Melt Banana

Formed in Tokyo in the early 1990s around vocalist Yasuko Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata, Melt Banana established a Japanese band that blends noise rock, hardcore punk, grindcore and experimental music. Their early recordings, including the 1994 album Speak Squeak Creak and 1995’s Scratch or Stitch, belong to an international underground scene marked by frequent tours across North America and Europe and ties to noise and improvised-music circles. With Charlie (1998) and Teeny Shiny (2000), Melt Banana refined a language of very short songs, fragmented rhythms, dissonant riffs and a high, clipped vocal; Cell-Scape (2003) and Bambi’s Dilemma (2007) gave more space to melodic structures and more open textures. Essentially a duo from the 2010s onward, the band relies increasingly on programmed rhythms for live shows and studio work—most notably on Fetch (2013)—while retaining a dense, fast and saturated sound. Active on numerous independent stages and specialized festivals, Melt Banana moves between punk, noise and avant-rock cultures and remains associated with an extreme yet precise aesthetic built on the tension between raw energy and meticulous sonic detail.