Scratch or Stitch (1996)
7
Plot in a Pot / Scratch or Stitch! / Sick Zip Everywhere / Disposable Weathercock
/ Ten Dollars a Pile / Ketchup-Mess / Buzzer #P / Rough Dogs Have Bumps /
Iguana in Trouble / It's in the Pillcase / Test: Ground 1 / Zoo, No Vacancy
/ A Finger to Hackle / Type B For Me / His Name Is Mickey (At Last She Got
Him…) / Back to the Womb / I Hate It! / What Do You Slaughter Next? / Eye-Q
Trader / Dig Out! / Contortion Out of Confusion / Pigeons On My Eyes (Go to
Bed!!!)
Even
though 90% of their songs are short outbursts of anarchic, contortionist noise-core
(here, 22 songs rush by in 31 minutes), the majority of them are also incredibly
tight and yasuko O.'s vocals are always a blast, as she sounds like a 12-year-old
drill sergeant bitten by a rabid Pekinese. Her ecstatic shrieks become fucking
annoying after a while, but they're also unlike anything else you've never
heard before. If you think the voices of Victoria Williams, Björk and Joanna
Newsom are already an acquired taste, approach this album with extreme caution.
Everything I said about the live album below (actually the first Melt Banana
album I heard) can also be applied to this album, although the live one actually
sounds a bit better and does a better job at fooling you they're actually
a unit with diverse material. Scratch or Stitch, recorded by Steve
Albini and Jim O'Rourke, sounds forceful, but also a bit muffled and samey
in places, making it also less interesting to check out Agata's hysteric guitar
freak-outs (spastic howls, scratching, shrieking, etc). Even though you'll
have a hard time to understand a single word, the booklet actually includes
lyrics to all the songs. IN ENGLISH! As could've been expected, the lyrics
are as insane as the music (example: "Neat meat bleats / repeat great pork
/ velvet, dragnet, trumpet / who speaks to him?" in "Iguana in Trouble"),
but it's great stuff to read along when the album's ragin' like hell. Scratch
or Stitch is fun, but only if you're a bit insane, and that's all you
need to know.
MxBx 1998/13000 Miles at Light Velocity (1999)
8
Scratch or Stitch / Rragg / Wedge / Seesaw Semiology / Circle-Jack (Chase
the Magic Words, Lego Lego) / Sick Zip Everywhere / Disposable Weathercock
/ Mind Thief / Blandished Hatman / Iguana in Trouble / Tapir's Flown Away
/ His Name Is Mickey (At Last She Got Him…) / We Love Choco-Pa / Some Kind
of ID / Stick Out / Scrubber / Screw, Loose / First Defy / So Infilial Rule
/ Spathic! / Picnic in Panic / It's in the Pillcase / Surfin' USA / Bad Gut
Missed Fist / Keychup-Mess / Plot in a Pot
For
a European like me (a dude from the "old continent"), Japanese (pop) culture
definitely has a certain appeal. I'm not sure - I've never even been close
to Japan, nor have I read socio-cultural treatises, etc - but it seems to
me that universal themes like sex and violence are treated in an altogether
different matter. The Japanese seem cruder and fearless explorers of the outer
limits of such topics, which is also noticeable in the publications/bands/artists
that manage to cause controversy in the Western world. Just think of filmmaker
Kitano Takeshi and the legions of obscure cinematographers Tarantino openly
flirts with, their most popular export product manga; but also the
emergence of a bunch of pioneering bands like Zeni Geva, The Boredoms and
Ground Zero, who raised the bar for noise bands. Also John Zorn - continually
breaking down stylistic and sonic barriers - has a notorious fondness of the
country and its culture. It's no surprise then, that Japanese noise-core outfit
Melt Banana would eventually release an album on Zorn's Tzadik label, which
in the meantime even created a "New Japan"-series. MxBx 1998/13000 Miles
at Light Velocity was recorded live in the studio and when you hear it
for the first time, you'll either have your jaw dropping to the floor (that
would be my reaction) or you'll totally freak out and run to the volume button
as fast as you can to turn the goddamn thing off (that would be my girlfriend,
Ms. Nervous). This album is so fast, hyper and energetic it'll blow you off
your socks. 26 songs in 39 minutes, six of 'em running longer than 120 seconds,
eight of 'em clocking in in less than 40 seconds. You might compare 'em to
the ultra-core that burst out of the scene after the mergence of Napalm Death
and their shock-tactics, but that would be a dismissal of their undeniably
personal approach and sound, and God, does that sound crack me up. While the
rhythm section still sounds fairly traditional, it's the hysteric vocals of
Yasuko and the devastatingly guitar work of Agata that ensured this band its
reputation. Yasuko basically comes off as the clichéd cute Japanese girl,
but one on a bottle of speed pills, reciting incomprehensible lullabies, hiccupping
("Wedge"), yelling along to the martial attacks of the rhythms section ("Blandished
Hatman"), taking her time to carefully phrase short lines or even words, moan
("Some Kind of ID") or scream at the top of her tiny lungs ("Scratch or Stitch).
Agata mixes hardcore's fury with thrash's heaviness, but that's not nearly
all as he displays an array of sounds that's occasionally stunning, running
from almost futuristic effects to chicken scratchin', circular riffing, angular
twists and turns, shrill sirens, neo-surf, and sample-like madness. With the
velocity and relentless energy this album has, it's hard to single out highlights,
but the "longer" songs usually display the band's uniqueness to full effect,
especially "Circle-jack," the surf-core of "Tapir's Flown Away," the militaristic
thump "It's in the Pillcase" and the insane cover of "Surfin' USA" (the
Ramones meet Naked City!). It's quite obvious this is a challenging and
adventurous album, yet after the first few listens I never again considered
it very extreme. Granted, it's fast and extremely energetic, but it also sounds
exceptionally focused and tight and even though Agata never ceases to experiment
with distortion and feedback, the end result never becomes a sonic mesh. Of
course, it's cartoonish, but it's also a lot of fun, a hectic madness you
have to experience at least once in your lifetime.
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: John Zorn