ARTIST: Maps & Atlases
TITLE: Perch Patchwork
LABEL: Barsuk Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 186kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 36m total
RELEASE DATE: 2010-06-29
RIP DATE: 2010-07-22
Track List
----------
1. Will 2:16
2. The Charm 3:13
3. Living Decorations 2:54
4. Solid Ground 2:47
5. Is 1:43
6. Israeli Caves 3:53
7. Banished Be Cavalier 2:53
8. Carrying The Wet Wood 3:11
9. Pigeon 2:53
10. If This Is 2:42
11. Was 2:15
12. Perch Patchwork 5:45
Release Notes:
http://www.myspace.com/mapsandatlases
I think what gets me leaping over clouds about Perch Patchwork is how it peels
away the components of Maps and Atlases and lets them lie where they fall. The
illusion of what Maps and Atlases ôisö has irked me ever since I became
entangled with Trees, Swallows, Houses because it felt like IÆd had my newest
discovery pinned into a corner. It seemed everyone had this vision of the band
who could only produce toe-tapping guitar lines, who would sooner die than
sacrifice their æmath rockÆ definition and who would keep their borderline
wobbly vocalist as yet another constant through any change. And hey, when You,
Me and The Mountain, entered the canon of their EPs, I felt even more adamant at
the backlash I had probably invented: the musical shift was a non-dramatic and
entirely subtle act, but I felt the band had chopped something out of itself
without me thinking any different of it û ôArtichokesö didnÆt meander through
insane guitar taps nearly as much as ôThe Most Trustworthy Tin Cansö wouldÆve
done in its shoes, but did I notice? Did I care? That's one rhetorical question
Perch Patchwork û the bandÆs first ever LP û can answer for you, and I can see
these qualms of moving beyond the æguitar-tapÆ, beyond the æoddÆ time signatures
and the compulsive drumming disappearing with every adoring repeat of ôSolid
Ground.ö This is a Maps and Atlases who arenÆt anything in particular, but
rather a celebration of all the quirky influences they ever listed. Chop out
that sound or chop in this one, and Maps and Atlases arenÆt any different a
thing to your ears. Except better.
This Maps and Atlases record is the most universal yet, but IÆll admit IÆm a
sucker for one thing rather than the other and the sound I heard festering under
their earlier EPs was a psychedelic form of folk, with the jubilant crackling of
guitars on ôThe Ongoing Horribleö made all the more a tease by its short length.
Now that IÆve basically gotten what I wanted in places û Maps and Atlases
wearing Six Organs of Admittance on their sleeves û I want nothing more than to
call this their æfolkÆ album. For me, it walks and talks with that persona even
if it canÆt be tagged with it, and it is incredible because of it: as soon as
ôWillö begins we are given this stripped down Maps and Atlases, acoustic
percussion and guitars slotted under the primitive-sounding chants of David
Davison. Even the production readies my appetite with the chimes and guitar
plucking sounding as far away from me as possible, as if they do indeed intend
to play the album on top of the coast its art depicts. Even better, DavisonÆs
voice is still as manic as it ever was, trembling between the highest and lowest
pitches as the record moves into ôThe Charmö (and what a seamless transition,
too), and the band are just as manic with the marching beats they temporarily
exchange their guitars for. In a sense, itÆs the same old in aesthetic, but this
new folk invasion picks up the album from its other sounds wherever it is
poised. The joyous ôIsraeli Cavesö moves listeners out of a moodier passage of
Perch Patchwork and the album is finished with a colourful conclusion in its
title track, where there is an abundance of wood instruments and little else.
ItÆs almost childish, ôPerch Patchwork,ö with each cello and violin synchronised
into a storybook march. Of course, Maps and Atlases tell the best fairytales.
In a sense, the album is so universal because the band gives its control over to
the fans without really doing any such thing. Just as soon as the record has
settled into something entirely different and started to sound like a huge and
daring æfuck youÆ to loyalists, Maps and Atlases turns on its heels and throws
us a ôLiving Decorationsö or a ôCarrying the Wet Wood,ö and suddenly weÆre
reminded that every member of this Chicago outfit is totally non-threatening,
loveable and more likely to be issuing a small and humble æsorry guysÆ than
anything else. ôLiving Decorationsö especially zips up old-school crowd,
promptly paced for its injection of math rock and relieving due to its
whereabouts on the album as a whole; the imprint of this loud and jingly number,
heavily drenched in guitar riffs is - after two tracks that have burned through
the albums beginning at a comparative snailÆs pace û almost a sign of the band
trying to appease its diehards. ôCarrying the Wood,ö too, strays away from the
character of the album without being out of context, having the tone fans will
have familiarised with most since 2005 and Trees, Swallows, Houses. It sounds
welcome on that EP: DavisonÆs cries of ôWhy/did/you/tell me/oh why/that there
was nothing left to climbö sound as structured and technical as anything from
that album (as do the riffs, which roll ever onward) and yet there is some
barrier stopping them from that hypothetical situation where they could sit by
the comparatively robotic ôEveryplace is a House.ö
That barrier is the best thing that happens to Perch Patchwork. An uncanny
presence dominates the recordÆs entirety, making it their best effort yet and
proof that they can write albums better even than they can EPs. ItÆs the
presence of things both small and big that can never be heard in the foreground
because of our familiarisation with the Maps and Atlases of math rock rather
than the Maps and Atlases of any thing else. We are so engrossed with these
textures that we let any other additives drift to obscurity, but even if we
forget the sounds, they abolish any technicality, any forced complexity that was
left in the mix and that played foul upon our ears. ItÆs enjoyed with repeated
listens of the album that take away the initial awkwardness of Perch Patchwork:
on ôPigeon,ö brass instruments curve the song playfully with distinct Caribbean
spirit û ludicrous, when given the band weÆre talking about, but it somehow it
works. It counterbalances the mechanics of the song. Hell, it simply loosens up
the band that has always needed loosening up.
My favourite example though is the delightful ôSolid Ground,ö a track fans had
the pleasure of stewing over for the long months before the albumÆs
availability. If this track was supposed to be an indicator, it did its job and
then some; here of all places Perch Patchwork sounds like a Maps and Atlases who
did away with the lab and went running through the wilderness. Or maybe they
just set up their lab in that wilderness, because ôSolid Groundö - and the 2010
album it belongs to - is a mix of the sound I so want my new favourite band to
be and the remnants of the one I so adored in them already. I mentioned the
folksy, one-man Six Organs of Admittance, but truthfully Perch Patchwork sounds
more like if he invaded Don CaballeroÆs territory and stirred things up û and
above all, the members of Maps and Atlases celebrating everything about each
other, these influences included, is what makes their first ever record such a
gem. TheyÆve taken cues from their grandest experimental peers to create yet
more of the best pop. ThereÆs a description out there that describes the band as
ôwrestlersö of the ôintricate and organic,ö and while we could debate back and
forth which of the former or latter we see in them more, who are we to impose
our favourite genres upon these guys? ItÆs time to stop speculating over what
Maps and Atlases should do and just hope they do more.