Whimsical and abrasive all at once, Melt-Banana came shrieking out of the Japanese noise scene in the early '90s. Filling their early releases with one-minute blasts of playful aggression, the group combined off-the-wall humor with the blindingly fast attack of grindcore, and singer Yasuko Onuki traded grunts and growls for cartoony screeches and squeals. While Melt-Banana were no less prolific in the '00s, they began to stretch out their songs without skimping on the noise, adding surf rock riffs, glitchy electronics, and even the occasional pop hook to their blistering sound.