Melt Yourself Down are an important band. Revolving around saxophonist Pete Wareham (a key player in punk jazz pioneers Acoustic Ladyland) and Kushal Gaya (vocalist with the much missed genre busting experimentalists Zun Zun Egui) the collective have been crashing barriers since their foundation in 2012, laying the road wide open for the recent rush of jazz based excitement.
Their third studio LP ‘100% Yes’, released in July, raised the pundits’ pulse rates with its raucous storm of afrobeat, electronica, alt-funk and dub. Tightly focused on the political and social climate of Britain today, ‘100% Yes’ had vitality and velocity. Quietus pinned it as their ‘the album of tomorrow’. Now to keep the energy up in these gig-free times, Melt Yourself Down have just released a limited edition 7” single ‘Born in the Manor’ via Decca.
The track defines the latest album’s unflinching intent. Locked down on a chest shuddering bass note, powered by skittering rhythms and propelled by an incessant twin sax riff, the music comes stripped back to core components. The message is the main thing here, pitched perfectly through Kush’s indignant vocals, a necessary protest against stagnant authority on the third anniversary of Grenfell. If that’s not enough there is a raging Idles remix of the previous single ‘It Is What It is’ on the b-side as well as a new live video of ‘Born in the Manor’ featuring ex-member Shabaka Hutchings on voice. Melt Yourself Down in sound and vision- that’s massive…
See: Melt Yourself Down – new single and video – Born in the Manor
