there is a band, friends, that is as respected by pretentious jazz enthusiasts (john zorn) as it is by die-hard crust punkers (the kids who lurk in the legion of doom basement). the band is melt-banana, and the new album--cell scape--is amazing. the band takes their sonic experimentation and noisy avant-garde tendencies and wedges them into accessible song structures that are still unbelielably fast and intense. longer songs means that choruses are present and there is some repetition, but melt-banana has always been respected for their willingness to incorporate pop idioms and has consequently built a band that people feel just as comfortable singing along and spazz-dancing to as they do taking notes.
cell scape consists of eight tracks of the kind of jittery jazzfunk-meets-noisecore that the band is known for, bracketed by two electronic experiments. the first minute of "a dreamer who is too weak to face up to" is hands-down the most exhilarating thing i have heard since soak the saddle and "like a white bat in a box, dead matters go on" is probably the most purely fun thing to come out of my most recent mixtape. the abstract lyrics are assuredly intelligent, but include so many non-sequiturs and squeaky pitches that they can be enjoyed on a visceral level just as easily. for those who are unconvinced of the truly revolutionary nature of the songs, the second half of the disc keeps the experimental juices flowing with "key is a fact that a cat brings" and "a hunter in the rain to cut the neck up" before the compelling electronic outro. if you aren't already convinced by the song titles, you will be when you hear the music. a must-purchase, despite its tragic brevity.