Quinn Barnum: I love how the guitar can morph a noise of pure effects-drenched feedback into the type of riff that is impossible not to bob your head to. The band effortlessly fuses chaos and dissonance into harmony and groove. It is extremely difficult to overstate just how much this juxtaposition inspired my teenage musical mind. Still to this day, with every listen, I find something new I love about this album.
Every track is like an audio feast. In particular, the track “Shield for your eyes, a Beast in the well on your hand.” This song encapsulates everything I love about this band. Of course the guitar is amazing, but the bass tone is perfect, punching right through the sonic assault. The build-up from the intro is perfectly paid off when YAKO’s vocals come in. This song taught me a lot about how I like energy to flow through music. Almost like some kind of kinetic model, Melt-Banana can masterfully manipulate musical energy in ways I still try to emulate in my bass lines.
I first discovered this album as a teenager, spelunking cavernous weirdo-music forums in search of my identity. It felt like something so far removed from the traditional punk I normally listened to, but also familiar. It forever changed how I listen and how I play music. In more than one way Cell-Scape represents my musical discovery. For that, I would have to call it my favorite album
’92’s single “Culture” is out now.