Melt Yourself Down for a Thursday night/Friday early-early morning. Recorded live at the 6 Music Festival on March 8, 2020.
Without question, the perfect mashup of Jazz, Afrobeat, Funk, Avant-Garde and Punk – all in one place and all fairly seismic in their execution.
I wouldn’t go to sleep to this, and I can’t imagine how you could. The energy is so combustible it can melt speakers. But it is so addictive and the 23 minutes this set was allotted for the festival wasn’t nearly enough time to cram every nuance and idea in. This is a wonderful band to go exploring with – paying close attention to all the little shifts and rhythmic impulses that permeate just about every note this band plays.
A little background via Wikipedia to get you versed in the goings-on:
Melt Yourself Down are a London-based band who incorporate elements of West African musical styles (afrobeat), punk, jazz and funk. Founded in January 2012, the band is led by saxophonist Pete Wareham, former leader of now defunct jazz/punk band Acoustic Ladyland and saxophonist in British jazz band Polar Bear. The original line-up included saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings (Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, The Heliocentrics), drummer Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet, Mulatu Astatke, Hello Skinny), vocalist Kushal Gaya (Zun Zun Egui), bassist Ruth Goller (Acoustic Ladyland) and percussionist Satin Singh (Fela!, Transglobal Underground).
They were signed to The Leaf Label and released their debut album on 17 June 2013, followed by Live At The New Empowering Church on 19 April 2014. Their second studio album, Last Evenings On Earth, was released on 29 April 2016.
They signed to Decca Records in 2019 and released their third studio album 100% Yes on 27 March 2020.
Melt Yourself Down takes its musical interests from a diverse range of countries and cultures and has built a unique style, drawing from Egyptian and Nubian music, punk rock, jazz, psychedelic rock, electronica, funk and more. Wareham has described the style as “Nubian inspired party-punk music”. In a later interview he added “The need to dance is still there but now I’m feeling inspired by the idea of the city as a prism through which all kinds of global influences pass…Translation, immigration, overcoming obstacles – and most of all, human unity.”
Head over to their site, sign up for their newsletter – grab their albums – celebrate this amazing gathering of musical spirits and wish them a long and happy life of amazement.
