
- Sweatshop Boys EP (EP, 2012)
- Polygon (album, 2015)
- Solid Gold EP (feat. Party Nails) (EP, 2016)
- Form (EP, 2017)
- Texture (album, 2023)
We pretend in the darkness, we pretend the tropes won't steal our youth...
- All There in the Manual: Only by looking at the "Wanted!" Poster for the "In Too Deep" girls (which is present as Youtube shorts on the band's channel and as
The Merch) would one know that the "In Too Deep" music video takes place in Tokyo. - Broken Record: "Made," from the Sweatshop Boys EP, makes heavy use of repetition in its lyrics. Texture's "Back in the Game" - in many ways a stylistic Call-Back to "Made" - does the same.
- Cyberpunk Is Techno: The "In Too Deep" music video sure is, anyway.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: Battle Tapes seem to be quite fond of doing this - even their very first song, "Sleepwalker," features one. "Weight of the World" actually abruptly stops in mid-chorus halfway through before fading back in.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Their merch (and some of their cover art) will very often have the band's name written in katakana next to the English (or in lieu of it).
- Instrumentals: Both their albums have included instrumental tracks:
- Polygon has "Dreamboat" and "Mulholland" (the latter actually being the segue between "Made" and "Feel the Same" from the Sweatshop Boys EP, extended into a full song).
- Texture has "Passive Attack," which may or may not be a Shout-Out to Massive Attack, a band the 'Tapes have cited as an inspiration of theirs.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: Their usual preference, particularly in recent years. The exception is Polygon, which tends more towards the Design Student's Orgasm side of things with a collection of colorful abstract shapes overlapping each other.
- Non-Appearing Title: At no point does "Belgrade" mention the city of Belgrade. The reason for the title is not clear.
- Retraux: The music video for "Brand New" deliberately invokes the look of early 3D video games (more specifically the PS1), possibly in reference to Red Hot Chili Peppers' famous "Californication" music video. (Though, of course, RHCP's graphics were pretty high-tech for 2000, while the 'Tapes are doing it to be retro on purpose.)
- Rule 63: The Animesque characters performing "In Too Deep" in its official music video (and doing battle with vaguely defined forces of cyberpunk evil in the process) are indicated to be avatars of the band members. The real-life band members are all male, while the characters in the video are all female.
- Though, of course, Tropes Are Not Bad, and the "In Too Deep" video has been very well received.
- Speed Run: The "Brand New" music video is about speedrunning. It depicts runners exploiting various
Good Bad Bugs to set record times in pastiches of 1080° Snowboarding, Metal Gear Solid and WipEout. - Synthwave: The music video for "In Too Deep (Lenno Remix)" invokes this.
- Theme Naming: Polygon, Form and Texture are all terms relating to space and shapes (or, as the case may be, to 3D video game graphics).
- Word-Salad Humor: The band's bio on their Youtube page is a word salad of vaguely Cyberpunk-sounding terms and phrases with names of the band's songs and albums interspersed in. It seems to be an ordinary description of the band that's been rewritten in a code or cipher of some kind. (Their Spotify bio used to have the same text, but it was changed to a normal description around the time Texture was released.)
