Turning The Mind, the follow up to the Mercury Prize 2007 shortlisted début offers the listener a mixture of uplifting and ambient electro that 'explores themes related to the human mind.'
There is a definite retro feel with a lot of the loops and synth sounds harking back to the Eighties and some dance beats coming straight from the 90's rave era but there is certainly a good mixture of contemporary sounds in the mix as well, a lot of the tracks get a little epic and generally build up to very 'feel good' choruses, which I believe was the intention as the album title 'Turning The Mind' comes from the cognitive therapy practice of 'Mindfulness', which James Chapman aka Maps came across a few years ago, taught by Professor Marsha M. Linehan. It is a practice which, in simple terms, takes negative thoughts and turns them towards positive ones by accepting reality as it is, however bad it may be.
With quotes like that you can tell a lot of time and thought has gone into the creation of this album and there are some really strong tracks on this album, especially 'Let Go Of The Fear' and 'Love Will Come' when Chapman moves away from the dreamy synths and switches more to dance with a great beat sounding like a cross between Faithless and M83.
Turning The Mind also boasts some great artwork
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