Techno duo Talker announce new EP Battle Standards, strategically deploy new track “Battle Standard”

Techno duo Talker announce new EP Battle Standards, strategically deploy new track "Battle Standard"
Meier and Krohn assume their deceptively-casual battle stations.

It’s sort of hard to imagine how different life was in 2014! A less-gray-headed Barack Obama was still president of the US, David Bowie and Prince still played racquetball together every Saturday, you could still download Flappy Bird (RIP Flappy). 2014 was also the year Chicago-based electronic duo Karl Meier and Jonathan Krohn (aka Stave) —united as Talker — released their final record for the highly fine Downward imprint.

We’re not exactly sure what Krohn & Meier have been doing in the three year interim, but we like to imagine that they’ve been isolated in some sort of dedicated electronic body music capsule orbiting our planet, because their upcoming EP almost sounds like the work of a pair of artists who have missed all the global cataclysm of the modern era. It is fresh; it is full of wide-eyed creativity, and it jacks-in a way only somebody still in those halcyon days of 2014 might still jack — we’re talking, like, Pharrell’s Hat-Level jacking (RIP Pharrell’s hat).

Today, we are excited to premiere the precious time capsule “Battle Standard,” the first track on the team’s new record, Battle Standards (plural). It’s the sort of track that makes you feel like you’re about to pull off a big heist — maybe to retrieve some kind of gem that, if brought back three years into the past, might have the power to save the future? (Note to whoever is relaying the messages between Earth and the Talker Pod: Tiny Mix Tapes is happy to volunteer a squadron for this mission.)

And while not sure about any precious space gems, we are sure that if you listen to “Battle Standard,” you will daringly rescue the next six and a half minutes of your life. Stream the track right down below ahead of the release of the full Battle Standards EP, available July 24 via Talker’s very own Standards & Practices label — pre-order now for a shot at the limited gold vinyl edition.


Battle Standards EP tracklisting:

01. Battle Standard
02. (Gold) Standard
03. Snub Nose

Most Read



Etc.