It’s been over a decade since Melt-Banana last put out a new album (2013’s Fetch) and, perhaps even more remarkably, over thirty years since they first started making their singularly invigorating hyperspeed noise core. There is really no one else like them.
Despite the long wait Yako and Agata do not appear to have calmed down or radically re-imagined their sound. The music on 3+5 is still intense, thrilling, and coming at you ridiculously fast. The nine tracks here don’t even hit the half hour but are packed with a dizzying overload of sounds, ideas and explosive energy.
If you’re new to the bracing charm of Melt-Banana then, yes, at first it sounds like it’s playing at the wrong speed. You need to adjust your ears, take a big breath and try to catch up. Trust me, it’s worth it. While the breathless tempo makes the strongest first impression there’s far more going on here than a breakneck blur of sound. The arrangements are dense and intricate, folding hardcore punk, hyper pop, electronics and avant-garde noise into multicoloured crunchy gems. Even at its most abrasive it is jubilant, a vivid grindcore twist that proves you can have extremity without any need for that macho, adolescent, death wish business.
After the long wait the duo returned with the uncompromising ‘Flipside’ a metal thrashing mad blast of Agata’s cyber glitch guitar and Yako’s fever pitch vocal exhortations. New single ‘Stopgap’ is a collision of crushed beats and madly oscillating riffs that momentarily suggests Jon Anderson does grindcore. Hey kids, perhaps you can improve grampa’s old Yes albums by playing them at 78? I would test this hypothesis for you but I don’t allow any in the house. Prog-wise ‘Scar’ stretches out to almost three and half minutes with giddy keyboard arpeggios, key changes, the lot. A real album high point of spiralling triumphant bombast, the sick shiny guitar tones and exultant chorus are like Fang Island being fired into the heavens on a rocket. As you will it to become even bigger and louder you marvel that it somehow isn’t noisy enough.
The album begins with frazzled space blips as ‘Code’ kicks in with a twisted crunch of noise. Widdly guitar leads loop viciously and there are clumping beats, it’s almost like an epic power ballad rinsed and chopped. Often it feels too dense to take in, a digital world on fast forward. ‘Puzzle’s furious guitars buzz like a battle of angry metal wasps, ‘Case D’ has techno clatter and laser beams. The dynamic ping-pong riffery and urgent propulsion of ‘Hex’ make rhythm the melody, guitar effects set to random.
‘Whisperer’ feels an unlikely title for a Melt Banana song but while it starts uncompromisingly enough it does have an oddly sweet twinkle about it. Finally ‘Seeds’ begins with a steady beat and sparkling tones gradually hyping itself up as it accelerates toward the end point of lightspeed overwhelm, blinking out like a satellite. Demented and glorious 3+5 finds our heroes in top form, the tunes packed with ideas and constant dynamism. It’s exhausting, it’s exhilarating. Scream if you wanna go faster.
