Melt Banana

Speak Squeak Creak

Azap

CD $12.00

06/26/2001 655035200422

AZ 04CD

MP3 $9.90

06/26/2001 655035200422

***Produced by Melt-Banana and K. K. Null of Zeni Geva, engineered by Steve Albini, recorded in a Chicago basement, June 1994, the 24-track 30-minute Speak Squeak Creak was originally released in '94 by Null's Nux Organization label, was sporadically available throughout the decade, and is now reissued by the band's own label - on vinyl for the first time.

The band for this recording consisted of Yasuko, Agata, Rika mm' and Sudoh. They have long been admired by everyone - from the highest brows within the ranks of the avant garde such as John Zorn and Mike Patton, to shorts-draggin' munters who need to carry their wallets on a leash - for their riotous cacophony in which free jazz, math-rock, speed-metal, and grindcore all enjoy equal opportunity employment.

Vocalist/principal songwriter Yasuko regards Speak Squeak Creak as the band's "base camp. Everything started from this album. Pop with rhythm and noise," but what she really means is "a cross between God Is My Co-Pilot, Napalm Death, and Love Sculpture's version of Khatchaturian's Sabre Dance."

"...Melt-Banana whiplashes through 25 blistering, ear-shattering, no wave-inspired songs, most of which wiz by at less than two minutes....[The] music lurches and flows even as it sizzles in a difficult and corrosive avant-stew..." -Option

"...This Japanese quartet takes all the scrabbling, atonal dissonance of deconstructionist rock and no wave (DNA, God Is My Co-Pilot, Dawson, Big Flame) and imbues it with the hysteria and acceleration of hardcore and speed-metal..." -Alternative Press