Once upon a time I was kind of bored, so I started cruising around AMG looking up whatever band happened to start playing on iTunes. After a few songs, my speakers emitted a surge of screeching vocals, grinding moog synthesizers, and raging guitars, which signaled the coming of The Locust, so I looked up their AMG profile. I discovered they were connected to bands that I had never heard of. One of the bands stuck out as being particularly interesting was Melt Banana who were apparently labelmates of The Locust on Gold Standard Labs. I figured that any band connected to The Locust should be worth a listen. Turned out I was quite right.

Melt Banana is a Japanese noise rock band whose sound is very similar to that of The Locust’s; they’re loud, noisy, dissonant, chaotic, and all that other good stuff. And just like The Locust, their songs are usually very short. It’s like listening to punk rock with severe Tourette’s syndrome. Actually, this is exactly the kind of music that everyone I know hates. I’m the only person who likes this stuff. After playing something by The Locust for a friend he confusedly asked, “Wait, you listen to this crap casually?” and added, “This is the kind of stuff you play at full volume outside an open window to piss off your neighbors!” I’m guessing he would say the same about Melt Banana.

Buy Scratch or Stitch by Melt Banana

Melt Banana – Rough Dogs Have Bumps

I found another Melt Banana MP3 at Insound. This song, “Alpha Boost,” is from a Salvo Beta remix album. It’s essentially Melt Banana with an aggressively electronic tint. Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering what language they’re speaking in the song I’ve provided, it’s English. That’s what you get with dissonant, noisy music like this: incoherently screamed lyrics.