After U.S Maple’s first LP
Long Hair In Three Stages was released the band became known as ‘rock deconstructionists’. They disavowed this notion, arguing they were merely constructing things differently rather than deconstructing, but it's easy to see how it happened.
Long Hair in Three Stages is purposefully wonky and misshapen. It skronks instead of rocks and spoofs (and is aloof) to the point of absurdity. However it was still essentially identifiable as ROCK music (Letter To ZZ Top for example is undeniably a rock track, even if it is making fun of rock).
Talker on the other hand is arguably a deconstruction, or as the band prefers a ‘construction’ more robustly different than previous: the verse/chorus dichotomy is annihilated and ‘rockin’ moments are only ever intimated.
Talker is post-rock, in the sense that it features the instruments of rock but not the structures. Spindly stark and sinister guitarwork meanders about skittering percussion, and when the guitars spark up into a pale imitation of rhythmically directed life (an actual thing actually happening!) they still don't really resemble ‘riffing’.
Talker sounds like an experiment and a particularly sly and grim one at that (somewhat reminiscent of Slint). It should be noted that whereas the first two records were handled by Jim O’ Rourke of Sonic Youth fame,
Talker was handled by Michael Gira of Swans. From what I understand, Gira is a miserable git, and I can only assume his dour outlook bled into the album.
Talker is obstinate;
Talker is grey unrelenting abstraction. It is a black title on a black background. But at the same time it can be quite funny: the lurching roiling, ‘yeah ‘ yeah’ on the opener is such a glorious and apathetic piss-take it's clear there is still some of that sense of humour that pervaded
Long Hair In Three Stages. Furthermore, there's something fundamentally joyous about the weep-woop inflatable-funhouse bendy wonky guitar tone. Maybe it's because it demonstrates an unabashed acceptance of absurdity. Maybe its just funny in the same way ‘boing’ is innately funny.
Boing.
