Soundboard

Unmap unfolds

Tyler Griggs |

Pitchfork.com, the music news and reviews website that helped catapult Justin Vernon into the international eye as Bon Iver has produced their review of Vernon's lastest musical endeavor.

Volcano Choir is Vernon's collaboration with Milwaukee post-rockers Collections of Colonies of Bees. Together they constructed Unmap, released Sept. 22, an album which Pitchfork reviewer Mark Richardson refers to as "a short album of experimental pop."

  • Words mean very little, and there's not much in the way of verses or choruses. Instead, Vernon's voice becomes a texture, a tool for shading the tracks and bringing them into focus. Collections of Colonies of Bees, who have over the last couple of records proven to be the rare instrumental rock band with ideas about how to keep things both surprising and musical, bring Vernon into their world, which turns out to be a very good thing.

Richardson scores Unmap with an 8.3 out of 10 and the album sits at 2nd place in Pitchfork's list of Best New Albums. The high rating recalls a similarly high rating for Vernon when Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago scored an 8.1 with the tastemaker almost two years ago. Metacritic.com measures the album 76/100 based on 10 critics, suggesting "Generally favorable reviews" and SputnikMusic.com sees Unmap at 3.4/5, or "Great".

You can listen to "Island, IS" from Unmap on Volcano Choir's MySpace profile. What do you think? How does it measure against Vernon's or COCOB's previous work? Are these reviews right on or totally off the mark?