U.S. Maple: Talker

It's not like U.S. Maple has no antecedents. The boundaries of what is listenable have already been stretched by the no-wavers of the late '70s, John Zorn's improv in the '80s, and Japanese noise in the '90s. Still, U.S. Maple stands out as an oasis in a bleak desert of cookie-cutter music. (One other predecessor that bears more than a casual mention is the band Shorty, from which most of U.S. Maple—including man-baby singer Al Johnson and guitarist-savant Mark Shippy—springs.) The band's new Talker is one of the most obliquely beautiful releases since, well, its previous album, Sang Phat Editor. On Talker, Johnson continues on the mission he started with Shorty: namely, to entertain, confuse, and amuse. From the start, he's a gibbering lunatic, layering non-sequiturs until the illusion of a grand unification theory of insanity is generated. No printed example can sufficiently encapsulate Johnson's perverse huckster/con-man style, nor can it evoke the rubbery, otherworldly guitar noises Shippy creates, save perhaps a comparison to a deteriorated Thurston Moore with more abnormal tunings and a tighter, seemingly unstructured structure. Talker is evasive, creepy, engrossing, and lovely, but it's also a bit more evocative than compelling, even if what it evokes will vary radically from listener to listener. No one sounds quite like U.S. Maple, and that's the greatest compliment you can pay a band these days. Still, the otherwise-unique group does deserve extra credit for Talker's emulation/appropriation of the Van Halen logo.