Maps
was originally conceived in 2013 as a live performance piece for the Festival La Bâtie in Switzerland, made in collaboration between Swiss electronics duo
Sinner DC
and the eternally spaced
Sonic Boom
, aka
Peter Kember
. The live performance brought together
's refined touch for textural electronica and
Kember
's dazzled guitar work with mind-altering visuals, creating an experience to overtake the senses. The recorded document of
is just as powerful, taking its place in the long line of
's otherworldly psychedelic projects.
provide ambient sounds, programmed beats, and other dense waves of electronic information, and many songs are overlayed with surreal dialogue from disembodied narrators. This can be grim and shadowy, as with the gothy bass lines and echo-heavy percussion of "Ask for the Moon," or restrained and exploratory, as with the tumbling electronic tom rolls and pulsating synths of the almost-11-minute-long "All Rolled into One." One of the strongest pieces here is "All Show & No Go," and it's also one of the most reminiscent of
's work in
Spacemen 3
. Waves of tremolo-spliced guitar distortion drift over a steady electronic kick drum, pounding the song into oblivion until a voice that sounds dangerously close to
Lou Reed
's begins speaking at a shockingly loud volume over the rest of the mix.
is the sound of confusion, updated for a new generation. When it hits its marks, it can be just as beautifully damaged as anything
has done before, and just as mysteriously ominous as the rest of
's catalog. ~ Fred Thomas