U.S. Maple

Why noise purveying label Skin Graft label let U.S. Maple get away is anyone’s guess, considering some of the freaks and musical terrorists they employ. U.S. Maple play a weird combination of jangly guitar chords, minimalist drumming and noisy leads, which roughly translates as the sonic equivalent of bugs crawling on your skin. Tie it all together with some incredibly strange, sometimes whispered, sometimes spoken, rarely sung vocals and you have the making of one twisted CD. Although, as much as U.S. Maple decry structure and rhythm, elements of each, along with melody can be detected on Talker, although mutilated and barely recognisable — they’ll never be mistaken for a pop band. In these days of boring pap clogging the airwaves and draining music of any and all edge, it is good to see a band so far out in leftfield that trying to understand them, even in a noise context, is an exercise in futility.