by RAF KATIGBAK

To paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, “You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star… just ask at Michael Flatley.” Although the Lord of the Dance probably does know a lot about order out of chaos, the same can be said for Tokyo’s Melt Banana. With their erratic, high-octane blasts of bass and drums courtesy Rika Mmm’ and Oshima, twisted-to-fuck noise manipulations of guitarist Agata, and the chihuahua-on-crystal-meth vocalisms of female lead screamer Yasuko, Melt Banana is often lumped into the punk rock category. But given what passes for punk rock these days, one listen to any of their 40-plus releases and it’s clear these people offer way more than simple, three-chord, suburban brattiness. Over the phone from Delaware, the first stop on their sixth North American tour, lead singer Yasuko describes it rather poetically as “rhythm with machine gun and guitar that is like laser beam on all guitars.”

Infamous for their insanely tight, high-energy shows, Melt Banana’s last album Teeny Shiny saw a break from their classic raw recorded sound. “When we started the band we recorded what we do in the live show,” says Yasuko, “but these days we enjoy working on the other recording-type stuff.”

The result is a funky-punk, fastcore assault on the synapses, layered with lo-fi special effects ranging from turntable buggery to synth sounds and samples, all thrown into the million-RPM Melt Banana musical blender. When it comes to influences, Yasuko is quick to credit New York’s early ’80s no-wave scene. “Do you know the compilation No New York? When I listened to this compilation, I was really, really surprised, because it’s kind of old stuff, but it sounded very new and very fresh. So I kind of wanted to do something, I felt, so I started the band.” Although comparisons can easily be drawn to bands like the Contortions and Theoretical Girls, Melt Banana’s music is really in a hyper-kinetic league of its own. Mostly thanks to the out-of-this-world sounds wrung from Agata’s guitar and Yasuko’s insane yet catchy supersonic lyrical punctuation. “Naturally I had some influence from people like Fugazi and Mike Patton. I think he’s doing interesting stuff, when we played with Mr. Bungle we were influenced,” she says of their 1995 tour together. Also on her list of influences (which includes John Zorn, who recorded, mixed and released their 1999 live album on his Tzadik label) are American hip-pop acts like Cypress Hill and De La Soul. “When I was a kid I was into so-called pop music. Even now I listen to Destiny’s Child. Their album is good, I think.”

Although pop is the furthest thing from Melt Banana’s music, it was always lurking in the shadows, “We named ourselves Melt Banana because we just wanted to name it something pop, and we thought of banana from Andy Warhol and we thought, that’s pop!” :

With the Electric End at Jupiter Room
on Friday, Oct. 4, 9pm, $15

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