{"id":41733,"date":"2009-10-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/unmap\/"},"modified":"2009-10-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T00:00:00","slug":"unmap","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/unmap\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmap"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m unequivocally biased, because I assume that anything Bon Iver \u2013 n\u00e9 Justin Vernon \u2013 is involved with will be brilliant. His debut, 2008\u2019s For Emma, <\/i>was stunning, evocative, and paradoxically managed to infuse warmth and heart into the chill of its wintry mood.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those albums designed to be worn down to its grooves. Vernon followed up with the Blood Bank <\/i>EP, a more experimental offering that was still a shot to the heart. His latest finds him pairing with Collections of Colonies of BEs on a collaboration that has been in the work since 2005, when the BEs crew toured with Vernon\u2019s previous band, DeYarmond Edison.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Where Vernon\u2019s previous work drew much of its strength from his soulful, deeply emotive vocals, this disc strips away nearly all of that lyricism, relying on instrumentals and atmosphere to create a sense of richness and dynamism.\u00a0 Similarly, where For Emma <\/i>was an album that was grappling with loneliness, Unmap <\/i>is a group effort, the sound of coming together and discovering something. It\u2019s exquisitely textured and experimental, but the music itself is given the space to breathe and evolve.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Opener \u201cHusks and Shells\u201d is a perfect example of this airiness, adding layer upon layer of reverb-soaked harmonies to an austere, plucked acoustic riff. Much of this material furthers the direction Blood Bank <\/i>set upon, and so it makes sense that \u201cWoods\u201d appears here as \u201cStill,\u201d a calmer, more expansive reincarnation\u00a0 awash with hushed drums and twinkling keyboards; Vernon\u2019s vocals are far more muted, existing alongside the slow-building instrumentation\u00a0 rather than dominating it. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

It can be difficult to make instrumentals engaging and able to stand on their own without vocals. But when all the pieces come together on Unmap,<\/i> it\u2019s really magical. \u201cSeeplymouth\u201d is one of those cuts, taking a jazzy, loose intro and layering on chiming guitars and melting riffs \u2013 until suddenly, after a sung passage from Vernon, it hits a cascading, crescendoing climax, all massive drums and voices wailing into oblivion. \u201cSeeplymouth\u201d is nearly seven minutes long but it\u2019s totally breathless and enthralling, a true testament to the talent this Wisconsin pairing brings to the table. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even more strikingly, \u201cSeeplymouth\u201d fades right into \u201cIsland, IS,\u201d one of the most traditional moments on the album (and its lead single).\u00a0 With keyboards circling serpentine in the background, Vernon sings mashed-up, strange sounding phrases (\u201cConserve it with an omelet \/ And you\u2019re on it with the carpet \/ And you solved it \/ Said you called it\u201d) that are intriguingly lovely, much like the rest of this disc. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

There are a few moments here that could\u2019ve been more refined, though. \u201cDote,\u201d for one, is just gaining steam before it abruptly segues into \u201cMbira in the Morass,\u201d another experiment that ends up being a bit trying. The awkward pace and uneven plucking of the mbira isn\u2019t enough texture to flesh out Vernon\u2019s straining vocals. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But for the most part, even a few less than stellar moments don\u2019t undercut the true beauty of this album. It\u2019s unexpectedly gorgeous, full of movement and vigor \u2013 and all that without concrete lyrics or a catchy chorus to hold on to. It\u2019s not disposable or breezy Top 40 music, but if you\u2019re a fan of Bon Iver or just looking for something new and unconventional, Unmap <\/i>is worth exploring.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8473],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41733","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-volcano-choir","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41733"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}