airportexpress feat.Itsuneko - BIRTH by Chloe

i love chloe

thinking about chloe on this blessed sunday 01:26:221 (7,8,9,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,1,2,3,4,5,1) -

still a legend 2014 map

shredcore

01:01:388 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2) - this pattern rizzed me up aint Gon lie

02:40:054 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1) - don't care

this is what happens if u chew five gum

2014

so cum

cool i guess

it's by no means an unsubtle map, but one thing that is delightfully unsubtle about it is its sense of unrelenting drive. it doesn't let up for even a second. crucially, when the song slows down at 00:18:721 (1) - chloe keeps spacing and sv relatively high, and this sets the tone for the rest of the map. at 02:40:054 (1) - many other mappers would dissemble and break up the section with patterns and kicksliders to follow the guitar. but chloe elects to follows the spirit of the law rather than the letter, and we're subjected to the blunt force trauma of a double deathstream that is perfectly in keeping with the fearlessly direct approach of the map.

the other thing so instrumental to the atmosphere of the map is how structured its distance spacing is. it's the "subtlety of unsubtlety"; a very curious paradox. he paints in broad strokes and doesn't fiddle with the minutia of patterns--distances are large and constant, sliders long and powerful, jumps come in neatly ordered shapes, streams are unfussy and straightforward, slider arrangements are ostensibly as conventional as they come. and yet, with all these blunt, almost obvious patterns, chloe somehow manages to express the more subtle aspects of the song.

neither of these are choices that would necessarily work in many or even most other songs, which makes it all the more delightful that they fit so perfectly in this one.

and that's not to say that's all there is to the map either. a plucky attitude alone doesnt achieve anything without great patterns to give it substance. listen to how these patterns function with the song:
00:17:722 (1,2,3,4,5,1) -
00:26:721 (1,2,3,4,5,6) -
00:29:388 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1) -
00:34:721 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3) -
01:02:721 (1) - 01:41:388 (1) - he uses these kinds of abnormal sliders sparingly so they're all the more effective when they do pop up
01:05:388 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3) - the line of circles cutting through the middle of the song is fantastic
01:16:054 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,1,2,1) -
01:18:721 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) - counterclockwise, followed by 01:21:388 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5) - clockwise
01:27:721 (1,2,3,4,1,1,2,3,4,5,1) - that feeling of structure
01:37:388 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2,1,2,1,2) - again
01:40:054 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - 02:06:721 (1,2,3,4,5) - 02:17:388 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1) - he loves these, i love these

i mean, i could go on pointing out patterns forever. and it's not that any of these patterns are individually gamechanging, it's the overwhelming amount of them and the unwavering faithfulness to structure, coupled with plain good music sense, that produces a beautiful accumulatory effect. this map is also surprisingly rich in that specific flavor of mapping that asian countries in particular are so good at, and is also so hard to describe: a delicate balance between line and curve that implies the horizontal/vertical axes without referring to them directly.

dont know if any of that made sense, these concepts are some of the hardest concepts in mapping to translate into words, at least for me. but these are fun to write.

"chloe's best map cuz it's fun" - skystar

chloe just killed this one

chloe put CRACK in this map

timeless map

hard agree and the rhythm improvisation is so good i never noticed a lot of the 1/4 isn't actually in the song

This map is so damn solid. I look at this map and just think everything is exactly where it should be