Maps and Diagrams: Atoms in your head

It was tough going gathering songs for this mix…

There’s a lot of good music in similar styles about at the moment which made it hard to narrow it down to the 16 songs which have been included.

Material for the mix features some building blocks by the likes of Oval, Moebius and Kluster: these artists have been a shining light throughout the years, and I always get drawn to their back catalogues finding a connection with the music being released currently that is without question inspired by these pioneering artists.

The songs featured are all on rotation at regular intervals here with the more current releases featured in the mix using elements of the aforementioned artists but also dub-based influences from the likes of Ekoplekz and Forest Swords and more electronic production techniques used by Matthewdavid, VHS Nite and Rumpistol, these artists are still pushing the limits in terms of production and style. – Tim Martin (Maps and Diagrams)

Track List:

Kluster – Eruption
Scissors and Sellotape – Heal
Oval – The Politics of digital audio
Area C – Felt, not seen
Forest Swords – Miarches
Dolphins into the Future – Neutral Buoyancy
Pedro Magina – Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Ekoplekz – Arkrite
Rumpistol – Don’t go
VHS Nite – VHS Nite
Matthewdavid – Like you mean it
Mandelbrot & Skyy – System R
Skyphone – Quetzal Cubicle
The Fun Years – Get out of the obese crowd
Leyland Kirby – Neon lit atoms
Moebius – Bleifuss

………………………………….

The Voices Of Time

The reputation garnered by a slew of excellent releases on labels such as Static Caravan, Fluid Audio, Smallfish, Moamoo and Symbolic Interaction has made each Maps and Diagrams release an event within itself, inspiring a mixture of anticipation and excitement. Once again, this latest album from UK based Tim Martin exceeds expectations and delivers an excursion through the artist’s vast imagination, this time made available by Handstitched.

The Voices of Time opens with Your Weakness and Martin signals his intentions by weaving together various sound sources with meticulous care, guitar usually holding centre stage. The organic lo-fi beauty of Your Weakness and indeed, on each of the tracks which follow, bring to mind recent output from musicians such as Taylor Deupree, Marcus Fischer and Offthesky, all artists who work in an unusual and unique way with audio, but nonetheless create music which has some cohesion when taken as a whole. One feels that there should be almost another term coined to describe this genre within a genre which comprises found sounds and broken melodies to make music which is less about the destination reached and more focused on the journey taken.

On an album of innumerable highlights, title track The Voices of Time is as fine a moment as any to note as possible apex, with gentle piano notes rolling atop a shifting foundation of guitar, synth and drones, peppered with static throughout – though in truth any such track could be chosen at random with similar results, such as the gentle floating ambience of Letraset Addiction or the abstract experimentalism of Three Blows To The Mind. The Voices Of Time is an album without fault and is a joy to experience.

This is not an album to be thrown on while jogging or doing the dishes, or at least to do so would be missing the point. Rather, The Voices of Time should be enjoyed as a whole in one sitting, enabling one to lose track of time and become immersed in the sonic memories which the artist so generously shares with us here.

The Voices of Time comes packaged in case-bound CD covers, stencilled with a Japanese Plum Blossom stencil and individually hand-stamped. Release date: May 27. – Adam Williams

Copies available via Stashed Goods

www.handstitched.net