Thursday 1 July 2010

Mapping Out Solid Ground


Perch Patchwork is the first fully fleshed 'album' by Chicago's Maps & Atlases, out through Barsuk (and Fat Cat Records), purveyors of avant garde pop tricksters such as Menomena. you can see what Barsuk are up to - focusing on acts that twist and subvert basic pop structures into a mishmash of genres, often within the one song, thus making something altogether new. But how new is it? And is it shiny - or is it shit?

So this year we saw Menomena bring out Mines, a hotly anticipated (in my eyes) LP that was...well, not shit, but certainly disappointing (again, in my eyes). Maps and Atlases have put out a lot of material in the past 5 years, so this album had a lot of hype riding on it. And I am yet to hear it in its entirety as yet - it comes out in September - but I have to say that the anticipation is much closer to being met here. The fusion of math rock, Don Caballero-esque guitar tomfoolery, and orchestrals, all aided and abetted by Dave Davison's very unique quirks on vocals, makes for a hell of an interesting ride. Im a big fan.

Willy Goldstein, I hope you get this post haste; the rest of you, sample below, and if you likee, pre-order it! They are also playing Cargo in October, keep an eye out for that!!!

Maps & Atlases - Solid Ground

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