Battles - The Yabba

What this video is

Released in September 2015 as the lead single and video for Battles' third studio album La Di Da Di (Warp Records), 'The Yabba' video arrived during a sustained critical reevaluation of instrumental and math-rock idioms as legitimate art-video territory. Battles' signing to Warp placed them within a lineage of experimentalism (Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Flying Lotus) that validated high-concept, non-narrative music…

Why it matters

A benchmark artifact of 2010s experimental/math-rock music video practice, demonstrating how a fully instrumental track can sustain a 6m55s video through rigorous conceptual unity rather than lyrical or narrative scaffolding. The circular-motion device — applied consistently from macro (camera…

The director

Born and raised in the suburbs of Barcelona, Roger Guàrdia began directing music videos for friends while at university, developing his style in the Spanish underground. Now NYC-based, he works internationally in music videos and commercials with a…