Come on, feel the noise

VIEW THIS PAGE “When it is windy, I can hear the sound of [a] train far away from my window. It is nice,” said singer Yasuko “Yako” Onuki, describing one of her favorite non-musical sounds.

But Yako’s band, Melt-Banana, sounds more like trains colliding at full speed — and that’s putting it mildly.

The Japanese four-piece, which performs at The Wall (這牆) in Taipei tonight, is often described as a “noise rock” band. Their music has bits of hardcore, thrash metal and punk rock, but played at even faster and more furious speeds.

For many fans and patient listeners, noise is just part of Melt-Banana’s music. What sets the group apart is how it wields chaos: Yako’s vocals range from manic, rhythmic barks to melodic chirps. Guitarist Ichirou Agata, who wears a surgical mask on stage, looks like a mad scientist as he twists the knobs on a dizzying array of effects pedals, drawing out endless variations of howls and screeches from his instrument.

This penchant for sonic experimentation is not just some passing phase. Melt-Banana has been at it since 1992, and over the years has become associated with some high-profile indie-music figures.

The late British DJ John Peel was a fan and hosted the band on his BBC radio program; Jim O’Rourke (producer and musician of Sonic Youth and Wilco fame) and recording engineer Steve Albini have helped produce past Melt-Banana albums; the band has toured with proto-grunge group The Melvins and Grammy-winning metal band Tool.

But despite having cultivated a loyal fanbase through repeated and extensive tours of the US and Europe, Melt-Banana has a less obvious following in Japan. Do they lament the relative lack of enthusiasm for experimental and noise rock at home?

“It does not bother us, but it would be nice if more people know that there are many musicians who play many kinds of music in the world [outside of] musicians on TV,” wrote Yako in an e-mail interview with the Taipei Times.

“Then my relatives [will] stop asking me when I will be on TV,” she said.

She also noted that the band sees less diversity in ages at shows at home. “We sometimes see children like 6 or 7 years old and also people like 70 or 80 years old when we play in Europe and [the] USA. It does not happen in Japan.”

The band’s show tonight, which was organized by Taipei party crew Back 2 the Future (B2TF, 回到未來), marks its first time in Taiwan, and Yako is expecting a lively crowd.

Yako said she met Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite at the band’s Tokyo gig, who told her that Taiwanese audiences are more energetic than those in Japan.

“Japanese audience[s] are basically quiet unless it is punk or metal show,” she wrote.

Yako, who says she would like to visit Jiufen (九份) as its scenery inspired scenes in Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away, said the band’s set tonight will mostly draw from their latest albums Cell-Scape (2004) and Bambi’s Dilemma (2007).

These albums are considered Melt-Banana’s most accessible works. Songs like Chainshot to Have Some Fun from Cell-Scape run at the band’s typical breakneck pace, but their chord changes and catchy refrains have a near-pop feel.

But die-hard fans need not worry. Yako said the band will also play a few gems from its early days, including some that run under 20 seconds.

While the band dabbled in improvisation on albums like 1994’s Cactuses Come in Flocks, they prefer “designed structure” in their music. “I sometimes enjoy improvising, but I think I enjoy the process of building the structure of the song,” said Yako.