Parts & Labor - Mapmaker

Drawing on the sound of early SST albums by The Minutemen, Black Flag and Husker Du, Parts & Labor reconstruct rather than deconstruct the genre of hardcore punk. But this record is missing the anger that fueled much of the hardcore punk scene. In this way, the positive songs are uplifting and reminiscent of later Dischord bands or posi-core. I think Parts & Labor have been miscategorized as a noise band. While they use elements of noise, it is not for the purpose of structure, power or texture; instead, it’s the sound of a band sonically and intentionally interested in changing the sound of punk rock. Replacing heavy distortion, poor production, and cheap equipment with layers of synthetically and analogously produced noise.

The first song, “Fractured Skies,” speeds through at such a fast pace, it’s as if it was trying to catch up to Land Speed Record. Even the title sounds like a Husker Du song. “Vision of Repair,” the album’s strongest track, evokes the pit-utopia of hardcore shows. It has a chorus that could’ve been the anthem for so many straight edge bands, “We’ve got to tear it down to build it up again.” The band covers a Minutemen song, “King of the Hill,” but in its reformation it hardly resembles the original; substituting electronically altered guitars for the bouncy, goofy riff of the Minutemen version. Instead of the speak-sing delivery of D.Boon, Parts & Labor’s singer, starts off slow and calm building to the chorus until it explodes with excitement and anticipation.. There are many moments on this record that build on tension and then explode with force and release.

The title Mapmaker brings to mind the cartographer, rewriting the world as he or she envisions it; which in a way is the role of the musician. But the map is never a blank canvas; it is always a reworking of a previous map. We are constantly redrawing lines but never really starting over. This is what I hear in Mapmaker. Youth of Today got it wrong. It’s not about breaking down the walls. That part isn’t holding us back. It’s just an illusion. But Mapmaker is not about disillusion, because in a way, I find this record more hopeful than those poi-core records. Mapmaker sounds less naive.