Cartography

Racoon Moon EP

Written by: PP on 01/03/2012 15:05:37

Cartography are a tiny band from Michigan, whose seven track EP "Racoon Moon" has been slowly making progress in my review queue for all too long. They play a raw brand of indie-flavored garage rock that has rough, lo-fi production values, and describe it themselves to have a "blatant disregard for what is known, popular and hip, but somehow retains some familiarity".

That's an accurate statement to some extent. There's certainly nothing chart-topping or mainstream about their release, but yet it's difficult to escape the afterthought of "well, that sounded quite a bit like The Strokes on their early days" when you're done listening to their record. Just as other small bands like them, notably Biography of Ferns, The Mojomatics, The Movements, or The Safes (search for the reviews here on RF.net), the slightly distorted vocal effects and the occasionally playful guitar tones should immediately draw your head towards The Strokes material, but nowhere else is this clearer than on EP highlight "Your Megaphone Is Unnecessary", which has potential to take this band to places if proper production was applied to it.

That said, Cartography are careful enough to avoid a clone label, and inject other elements like rock'n'roll twang, The White Stripes-esque stuff, and other things into their mix to stick out a little bit. It may not be enough to help listeners escape the Strokes comparison, but then again, why should that be a bad thing? A little more work into the melodies and the production, and Cartography will be a band for you to start pay attention to. They are already that if you're into discovering bands at a very, very early stage of their career, such as the other names already mentioned in this review.

6

Download: Your Megaphone Is Unnecessary
For the fans of: The Strokes, Biography of Ferns, The Mojomatics, The Movements, The Safes
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 20.08.2011
Self-Released

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