CD Review: Charts and Maps "Enemies of C. Frias"

Differences of aesthetics and functional structure have traditionally divided otherwise analogous instrumentalists on either side of the genre demarcation between circuitous jam band roamings and patterned math/indie-rock, the latter often featuring compact technicalities while the former are noted specifically for their long groove tangents. Charts and Maps combine these contiguous yet rarely joined styles with typically math/post-rock instrumentation that sounds more casually festive than laboriously ponderous. The paradoxical rigor required to create this ostensible informality is never far from apparent, however, and the freely distributed Enemies of C. Frias EP impresses precisely because it sounds so easily accomplished.

The whole of the tonally cohesive EP is defined by clean, tight arpeggios characteristic of forwardly technical performers like Ian Williams, but the simple inclusion of a wah-wah peddle and an ear for grooves simultaneously imparts a relaxed conviviality evocative of spontaneous jam sessions. Though some extended jam ad-libbings tend to cycle repeatedly, Charts and Maps wisely veer to the math-rock side of this extemporization. Progressive song structures keeps each track moving across distinct passages both self-contained and logically connected to those before and after. The songs are not content to find a comfortable rut, wander and then return. Instead each song and each section contain a signature change, an added guitar, a newly accented note from the saxophone. None sound extraneous or, worse, boring.

Despite this structural variety, the dominant guitars, underlying bass, accentuating saxophone and everywhere-at-once drums fulfill roughly the same roles throughout the EP. You can generally expect some intertwined pull-offs, hammer-ons and assorted finger-tappings from the guitars, deeply stabilizing motifs on the bass, a saxophone that alternately connects and distinguishes oddly-timed notes and drums always challenging to head-nodders. Still, as the sublimely chiming second half of "Herd of Elephants" and the straight guitar solo at the end of "In the Town of the Machine" suggest, Charts and Maps can continue to surprise even when audiences have started to recognize their already innovative synthesis of technique and fun.

9/10

Enemies of C. Frias is available gratis as a download on Charts and Maps' MySpace.