Bite the Boxer - Battleship

Though the name Bite the Boxer may bring back memories of a legendary clash of titans in a boxing ring, it also is the name of a South Coast, United Kingdom synthwave project run by Matt Park. As with most creative people who were going stir crazy from the Covid-19 lockdown and pandemic, Park decided to put his musical genius to work during his down time. Thus, Bite the Boxer was born. Though he was inspired by a lot of the synthwave legends, he wanted to create something that was also influenced by the post-punk, nu-wave, and indie music that passed through his speakers. August of 2020 saw his debut album "The '86 Sound" release for the world to enjoy. But, as with most artists, the joy of creativity does not end with a single piece of music. Now, in 2021, Bite the Boxer returns with a new single titled 'Battleship'. 



The single starts off with (not trying to be funny here) low, waving synths and some epic electronic hums. This is soon joined by some ridiculously clean pads which I was shocked to hear. A lot of the time, other synthwave producers either abuse their pads to hell and back to make an extremely crunchy, dark synth sound or they don't use them hard enough to get a good kick. Bite the Boxer has managed to find a middle ground with these pads and thus gave my ears a good whooping. Not only that, but the song is extremely dance friendly, going between epic, grooving beats that sound like they could be used in a bullet-hell video game to being a slow-paced and cinematic work. All around, this is an awesome song. 

I will admit that I did not listen to "The '86 Sound" prior to this review. However, now that I have listened to 'Battleship' I am more than willing to take a step back to see where Bite the Boxer started from. His music is crisp, the production clean, the song fun, and while it sticks to synthwave tropes, it does enough to make it stand out on its own without being mixed in with a bunch of other similar sounding songs. The synthwave scene is a bit oversaturated at the moment, and finding new talent that can achieve above the rest is rare. But, if Battleship is anything to go by, then Bite the Boxer has a good future ahead of himself. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Feb 14 2021