Zach May and the Maps can be a difficult band to get a hold of. Case in point: this review has been delayed due to there being no image of the album cover available on line, and so you get the atrocious snap from yours truly’s flip phone. I should probably take into account that many of the band members are also music students, and would probably rather practice and study than upload images to a Facebook page. Maybe the Champaign-Urbana indie scene is over-mediated and needs to put down it’s collective iPhone and get off of Twitter. In the end, I suppose that web presence has fuck-all to do with the band’s actual music, and Vantage Points is pretty sweet. Point being that Zach May and the Maps are a band that prefer to be conservative in their bestowment of gifts. Their live shows are relatively rare, and their recorded output even more so.
Accordingly, Vantage Points clocks in at a little over thirteen minutes, and that it contains one song, “This is the End”, already released on last year’s Saffron Canal EP, albeit in a different form. Recorded in the U of I Music Building, the sound quality is warm and impeccably detailed. Even on a pair of somewhat questionable pair of laptop speakers,.small details reveal themselves, and it sounds downright awesome on a decent home stereo. Musically, the arrangements and composition on Vantage Points displays a strong classical influence, which is refreshing when compared to the indie rock norm — you can only go to so many Dirty Feathers shows before you just need to hear a plain old major triad. That’s not to say Vantage Points is unflinching in it’s adherence to musical theory, but the band’s classical background adds a sense of purpose and sure-handedness that I miss with a lot of other music.
Stream “This is the End”
While “This is the End” does a great job of capturing the soaring percussion and guitar that make the band’s live shows such an amazing time, “Wisconsin” and “Morning Has Broken” point to a more nuanced studio approach, as May’s latin influences — he studied in both Mexico City and Sweden before forming the band — come through loud and clear in the almost-flamenco sections of “Morning Has Broken”. While there are occasional hints pedestrian folk, the band are apt enough to mix things up when necessary, and the huge peak of “Wisconsin” is a bountiful payoff. “Morning Has Broken” lets the band’s string section (three violins, plus a cell) stretch out and improvise at bit, which yields similarly excellent results.
Zach May and the Maps perform this Friday (April 15th) at the Illinites Music Festival along with Santah, Gold Motel, Elsinore and others. Tickets are $10 at the door. The show is FREE