Melt-Banana - Bambi's DilemmaA-Zap, 2007Tokyo's Melt-Banana - origin, mid-'90s: an experimental hardcore band with songs averaging at 30 seconds long - currently explore various combinations of the methodologies of pop/rock and hardcore punk, with a dash of studio-as-instrument and electronic beeps-and-swooshes. Over their last several releases, whether full- or EP-length, they have seemed to become increasingly confident in their efforts, using muscular bass and guitar riffs and juicy song structure tricks, all at breakneck paces, slamming into the occasional brick-wall-of-noise (often created by guitarist Agata's pedal-heavy frenzy, but occasionally augmented by other electronic sounds). On top, Yasuko O. constantly shouts her bloody head off in impenetrable streams of the English language. Needless to say, they're a wonderful group.1998's Charlie, the album that saw them off on their quest, was great, and it's not in any way a bad place to start. But 2000's Teeny Shiny was a major leap, with better songs and an overall more original vision; "Free the Bee" was almost pop - especially the chorus hook - with a frantic drum-and-bass-inspired beat, and the record also featured the loudest punk song I've heard to this day, "Warp, Back Spin." (Imagine the loudest siren you've ever heard, and then imagine making punk rock to compete with it, and then listen to this track to hear both at the same time and then some - with, might I add, crystal-clear production.) After such an impressive album, 2003's Cell-scape proceeded to blow it away. Eight incredible pop-rock-punk songs, executed more skillfully and thoughtfully than not only anything they'd done but most of anything I'd ever heard in their style, stirred and stole my ears and soul, and a 10-minute, ambient-yet-aggressive electronic "outro" melted them. To this day I call Cell-shape one of my favorite records and I'll instantly recommend it to anyone with an ear for adventurous, edgy and "futuristic" rock.Four years later, we have Bambi's Dillemma, and I praise it for continuing to twist the formulas together in different ways, and yet I still hesitate to accept the results. The record starts with a major-key classic-rock-styled riff on "Spider Snipe," and from here through the next eight songs, amongst the usual Melt-Banana blast beats and Yasuko shouts, we are occasionally treated to mid-tempo rock or pop-punk sections that seem a somewhat unfortunate new addition. And in the middle of the record, a four-minute instrumental called "Type: Ecco System" evokes too strongly a soundtrack to a techno-thriller or a TV news special on hackers. The problem is not that they've become more tasteless - "tasteful" is hardly the word to describe this group - but that the tastelessness sometimes displayed on Bambi's is of a different kind, (slightly) more generic and less thrilling, more awkward and less assured. For the first time in their career, throughout these first nine tracks, I find myself playing the "ooh/ehh" game (you know the one: "ooh, this is nice... ehh, don't know about that... ooh, but I like that... ehh, maybe not this..."). This doesn't make it a bad listen, and it is very far from dull, but it keeps me at a distance and blocks me from the full visceral experience that most of what they've put out until now could be correctly labeled as.What we find in the next eight tracks, however, is absolutely and instantly wonderful, especially by comparison. In a selection of songs from 32 to 83 seconds long, all tunes are abandoned and the group returns to its roots in hardcore noise-punk. Theremin-style pitch-squeals, glitches and general noisy blasts - no chords, no melodies, nothing but this - accompany furious drumming and Yasuko sounding like she's doing what she was born to do (especially on "Slide Down" and "Dog Song"). It's playful and familiar, but it doesn't feel like they're merely going through the motions; this is current Melt-Banana having a party with their former selves.When Bambi's Dilemma closes out with a five-minute industrial-esque tone piece featuring Yasuko filtered through extreme autotune (y'know, "the Cher effect"), I find myself thinking about that second set of songs, still sort of catching my breath but nonetheless looking forward to revisiting them. And even though my feelings are mixed about the record's longer first half, the blast of energy in the second half is more revelatory and invigorating AS a second half. So it is duly noted that despite my position on the fence, I commend Melt-Banana for another ingeniously structured record. Now that I've given this one enough time for now, I'm off to Cell-scape and I suggest you do the same with that, or Teeny Shiny, or Charlie (or all three). Bambi's Dilemma will still be here in case you want to see how they're doing now; for me it has been worth the look, and I wouldn't be surprised if I do come back to it.(By the way, they're doing an extensive U.S. tour behind this album, and I plan to be at their show in San Francisco on July 6. I expect great things from the live treatment. Bring your earplugs.)-Spencer Owen