Genre: Rock/Ambient-acoustic Year: 2003 Country: USA Official Site: Imaginary Maps Details: Tracks & Audio Label: Way Sign Records
Imaginary Maps (IM) is not a real band. At least that's what its official biography says. And after reading the credits on its debut album, one can conclude that it is in fact the solo project of VEO, a multi instrumentalist from Washington State who, eager to pursue his musical ideals, is not afraid to act alone. VEO is involved in every single thing concerning his album, which is not a bad thing bearing in mind the quantity of masterminds that do their work alone (take Beck, for example). That of course shows how strong VEO's will of creating is, and in the following lines we will see if his talent is as strong as his determination.
Through this collection of songs, the best accomplishment of IM is the actual creation of the sense of space, the making of a personal geography. Perhaps, VEO understood this from the beginning and hence the name of his project. "California you" could be the top moment of the album: the bluesy guitar and the nocturnal temper reminds one of a desert at night. "Fall Apart" is a moody and at the same time a cathartic piece of music with a very gloomy and well-done synthesizer line: Veo's voice is here at its best, this kind of emotive melody gives the impression to be perfect for his voice registry. "Go away" and "Showdown" come in the same vein of ambient-acoustic pieces, which illustrate the British influences in IM and VEO's ability of turning those acoustic ballads into an atmospheric experience.
However, ambition is an overly strong temptation occasionally, and there are times when the IM try taking on too much. The opener "Pieces" is an electric blues reminiscent of Gomez which starts like a tale of intimate decadence, but ultimately lacks of brightness and purpose. The production, which shines in the most relaxed moments reaching moments of crystal like sound, falls short in the strongest ones, when everything becomes a bit too saturated. And this feeling of perplexity accentuates in "Air Raid" which reminds one of the experiments of Radiohead and doesn't totally get together being a very flat song, which demonstrates that IM is in fact more successful constructing songs than deconstructing them.
Although filling the space that Gomez seemed to occupy for a very brief moment some years ago is another deep temptation, IM achieve better results as an ambient-acoustic act than as a John Lee Hooker's legatee. Imaginary Maps might not be the place in which you will want to spend your whole life, but you could certainly find some attractive spaces in its landscape.
Imaginary Maps Imaginary Maps
