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Album Review

Maps
We Can Create Mute

Article written by Ged M - May 29, 2007

Maps, or James Chapman, as the composer of We Can Create is known in Northampton, pulls off the trick of mixing beats and melodies into a combination that will please technoheads and indiepoppers alike. A slew of influences - from Spiritualised to the Cocteau Twins, the Postal Service to Boards of Canada, Air to My Bloody Valentine - go into the mix and what emerges is by turns darkly melodic space rock (�You Don�t Know Her Name�), lush textured soundscapes (�Glory Verse�) and anthemic pop with big choruses (�Elouise�). It�s a one-man band only up to a point; having worked out the songs (and they�re hand-crafted; he doesn�t take the lazy way out of letting the sampler take the strain), they were finished in Iceland with Sigur Ros producer Valgeir Sigurdsson, where Icelandic musicians added gorgeous but subtle strings and brass to songs like the delicate �Liquid Sugar� with its filigreed arrangements. There�s a melancholy tone to songs like �So High So Low� but any depression is blown away by the glorious melodies that sweep in. The warm, hopeful, infectious sounds of We Can Create � the sort of sound that a loved up Kevin Shields might aspire to � might make a cult hero out of James Chapman yet.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/mapsmusic