Leaving Your Body Map

The second half of Maudlin Of The Well's two-album masterwork, Leaving Your Body Map is a little heavier and more difficult than first part Bath, but with patience stands just as tall. The songs are a little more abstract and complex, with bookending tracks Stones Of October's Sobbing and Monstrously Low Tide chugging away through mid-paced, challenging prog-death. Whereas Bath was instant love for me, Leaving Your Body Map took it's time, tracks like The Curve That To An Angle Turn'd and the two-part Riseth He, The Numberless taking their time to burrow into my brain and reveal their brilliance. I definitely can't guarantee that Leaving Your Body Map will enamour you in the same way as Bath did. But despite this record's heavy-going nature, there are still some great songs here. Gleam In Ranks is one of the most flat-out fun tracks Toby Driver has written, with odd guitar riffs and those funny little piano runs bursting into angular jazz-thrash. Sleep Is A Curse is the obligatory acoustic track, Driver's plaintive vocals backed by intricate guitar work. However, the album is still marked out by its epics. And these pieces of music are just as remarkable. They cover every aspect of Maudlin Of The Well's music, from the ominous intro to Riseth He, The Numberless to Monstrously Low Tide's happy, upbeat middle section. Keyboardist Jason Byron's lyrics are suitably grand and dramatic, weaving tales of epic romance and weird poetry which both Driver and Maria-Stella Fountoulakis deliver with conviction. Toby Driver uses his growls far more frequently, while in contrast Fountoulakis sounds more angelic than ever. And as Monstrously Low Tide plays us out as gently as The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qlipthoth played us in some two hours previous, I am stunned that a group of such young musicians could make such a deep, multi-faceted pair of records. Despite cheap equipment and demo-quality production (the keys on Bizarre Flowers/ A Violent Mist sound especially low-budget) sheer talent and ability wins out. The band went something of a metamorphosis from here on out, losing several members and going on to bigger things as Kayo Dot. And as much as I love the expansive soundscapes of Kayo Dot, there's still a part of me that wants Toby Driver to make another album as experimental, varied and progressive as Bath and Leaving Your Body Map. Maudlin Of The Well, we hardly knew ye...