Cactuses Come in Flocks

An album from the morning hours of the Melt-Banana history, the second release on Melt-Banana's label was originally released in 1994 on cassette by Scottish label Chocolate Monk. More than half the extant copies were lost between the Chocolate Monk dubbing deck and the nearest post office, thanks in no small part to the bar located between the two; consequently, Cactuses Come in [the] Flocks has been heard by an extremely random sampling of extremely patient tape traders and hardly anyone else. The first half of Cactuses is a live recording from a 1992 improv festival that took place in a small room at Tokyo University; the second half is made up of four-track recordings created in mid-1994. As many voices from across the literacy rainbow are quick to point out, Melt-Banana is nothing if not a force to be reckoned with. Because they have unlocked the secrets of prime-number hardcore and gorged themselves on influences ranging from the Damned to Patty Waters, Jim O'Rourke to Merzbow, and Gertrude Stein to Mr. Bungle, they appeal to a fairly wide range of freaks and lovers of high-decibel controlled chaos. Compared to every kind of animal on every kind of drug imaginable, Melt-Banana and their weird blend of mystical awareness, hysterical screech, and moderately robotic attention to detail are magnets for believers in ampheto-core, avant garde appreciators, and no wave loyalists