Whether or not you hold the current noise-rock expansions and explosions in as much regard as you damn well should, Hella's technical skills—and the resultant downright kickass live show—are worth reverent observation.

While Lightning Bolt's searing bass-and-drum attack surges out on the driving end of the noise rock spectrum, outfits like Wolf Eyes and Prurient violently maraud the more formless, far less accessible end. Hella churn wildly throughout the spectrum, veering from relatively straightforward efforts like Hold Your Horse Is and The Devil Isn't Red to more static, hazy offerings like the Bitches Ain't Shit but Good People EP, and Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard. One constant: They always pepper the din with video-game-like electronics and accents, riddling the results with drummer Zach Hill's inhumanly fast percussion.

"Our main thing is we never want to repeat ourselves," says Hill. "So if we can always achieve that, we're very happy."

By that rationale, the duo's ever-growing discography should render them pretty damn chipper. Between touring, recording, and side projects—Hill is in Goon Moon and Nervous Cop, and guitarist Spencer Seim drums for the Nintendo-soundtrack relayers the Advantage—their schedules and resumés place the pair among the busiest players in independent music.

As Hella, they've toured Japan, playing with some of the nation's most inventive and avant-garde acts; followed that with U.S. tours opening for the Mars Volta and System of a Down; hit a spate of shows with Les Claypool; and recently hooked up with Dillinger Escape Plan—all in the past year.

With such a disparate roster of tourmates, Hella have brought their music to increasingly larger and more mainstream audiences. "It was obviously bizarre playing to the audiences that were way different," Hill says of the recent Hella/Mars Volta/SOAD tour. "But we were most surprised at how good the response was. You always get a few kids flipping you off and yelling 'you suck,' but that's just natural. I mean I would have been kind of disappointed if that didn't happen [laughs]."

Release-wise, Hella are nearly as productive as Hill's uncanny BPM count—since 2002's Hold, they've released two EPs, as well as last year's metal-rock deconstruction opus The Devil Isn't Red, and this year's ambitious double LP, Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard. Somewhere in their overcrowded schedules, they found time to release the Homeboy/Concentration Face EP/DVD.

And while Hella have always been more accessible when they supply at least a few identifiable riffs and locked-in grooves, Homeboy is the least cogent disc they've released yet. Augmented with piano, bass, extra drums and guitars, synthesizers, pedals, and God knows what else, Homeboy sounds like a less-studied big band doing punk free jazz. The components compete for space in a highly compressed sonic spectrum tailed by Hill's all-consuming drummery. Manic, paranoid piano notes stagger around the obligatory predilection toward computer-game jangle beats and melodies. Homeboy hints at some distant Kraftwerk and Sonic Youth reference points, but the result is far busier than either. "It's a really weird record," says Hill.

Homeboy also demonstrates Hella's recent tendency toward more experimental recording techniques. "With Devil, obviously, we spent a lot of time in the practice room writing," Hill says. "Whereas with Homeboy we did that again, but we did it individually, and then collaborated during the recording process." Hill and Seim have temporarily recruited extra members to help out with the pile of instruments used on Church/Chirpin' and Homeboy, and they're currently touring as a foursome.

This brings us to the Concentration Face DVD, the real prize of the package here. Filmed on Hella's 2004 Japan tour, Face culls live footage of Hella and various billmates. The all-female trio Nisennen Mondai deploy surging noise barrages with blindingly fast rhythms; the frontman of the all-male trio Oshiri-Penpens delivers histrionic theatrics on par with Iggy's heyday; and Ari Morimoto extracts melody from dozens of Game Boys, effects processors, and a mixing board. Still a duo at the time, Hella execute material from the decidedly harder-hitting Hold/Devil era, and the stuff here is no letdown. Intercut with these varied bill mates is a visual montage of Japan.

"Japan is a crazy place," says Hill, with obvious affection. "That went into how we conceptualized Concentration Face. It was almost more about the trip than just about our band, because there were so many elements that couldn't go unrecognized."

editor@thestranger.com