August 12th, 2013 
Adrian Garza 
Artist: Maps For Travelers
Album: Change Your Name
Genre: Real Post-Hardcore
Label: No Sleep Records
Before any other genre, jazz music will always have its dominance over Kansas City, and while Maps For Travelers will likely never share the stage with modern acts such as Pat Metheny or Robert Glasper, this new addition to No Sleep Records’ roster has put together a really innovative and progressive album that’s truly fitting to the region they come from. Change Your Name comes as the band’s follow up release since their series of singles in 2011, and the maturation since then has been massive.
The opening guitars on “Good Life” could be described as purely jarring and neurotic. Conveying much of an influence by 90s post-hardcore legends Quicksand, the track gives the perfect example of what’s to come in the nine tracks that follow. While it may sound like an oxymoron, much of the tracks of the album display something that I’d like to label as “safe experimentation.” Inspired by the pages from the best-selling books published by indie and emo bands from the 00s, there’s a lot to take in that comes in sequentially from several directions of the musical genre spectrum. Tracks incorporating trumpet bits come followed with full blown grunge rock songs, and atmospheric delay-smothered slow songs precede modern rock tunes that could’ve been written by Alice In Chains themselves. Of course, this all ends with one of the most simple songs on the album, “They’re Learning Fast,” a track that adds somber piano lines with choral-esque gang vocals.
On the vocal end, Zach Brotherton and RL Brooks partner together and deliver performances that could be best described as full, complete, and easily digestible. Even the screams and shouts that spring up on tracks like “Life On Repeat” don’t appear as too forced, and the actual singing has just the right degree of highs and lows to give it a well-rounded sound. All of the expressions and emotions brought out, regardless of the techniques used, are paired as solidly to the lyrics as a cup of steaming hot coffee with fresh donuts.
In my personal opinion, the production on Change Your Name meets (but doesn’t beat) the scene average. Which by that, I mean that it does sound pretty far from perfect, but it’s above what many would consider an “acceptable” quality. There’s not one moment where attention is directed towards an instrument where the thought “oh my gosh, listen to that ____!” comes to mind, but maybe that’s not exactly a bad thing, everything becomes centered more towards what’s really important about this album: the music itself.
It might be a couple of years before MFT fully establish themselves, but after they get some bigger tours and festivals under their belts, you better believe that I, for one, am already making room in our record collections for future releases, starting first with an album that’s packed with soft and aggressive surprises amongst 11 unique tracks: Change Your Name.
Rating: 8/10
Reviewed by: Adrian Garza (Follow on Twitter)
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