By Anthony Newes

Maps of Norway are a four-piece band consisting of drums, bass, guitar and vocals.  They don’t really have a lead guitar player or a lead singer or a lead anything for that matter.

This is a band that truly functions best as a whole.  All parts, including the vocals, require each other for them to work best, and they do.  The end result is an 11-song album that is well-crafted and sonically outstanding.  I can’t stop listening to it.

Die Off Songbird begins with a short, drone-like, Brian Eno-esque song titled ‘Blue 1’ (‘Blue 2’ shows up towards the end of the record and shares a similar ambience).  It’s a short introduction that sucks the listener right on in before diving into the next song titled ‘Cage the Lions’.  This begins with what sounds like sleigh bells and a nice big heart beat of a bass drum that remains throughout the entirety of the song.  The heart beat consistency is all over this record and it makes it accessible to a wide range of listeners.   Definitely music you can dance to (I’m talking to you hipsters!).

If you’re looking for a comparison, they kind of resemble Interpol, but they definitely have a unique voice.  For you local geeks, Die Off Songbird was recorded at Albatross and engineered by Mike Wisti (Lifter Puller, Skoal Kodiak, Gay Beast, ect…).  You can tell a decent amount of time was spent crafting the sonic quality of this record.  You get the feeling it wasn’t just thrown together but instead, nit-picked and dissected until they felt it was right.  I could be wrong about that.  Either way, they got it right.

The thing that immediately won me over about this album is that it is full of space.  Nothing seems forced and everyone knows when and when not to play.  For me, the highlight of this album is the track titled ‘Strrict Ritual’.  Just over 8 minutes, this song begins with a highly reverberated/delayed guitar that plays a nice, rhythmic phrase over and over again throughout the whole song.  The rest of the band gradually makes their way into the mix slowly building this dance track up creating a wall of sound.  It’s a great album to listen to on your head-phones while riding the bike through the rain.  Just promise not to get hit by a car anything dumb like that.

www.mapsofnorway.net

Filed under: Misc.