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Melt-Banana
Tags: Noise Rock, Legendary, Female Vocals, Japan

Okay so Melt-Banana is one of the most important noise rock bands ever, coming from the notoriously fertile scene in Japan. They tour relentlessly and when I saw them they were AWESOME! Surely they will come through SF so watch out.

This album is good and if you don't know Melt-Banana then you should play it. However, they're generally not breaking any new ground here. This is basically their Cell-Scape album but turned down a few notches. Half of the songs are mid-tempo, so that's actually fairly slow for these guys. Good stuff!!!

1.) (4:07) 90-second build up into upper-mid-tempo jam. Psych noises. Interesting rhythms near end.
2.) + + (2:15) uptempo rockin jam with cool rhythmic squeals and lots of guitar slides
3.) (1:27) Typical M-B but more straightforward / less weird noises
4.) (1:52) Feels like this has a harder edge than normal. A decent amount of stutters and other trademark M-B playfulness.
5.) (4:11) I swear I've heard this bass-line before.
6.) + + (3:41) Everything just clicks on this one. Kind of a post-metal vibe here.
7.) (2:06) Mostly silence, then frog noises. Don't play this on the radio.
8.) + (3:48) I actually like it when they go more slowly like this
9.) + + (2:04) Hang on to your face!!!
10.) + + + (1:42) Fast, diverse, noisy, classic
11.) (1:19) After those last two burners, this doesn't move me as much.
12.) + + + (3:45) Pretty interlocking stuttering guitar arpeggios! HAHA!!! Cheesy synthy vocals. Really accessible and catchy! This is 100% Japan.