Crafting a spun-sugar fusion of electronic music, symphonic indie, and dream pop from the confines of his bedroom and a 16-track tape recorder, James Chapman is the one-man band known as Maps. On his debut album, We Can Create, Chapman displays a flair for widescreen arrangements that would normally sound more at home in an orchestra hall than a bedroom, particularly on the soaring "You Don't Know Her Name," which updates the sweetly sleepy vocals and skyward guitars of classic shoegaze with gurgling synths that recall Boards of Canada. Likewise, We Can Create's best moments pair melodies that feel familiar with arrangements that add just the right amount of strangeness: "Liquid Sugar"'s melody makes it feel like a lost track from Loveless, but its delicate strings and synth washes are gentler and more unexpected than yet another homage to My Bloody Valentine's guitar maelstroms. Maps' hybrid of dreamy ock and atmospheric electronic music isn't particularly original; shades of everyone from Boces-era Mercury Rev and Chapterhouse to Dntel, M83, Ulrich Schnauss, and especially Spiritualized pop up on We Can Create (later tracks such as the epic "Lost My Soul" and "Don't Fear" give the impression of coming from a pixilated Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space). However, while Chapman may not take his influences in radical directions, his own spin on these sounds is accessible and appealing. We Can Create will appeal to anyone who enjoys dream pop in any of its past or present incarnations.
RECORD REVIEW: "We Can Create" by MapsSleep, shag, and make "Mercury Prize-nominated":http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/07/17/mercury-prize-nominees-rock-dailys-fave-newcomers/ albums, that’s what. James Chapman aka Maps made the bulk of his aptly-titled debut LP _We Can Create_ on an old 16-track recorder squeezed into his flat in Northampton, England. That’s right, with no
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DON'T FEARHaving somewhat of the unfriendly Web 2.0 band name of Maps (try google’ing that), this band does make some interesting electronic based music that has influences from all over the map.Maps is essentially a Northampton U.K. gent named James Chapman. “We Can Create” would be his first album, although he has released a handful of eps that has created quite the buzz in certain circles
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A fairly short interview with an artist to watch went up today at PopMatters. James Chapman works mostly alone in a bedroom making these amazing symphonically large pop songs. Here's a bit from the feature:"James Chapman's moody, dream-fuzzed songs spent 2006 evolving from home-taped reveries to NME-charting singles. This year, with a new album in the works, a partnership with Bjork soundman ...
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RECORD REVIEW: "We Can Create" by MapsSleep, shag, and make "Mercury Prize-nominated":http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/07/17/mercury-prize-nominees-rock-dailys-fave-newcomers/ albums, that’s what. James Chapman aka Maps made the bulk of his aptly-titled debut LP _We Can Create_ on an old 16-track recorder squeezed into his flat in Northampton, England. That’s right, with no
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DON'T FEARHaving somewhat of the unfriendly Web 2.0 band name of Maps (try google’ing that), this band does make some interesting electronic based music that has influences from all over the map.Maps is essentially a Northampton U.K. gent named James Chapman. “We Can Create” would be his first album, although he has released a handful of eps that has created quite the buzz in certain circles
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Just reporting for duty to mog.com/marigold central.....Having a great time tonight listening to the Maps cd, "We Can Create"...I am really loving it. I got me a little buzz and I am really loving this disc. I was sitting under the stars in the back yard..and it was a work of art. Great mid summer night...me, a good homebrew beer and sitting in the dark with my new zune, ...it was majestic.Flux...
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A fairly short interview with an artist to watch went up today at PopMatters. James Chapman works mostly alone in a bedroom making these amazing symphonically large pop songs. Here's a bit from the feature:"James Chapman's moody, dream-fuzzed songs spent 2006 evolving from home-taped reveries to NME-charting singles. This year, with a new album in the works, a partnership with Bjork soundman ...
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Maps has been nominated to compete for the prestigious UK music award the Mercury Prize for their album We Can Create. The album was released on June 19th and has already met with so much success that James Chapman, aka Maps, may take home the Mercury Prize when the award show is broadcast live on BBC TV September 4th. Chapman is currently on tour in the UK, playing his special blend of "spac...
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I noticed there are a few posts of the band Maps, however it does not appear that anyone has posted this song. I really like it alot. Pitchforks 50 Best Albums of 07 is out. Nowhere to be seen is this band, not quite sure why, it would definitely have to be on my list. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/47446-staff-list-top-50-albums-of-2007
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In my previous missive (don't you hate when I use anachronistic words?) I posted my Top 10 of 2007 even as I grumpily whined that end-o'-the-year list-making was a silly pursuit. Clearly I'm a fool, because I've already found something I love while exploring the lists of others. It's Maps' "We Can Create," which somehow I never plugged into despite the fact I frickin crave shoegazer vibe and di...
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hey you!this post is really just virtually a post script to the last. i wanted to upload an mp3 for you all, but misplaced the file, so i put it off until now. just a few weeks ago i stumbled across Maps, while searching for some new, fresh tracks (punny, isn't it). this great song, "You Don't Know Her Name," i recently derived from Maps' album, "We Can Create." It's James Chapman's first full ...
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Maps creates beautiful electronica pop that hovers and swoops in pulsating waves. MAPS is Northampton, U.K. wunderkind, James Chapman. A mix of electronics, pop and psychedelia, his sound can be found in the scale and ambition of Spiritualized, in the single-mindedness of My Bloody Valentine, in the vibes and good times of the Chemical Brothers and in the melodies of The Byrds.According to the...
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 "We Can Create")
