Friday, June 22, 2007
 

Today I'm going to be rambling about Maps, a.k.a. James Chapman.  The Mute Records' artist just saw his album, We Can Create, drop this week and I'm kind of surprised that more people aren't foaming at the mouth.  After all, the talented Mr. Chapman took the music that he made in his bedroom and had it enhanced by getting Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bonnie Prince Billy, Bjork) to co-produce it and Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Hope Of The States) to mix it.  Those two guys alone could make me sound half decent and I wasn't even good at the Recorder in the fourth grade.  Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't be one to talk about others since I'm only jumping on the bandwagon this week, but this guy certainly deserves the attention.  Enjoy.

:Maps - To The Sky:  It could just be me, but James sounds strikingly similar to Cloud Cult's Craig Minowa, especially at the beginning of the track.  The way the intro builds up and then pauses right before he softly rolls in with his warm voice practically tricks me every time.  Of course, it doesn't really stay that way for too long as there is no quirky arrangement like you would find in a Cloud Cult song.  This has nothing but what amounts to one of the most crisp, lush pieces of electronic music you've heard in awhile, which, is why you have to make sure to listen to this with the best pair of headphones available to you.

Below is James and a backing band performing the song Elouise on the Great Northern Music Show on Channel M.  I've never heard of the show or the channel, but outside of the slightly low volume the production values are pretty snazzy.  My guess is that they're popular somewhere.  Anyone have some more info?

- John Laird -

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