Making Maps: DIY Cartography

Q: What tunes did you listen to while making Making Maps?

A: iTunes was essential software for the completion of Making Maps. I have always listened to music while making maps, but have never been able to listen to music while doing other work. Curious. Various and sundry tunes wafted in the background whilst I worked on all the graphics, but a few stand out, mostly because they embody the quirky, hard to pin down qualities I tried to embody in Making Maps. A pair of CDs I have never stopped listening to – since I bought them decades ago – are the last two CDs by Talk Talk, Sprit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991). Best known for its early 1980s start as a Duran Duran wannabe band, Talk Talk mutated into something weird and inexplicable in the late 1980s. While I revisit some of my college-era tunes occasionally, most all sound somewhat dated (and I am not old enough to get nostalgic yet). But not these two Talk Talk cds. A more recent CD that embodies the same spirit (and drummer) as Talk Talk is Bark Psychosis and their recent ///Codename:DustSucker. There is nothing similar about Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis but they are very similar. One more and I will stop: n.Lannon. Now I am not a big fan of folk music. And I am not a big fan of techno. But n.Lannon put them together on Chemical Friends and the outcome (Folktronica, I guess) is irresistible to anyone making hundreds of quirky maps.