Music News - The Map Room release sophomore album 'Weatherless'
07 April 2017 - 0 Comments
New Zealand synth pop duo The Map Room are proud to release their sophomore album Weatherless today.
While their self-titled debut album addressed themes of displacement and motion
inspired by the duo’s travels through South America, Weatherless explores the struggle and endeavour for clarity and being ‘truly present’, as
time relentlessly marches on and we are constantly reminded of our past and
future.
From the pulsing opener Colour,
to the driving first single Other
Animal and the looping pulse of Hold Me Up To The Sun, Weatherlessis full of infectious melodies, experimental production and head-nodding
rhythms, pushing the bands sound in new directions while staying true to the
foundations laid in their debut.
Band mates Simon
Gooding and Brendon
Morrow found themselves living in different cities, working on
demos separately and meeting up every few months for intensive writing sessions
and preproduction.
“During our last record, we only had guitars with us so we had to write with
those, and while I think that was helpful in building strong songs, this time
it was important to start with a beat or synth line and begin experimenting
with different sounds”, says Morrow. “It was also helpful to get away from the
instrument we were most comfortable with to free yourself from all that history
and muscle memory”.
The band toured India in late 2015 as part of the NH7 Weekender Festival, road
testing the new material and reworking several songs to capture a more live
energy. Back in New Zealand, they recorded the 11 songs with drummer Andrew Keegan and
bass player Jared
Kahi, combining live performances with programmed samples and
studio experimentation.
Produced and recorded entirely by the band, Weatherless explores themes of
optimism, positivity and being present and awake in each moment. “Over the last
couple of years, I started to feel like I was constantly either looking forward
to the future, or reminiscing about the past. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by
how fast time flies, it’s good to stop and think about what’s really going on
around you, right then and there,” Gooding says.
The band employed UK artist Matthew
Cooper, (Caribou, Franz Ferdinand) to create the album artwork.
“We wanted something bright and colourful to match how we felt the music was
sounding, but also something abstract and a bit warped. The final pieces
totally blew us away.”
Weatherless is now available for purchase from iTunes and all good digital service providers
with CDs available from all good record stores and at live shows. Vinyl
copies will be available later in the year.
The Map Room Weatherless album release shows:
Friday April 7th - Whammy Backroom, Auckland - tickets from UTR
Saturday April 8th - Meow, Wellington - tickets from UTR
"...Weatherless is a lush, layered album driven by bouncing, thoroughly danceable tracks...anchored by strong songwriting and the pair's great vocals." ***1/2
James Belfield, NZ Listener
" tasteful, intelligent, refined and appealing songs – often with their blue-eyed soul in the Eighties -- are the Map Room's forte, and they again deliver that."
Graham Reid, Elsewhere
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