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Originally going under the name Short Break Operator, Maps is essentially Northampton U.K. sound sculptor James Chapman, who combines indie electronic sounds with atmospheric, sleepy rock that owes as much to Spiritualized and My Bloody Valentine as it does to Four Tet and Boards of Canada.
After realizing that music was his first love, in 2005 Chapman bought a 16-track recorder and began making songs inspired by Spacemen 3 and the Beloved. EPs such as Start Something, which was released via Last Space Recordings in 2006, led to Chapman signing to Mute Records. The label released Maps' 2007 debut album, We Can Create, which was co-produced by Valgeir Sigurosson (Björk) and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós). The more electronically inclined Turning the Mind, which explored the concepts of mindfulness and the way the mind reacts to different stimuli, arrived in fall 2009. Chapman further honed his sound on 2013's Vicissitude, which featured some of his catchiest and most electronic-based songs to date. The following year the remix collection Realigned, which featured some of the best reworkings of all of Maps music to date and included contributions from Andy Stott, M83 and the Field among others, arrived. ~ Kenyon Hopkin