News

Maps & Atlases Release Living Decorations

• 24th Nov 2010

When Maps & Atlases finally released their long gestated full-length ‘Perch Patchwork’ in October it proved to be an ambitious, sustained and exhilarating work, it’s strong pop hooks dispelling the maths-rock tag for good. The lightning-fast guitar lines that characterised earlier output now augmented by diverting brass and string arrangements, from the military drum lines of ‘The Charm’ to the soft Beach Boys styled vocal chorus of ‘Israeli Caves’.

Choice cut ‘Living Decorations’ is lifted from the album for single release on 14th February; it’s smart African percussion-bolstered indie showcasing the band in full flight. On the flip, a fantastically elastic remix from hotly tipped experimental electro collective BretonLABS, already professed fans of M&A. This is the second of two remixes of the song– the first dropping online a few weeks back, quickly rising to the No.2 spot at Hype Machine.

Two years on from their last visit supporting Foals, Maps & Atlases returned to the UK in October to the gratifying prospect of a sold out tour, and they are back for more dates in late January and early February:

28 Fri UK NOTTINGHAM Bodega
29 Sat UK NEWCASTLE Other Rooms
30 Sun UK EDINBURGH Sneaky Pete's
1 Tue UK LONDON XOYO
2 Wed UK OXFORD Jericho Tavern
3 Thu France PARIS La Maroquinerie
4 Fri France METZ Les Trinitaires
5 Sat Belgium GENT Charlatan
7 Mon Germany OBERHAUSEN Drucklufthaus
8 Tue Germany MUENSTER Gleis 22
9 Wed Germany BERLIN Festsaal Kreuzberg
10 Thu Denmark COPENHAGEN Loppen
11 Fri Sweden MALMO Debaser
12 Sat Sweden STOCKHOLM Debaser
14 Mon Germany LEIPZIG UT Connewitz
15 Tue Czech Republic PRAGUE 7
16 Wed Austria VIENNA Flex
17 Thu Germany MUNICH Orangehouse
18 Fri Switzerland ZURICH Plaza
19 Sat Germany COLOGNE Gebäude 9

‘Living Decorations’ – along with the rest of ‘Perch Patchwork’ – was recorded by Jason Cupp (The Elected, Finch, Nurses, Cast Spells) in Chicago – partly in guitarist/vocalist David Davison’s parent’s basement, partly in Steve Albini’s legendary Electrical Audio and partly in the band’s own Soothsayer Studio. The results are a set of recordings that breathe an entirely new life into songs whose original forms were painstakingly deconstructed and rearranged for the studio.

The Maps & Atlases sound is comparable to the mature, graceful pop of Band of Horses or TV On The Radio and the excitable dynamism of Deerhoof or Vampire Weekend. Live dates have seen them share stages with acts as diverse as FatCat’s Frightened Rabbit and Our Brother The Native, acclaimed experimental hardcore band mewithoutYou, and African legend Vieux Farka Toure – speaking volumes as to the broad-church of sounds that Maps & Atlases encompass.

Formed in 2004, having met as art students at Chicago’s Columbia College, Maps & Atlases’ initial output (a 2006 EP titled ‘Tree, Swallows, Houses’) showcased their astute technical abilities and deft musicality, changing rhythms and tearing across guitar fretboards at breakneck speed. The follow-up EP (2008’s ‘You and Me and the Mountain’), however, demonstrated a desire for a more measured – yet similarly unconventional – pop-orientated course that retained the precision of their first set of recordings, but demonstrated a stronger compositional virtuosity.

Maps & Atlases recently signed to Barsuk Records in the US, who will handle the North American release of ‘Perch Patchwork’, and to FatCat for the UK and Europe.

Maps & Atlases: David Davison (vocals, guitar), Shiraz Dada (bass), Chris Hainey (drums), and Erin Elders (guitar). or link or link