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streaming: messagetobears.com/
Maps is the third LP from multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander, the man behind Message to Bears.
Following on from the success of Folding Leaves, Jerome has created something that encapsulates the folksy ambience of previous releases whilst adding an electronic dimension. Building layer upon layer, songs evolve with a fragile intensity. Vocal melodies are draped over string and guitar arrangements and end up soaring over them, at the same time lending a hook instantly recognisable as Message To Bears and blending harmoniously with the arrangement.
The overall result of Maps is something that is both startling and familiar. You are drawn in, given a map if you will, and invited on a musical journey that nods to Message to Bears' past but also leads to the future.'
Casual lights gleam through the tall trees, reflecting the failing dusk through a pair of pale blue eyes. Reversing – yet also progressing – beats sink into the strands of deep light. Soaring above all else, the songs glide high as if taking flight on the wings of an eagle. It is the sound of the dusk in the summer, the sustained blue to pink hue in the sky not only flowing but bleeding from one cloudless colour to the next. It is the walk in the park, where the light casts kind, late afternoon circles in the sky.
The late glow absorbs itself into the music, along with the gentle phosphorescence in the air. In this peaceful part of the world, the birdsong is just as important as the beat. Sanguine vocals lend themselves to a deep, yet accessible evocation of the evening, the quiet period where a state of reflection mingles with gentle, heart-felt thankfulness.
Maps is beautifully dense, mirroring the man-made (electronic) against a natural backdrop. Maps is Jerome Alexander’s third LP as Message To Bears. In it, he bravely dares to expand his musical palette with a greater emphasis on the electronic, which has increased substantially. Still, Alexander’s lovely, wind-swept vocals and the guitar’s melodic spray of blown kisses are still here and as serene as ever, never losing the familiar sound that came to define his earlier output.
The electronics sit easily beside the peaceable guitar melodies, casting even more colour onto the sound and sprinkling its wide, shimmering, textured glow like sunlight twinkling over the deep blue ocean. Never one to stay still, Maps is a mature record, but it is still young at heart and free in spirit.
It’s the sound of the ‘Sun Breaking Through’. The finger-plucked melody sets the tempo – not the percussion – taking over the drum’s duties in this respect. The drum then gives the tempo some rhythmic definition, pushing it forward, but lightly so. The padded beats are just a touch above the lighter guitar, without submerging the crisp notes and their clarity. Slowly, the music ascends, an air bubble of optimism that cannot burst or be dampened.
The tones shimmer over the sung vocal, mixing into different, cooler pools and leaving eclectic timbres in their wake. On some occasions, the tones sound like they might’ve come from the coolest pedal-board in history. The electronic side radiates a lovely warm texture which then wraps itself lovingly over the voice. The gentle progression is cushion soft and fresh, but it’s also intent on rushing through you in an exhilarating flow of sound, refilling you anew after every track.
They are songs of peace, dappled with the glittering colours of magenta and deep blue, coalescing to produce a haven of sound. The synths, sprinkled with light foam, are the bearers of harmony. The electronic beats are never abrasive or harsh; it’s a perfect demonstration that they can and do have an introverted side to their usual, ceaseless thump.
Rain falls on ‘Rather Stay’ – the beat is a thumper that blinks out the thin, deeper harmony. It could be the sound of a lover’s heartbeat, mixed in with the gentle intimacy of the rain. Hot on the heels is the track ‘You Are A Memory’, which seems to evoke the sadness of loss, made audible through the weeping of the strings, discharging its tears over the lost voice. It shares the same level of intimacy as ‘Rather Stay’, but the mood is very different. Where before the kiss had lingered, and the only expression in the sweet moment was a smile, the embrace now rewinds and reverses, separated forever, never to be chained together again. The vocal repeats its anguish as if it were a ghost trauma-trapped between the Earth and the spiritual realm, ‘calling for the last time’.
The strings, guitar, viola and violin showcase Alexander’s love for instrumental variation. Because of that, Maps is a colourful tributary of sound, branching out through many different rivulets of gentle innovation like an intricately designed map, courtesy of a skilled cartographer. Despite the variety, the instruments share the same emotions, the same feel, transcending their unique barriers effortlessly until they form a collective whole.
It’s a pyramid of sound that, stone by stone, steadily ascends to the tip of the pinnacle. The gentle ambient swell on ‘Closed Doors’ begins to close the shutters, but it is at this point we reach the heights of the album; it’s a sound that you could never tire of. Maps is the safe refuge, located somewhere in the wilderness. The light bursts out of the lake, leaving a thousand ripples on the still water. Maps shines with a similar brilliance, and it is intensely beautiful because of it. - Dan www.fluid-radio.co.uk/
Jan 2012
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