MAP’s music is quite beautiful, all ethereal and moody - Playlouder

A thrilling multi-hued mix of spiked post/space/other rock that takes elements of Can or Gong or Hawkwind and kicks them way past the mark with pieces of things that taste like Tortoise, Arab On Radar, 90 Day Men, Cheer Accident, Sonic Youth, Sea Nymphs or..............

All the way through the 90's, since that debut 10" on ORG back around 1994, Map have been off on strange uncharted journeys - tours of America, collaborations and adventures with Spiritualized, Skree, Departure Lounge, La Momo - it would take us a month of Sundays to tell you bout it all (watch out for a feature in an upcoming Organ), all you need to know right now is that MAP's next move will happen on ORG Records. The next move will be a four track cd SINGLE. The single will come with a bonus or two so watch this space. Map have found their way home..... 

HERE ARE THE FULL DETAILS OF THE SINGLE
The single (PART 25 of the ORG-AN-ISED SINGLES SERIES) opens up with four rather fine Map tracks - 1.OLD RHINO BOOTS, 2.ZERO HI-FI, 3.LITTLE SKY ROCKETS and 4.MAD EVIL DOMESTIC and then tagged on to the end of the CD after the Map songs you’ll find ORGAN RADIO BONUS TRACKS JUST BECAUSE WE CAN and the tracks are 5: THE MURDER OF ROSA LUXEMBURG - VENEZUELA IS REALISED. 6: SICBAY - BASK AND BUBBLE, 7: THE MASS - TRAPPED UNDER A ICE,  8: SCHULTZ/ERIKSSON - FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY, 9: CAY – DON’T LET IT GO (previously unreleased demo track for the never released second album), 10: TIXE - C.C.T (demo), 11: THREE CHILDREN OF FORTUNE - HELLO STRANGER, 12: THE PURSUIT(S) - THIS SUMMER (demo), 13: JON POOLE - SWIM MY OWN BLOOD, 14: SKREE - CITY (recorded LIVE at an ORGAN show at the Camden Monarch in 1993). You can pre-order the 70 minute MAP single now and get it in the post straight away. Cost is just 2.00 pounds including postage or or or, why not subscribe to the ORG-AN-ISED SINGLES SERIES

MAP ARE:
Chris Anderson - bass, keyboards, woodwind, percussion, guitar, vox
Emil Smith - guitar, percussion, bass, vox
 

THE ALBUM - Recorded over times of personal and global distress, this album charts some of the stages of life which lead to a place where confusion becomes solid ground. "Genetic Malfunctions Triggered By Events" finds the duo augmenting their full-on bass/guitar noise with oboes, saxophone, piano, Casio synthesiser and flagolet. Some of the songs were initially recorded on four track and then taken to Wolsey White's Gran Tourismo Studio in Staines where others were recorded in their entirety. In an attempt to make sense of the confusing nature of things, "Genetic Malfunctions..." finds a place where sadness takes the form of numbness, love becomes an elusive ghostliness, anger and pain are transformed into unfocused hilarity, beauty contains inherent ugliness and uncertainty reigns supreme. As such there is a universality to be experienced as the world seeks out happiness in whatever ways it can find and there is a humanitarian warmth rooted in this understanding. We are all alone, together. That many lives are spent with these feelings, Map manage to shirk the expected miserabilism for a sense of celebration, with which comes release.

OK, HERE'S THE FULL STORY
Map were formed from the smoking wreckage of The Wilder Shores, an Anglo/Australian London-based band who had at some time or other had such luminaries as ex Birthday Party drummer Jeffrey Wegener and Louise Elliot from The Saints and Laughing Clowns fame. The often rotating lineup finally ended with drummer Simon Walker, guitar mangler Emil Smith and bass/sax player Chris Anderson (the others having moved on to pastures new including singer Steve Arland). These three met in a queue for Sonic Youth outside Harlesden's Mean Fiddler in 1986 and although they didn't get in to see the show, they bonded over the noise in the downstairs bar. 
The three continued getting together frequently at Show Me Studios, a psychedelically squatty dive of a place in Kentish Town for the next few years sometimes augmented by a second drummer Angus Duprey and other noisy mates. These freeform sessions were to later become something of a template for future Map songs as the noise evolved. 
The next stage was when drummer Simon went back to Australia and Chris and Emil started jamming in Emil's basement in St Thomas Road, Finsbury Park where they started sticking bits of jams together and creating a new music form, as they perceived it, later to become known as Pronk. 
By this time it was 1991 and Sarah Underdown entered the picture armed with a set of lungs and an eagerness to give these structures some verbal form so they went to La Rocka studios down Turnpike Lane regularly to make one unholy racket. Sarah also brought along her keyboard which started to open out the sound further. 
Enthralled by such contemporaries as Silverfish, Big Black, Henry Rollins Band and Primus, the group set about finding a drummer, eventually finding Michael Rother, a straight-edge Fugazi-style player with a jazz feel and the willingness to attempt some of the more wayward time signatures that the band utilised.  It was all about pushing the limits and not accepting the status quo. Flying through insane time changes at the speed of sound and splitting synapses at any given opportunity, but then soothing the ears with some gentler grooves before the next assault. 
Organ fanzine, a regular London underground publication with a love of amazing bands who didn't otherwise get the press, picked up on the first demo, came to see the band and then started booking gigs for them. They played with other exciting and interesting bands at these gigs like Cardiacs, Skree, Huge Baby, Poisoned Electric Head, Panixphere, Sea Nymphs, Wizards of Twiddly, Die Cheerleader, Experiment, Brain of Morbius, Gag, Buntychunks, Fear of Fear, Dangerous Bend Mirrors (to name but fourteen) at venues all over London. 
Map's first EP "Doesn't Always Get" came out as the fourth releases on Organ’s then newly formed offshoot record label ORG on 10 inch vinyl at which point they split up. Not the end of the story though... Map played their last gig as a four piece at The Junction in Cambridge, after which Michael Rother hooked up with Moonshake on drums and Sarah Underdown joined up with chanteuse, Pinkie MacClure, on keyboards. Chris Anderson got busy with lo-fi indie band Supermodel and Emil Smith started chilling with post rockers, Ember as well as Skree, the jazz inflected groove/noise freeformers with whom Map had often played.  MAP was still burning away on the inside though, and Chris and Emil started up their former noise therapy sessions again. This time there were no gigs, just a vague commitment to keep playing so long as the magic continued. Time passed, other bands came and went, Michael returned to Germany, Sarah too found herself there.  Supermodel burned brightly for a while bringing with it many airmiles and three albums before  burning out in financial despair. Meanwhile Map slowly plugged away with no constraints, knowing that a body of work was taking shape. ORG records put out the odd new Map track on their Organ Radio compilation series and people kept asking for more.  With Supermodel burnt out and panic attacks the norm, life became an endurance exercise until Chris had a baby daughter and got the hell out of London. Selling his flat, packing in his job and moving to Brighton proved to be the perfect alternative. Joining up with friends to form Departure Lounge was another, gentler form of therapy. Emil eventually made it down to the same town in 2003 by which time they had recorded the album "Genetic Malfunctions Triggered by Events".   Map recorded this album thanks to Wolsey White who was Supermodel‘s lead guitarist and had the same sonic sensibilities as Chris and Emil. He also had a recording studio. 
Moving  to Brighton has redefined Map ­ no longer victims of their environment there is always a direction to look in which is just nature (give or take the odd boat). With this comes a new sense of perspective ­ there are rehearsal rooms and studios everywhere, people smile more and the shops are better. It‘s a pleasure to get about instead of a nightmare, great bands come and play in smaller venues, fresh fish tastes so good and life‘s just starting to change. And the debut MAP album is ready to go on ORG Records.

"From the same coven of madmen who brought you Huge Baby (Org, an offshoot of the very fine Organ fanzine) comes this fine trolley-alienated glimpse of how the other half live. The half that sound like The Slits eating Siouxsie & The Banshees for breakfast while high on crack. And who can blame them?" NME

AN ORGAN REVIEW FROM THE VERY EARLY 90'S

The demo arrived and two minutes later we'd sorted them out a gig. Map deserve their brilliant name (and incidentally they first came to our attention because their flyers looked so good). They make dirty bassy guitar punk-prog (don't blame me, blame Lewi from Skree, he called it Pronk the other day) and although you might flippantly dub it trash Cardiacs (no insult), there's far more to it than that. Map have things like a sick fairground waltz attacked by a bad tempered surarking brat of a fuzz guitar, their TV organ popping up cheesily between its hornet-like assaults. They change times effortlessly, skipping through one odd tempo after another with less of a sense of jerkyness than you'd imagine. Sarah sings and plays keyboards; her deep voice and thick, dirty guitar hybridise with the occasional Ring-like changes and fairground bits to make something rather distinctive and wonderful. There's a dark eastern thread running through much of the songs, which they often alternate with a burst of rock'n'roll. "Wierd Hedge" is a soddin' epic, ten songs in one which in my book means value for money. And their "Suck It And See" starts with a melody identical to "The Horse Scissors" by Bunty Chunks, which is a lovely coincidence and a sign if ever there was that this is a form of music whose time has come. 

SOME MORE ORGAN STUFF FROM 1994

MAP have their debut 10" EP out on ORG in APRIL. DOESN'T ALWAYS GET is its name and it gives you four tracks and fine ear food. Meanwhile, Map play the Monarch on March 7th, the Bull & Gate on March 10th with Casper Brotzmann, the Robey on March 14th, the Garage on March 20th and then... WAIT AND SEE.... We could tell you why we've decided to put out a Map single but the answer is simply because we love 'em... we could tell you who other people  have compares them to so you get a vague idea... names like Truemans Water, God Is My Co-Pilot, PJ Harvey, Frightwig, NoMeansNo; of course these are only vague comparisons to give you a rough idea... Nah, vague comparisons aren't good enough, we've just got back from their best gig yet, so we must tell you more. Singer Sarah darts around the stage like a big flame, she's ferocious in a very female way, she's contrasted by the shy giant cradling a guitar that is by turns melodic and blistering. There's an incredible health and vitality to Map. Each song goes through a whole series of textures and tempos, yet thet's absorbing, not distracting; No, there aren't really any comparisons; they exist as a band in their own right. The 10" EP "Doesn't Always Get" will be out in early  April, a limited edition of 1000 in wrap-around hand painted cover.  Sean Worrall – Organ (1994) 
 

ORG404           OLD RHINO BOOTS EP - Map tracks - 1.OLD RHINO BOOTS, 2.ZERO HI-FI, 3.LITTLE SKY ROCKETS and 4.MAD EVIL DOMESTIC and then tagged on to the end of the CD after the Map songs you’ll find ORGAN RADIO 21 BONUS TRACKS JUST BECAUSE WE CAN and the tracks are 5: THE MURDER OF ROSA LUXEMBURG - VENEZUELA IS REALISED. 6: SICBAY - BASK AND BUBBLE, 7: THE MASS - TRAPPED UNDER A ICE,  8: SCHULTZ/ERIKSSON - FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY, 9: CAY – DON’T LET IT GO (previously unreleased demo track for the never released second album), 10: TIXE - C.C.T (demo), 11: THREE CHILDREN OF FORTUNE - HELLO STRANGER, 12: THE PURSUIT(S) - THIS SUMMER (demo), 13: JON POOLE - SWIM MY OWN BLOOD, 14: SKREE - CITY (recorded LIVE at an ORGAN show at the Camden Monarch in 1993)

ORG399 - CD album "GENETIC MALFUNCTIONS TRIGGERED BY EVENTS" - Tracks: Zero HiFi/Old Rhino Boots/Bloody Murder/Little Sky Rockets/White Suitcase/Immortality Blues/Larks And Rays/Mod Evil Domestic/Lexington KY/Half Baked Suburban Tranny.