Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

MySpace: Maps

I’m not one to hold back with criticism or praise so let’s dive headlong into the ‘assessment-abyss’ right here and now – this is a fucking excellent album. There, I’ve said it. Crudely maybe, but I’ve chucked my proverbial cards on the table and brushed the doubting chips from my shoulder. Y’see, Mute, like Factory, 4AD and Rough Trade, had been at the forefront of unique music-production for some years before Mr Major-Label came along and priced them out or swallowed them up. Factory rogered themselves up the arse, financially and creatively during their closing years, 4AD released a pile of shit in the 90s, Rough Trade signed The Hold Steady and Mystery Jets (oh GOD!) and Mute did the unforgivable and went pop. Goldfrapp. Erasure. Richard Hawley. Maps. Only Mute remained consistent to the cause. 4AD have come back from the dead last year and this (TV On The Radio, Broken Records, Big Pink, M Ward and Bon Iver) and Rough Trade signed the fucking Babyshambles – ah well.

Thing is, none of those 4 Mute acts above are ‘pop’ as such because there is a dark side – a dark side that other Mute acts such as Nick Cave, Laibach and Depeche Mode wear on their creative and public sleeves – it seems to rub off onto the rest of the roster. No surprise then that Maps, aka James Chapman, reveals a twitchy slightly paranoid personality – or is just the music that portrays this? Whatever, the first song ‘Turning The Mind’ is an anthem of electronic proportions and sounds like the sort of song Dave Gahan wishes he’d written for his solo work a few years back. The single, ‘I Dream Of Crystal’, has a melody reminiscent of OMD and a backbeat derived from an old Schooly D 12” (‘P.S.K.’) and, ‘fuck’ word aside, is gorgeous enough to grace several radio dials the world over.

As with all excellent albums, ‘Turning The Mind’ sports a firework display of highlights. ‘Valium In The Sunshine’ is a resonant, druggy synth swinger that might just adorn a few documentaries about athletes, female ones probably (lyric sample: ‘she’s the one who keeps me calm’), while ‘Papercuts’ is a militaristic canter through a Philip Glass-esque intro build-up and Euro-stomp climax. This is not world-changing music but it is stunningly produced without being glossy and pallid.

There is one weak track in ‘Everything Is Shattering’, preceded by a near-instrumental, ‘Love Will Come’ that barely scratches the creative surface, before the closing trio wrap this exquisite synth-doom-pop opus up with euphoric twists and turns. ‘Chemeleon’ and ‘Die Happy, Die Smiling’ wouldn’t sound out of place on any 80s album of note (‘Dare’, Human League – ‘Violator’, Depeche Mode – ‘Dazzle Ships’, OMD), yet this is no mere parody – this is a grand effort all round. ‘Turning The Mind’ is certainly in my Top 10 of the year at any rate. Oh and the closing track is worth the admission alone (‘Without You’).

9/10

By Paul Pledger