Reviewed on 22nd November 2005.

Melt Banana

Live at Joseph's Well on Friday, 18th November 2005

Extreme. Noise. Terror. Three superb words and once put together, one racket mungously loud outfit, and arguably the forefathers of Melt Banana, who have taken ENT's blueprint and booted it into outer space with extra electro madness. By the time they take the stage, these four small unassuming Japanese noiseniks, the venue bit of the Well is as solid as I have seen it for a long time. But in a strange twist of the review, we'll discuss main support Khanate. The stage setup looks impressive enough - a bass cab that's big enough to house a family of 6 belts out fierce, ear ripping notes. When the songs, and I use the word song with reservation here, begin, the bpm count barely reaches 10. One man squeals random vocals, the drummer occasionally makes an appearance and the crowd are transfixed in regimented rows. Halfway through the first verse, approx 5 mins in, I try to understand what the point of all this is and my reviewing colleague phones up for some internal organ insurance - they put the phone down on him. There's not many bands doing this sort of turn I'm guessing and what sort of turn it is is uncertain. Performance slothcore death metal, tortoise hardcore? Fuck knows. Your milkman could probably whistle one of their tunes, but only if his round lasted a week and the produce was long life. Talking after to people, it's a split between ace and shit.

Fortunately, Melt Banana have remembered the golden adage that songs generally have some sort of structure, every now and then, like. From the moment they take the stage, a moshpit appears and the stage becomes a blur as the band serrate their way through song after song, most of which have too many ideas to deal with at once. Good. Taking a break for a collection of 3-30 second songs, a nice touch, heats the crowd up further, and by the end, smiles are plentiful and ears are ringing. It's a travesty that this band are virtually unknown in their own country, but to our advantage that they are so welcome in ours. Take them to your hearts and for the uninitiated out there, I point you towards the Hedgehog collection LP that's been released recently.