Melt Yourself Down

South London's Melt Yourself Down delivers a high-voltage fusion of punk and jazz that folds North African traditions, Afro-Latin rhythms, splintered jazz-funk, electro-dub textures, and post-bop lines into a single, swaggering statement. The group's approach echoes yet modernizes the unruly 1980s collision of post-punk and jazz-funk once pursued by Rip Rig & Panic and Pigbag. Saxophonist, composer, and arranger Pete Wareham—known for his work with Polar Bear—assembled the project, and its boisterous 2013 self-titled debut introduced a six-piece lineup featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and drummer Tom Skinner, both of Sons of Kemet, bassist Ruth Goller of Let Spin, percussionist Satin Singh from Transglobal Underground, and vocalist Kushal Gaya of Zun Zun Egui. Although the band received less widespread coverage than some London contemporaries in the new jazz movement, its example has proved both influential and galvanizing within that community. Following scattered singles and the 2016 album Last Evenings on Earth, saxophonist and keyboardist George Crowley together with drummer Adam Betts of the Heritage Orchestra stepped in for Hutchings and Skinner. The group then joined Decca and delivered 100% Yes in 2020 before issuing Pray for Me I Don't Fit In two years later.

Wareham began investigating Egyptian, Nubian, and broader North African idioms once Acoustic Ladyland disbanded in 2012. He first tested the discoveries in a DJ set; the enthusiastic club response prompted him to compose and stage original material in the same vein. He recruited musicians he had previously collaborated with, all capable of realizing the ambitious concept. Although the original blueprint called for an entirely instrumental group, Kushal Gaya's presence at the auditions led to a vocal role. The name Melt Yourself Down was taken from the 1986 album and track by James White and the Blacks—also known as James Chance and the Contortions—issued on Japan's Selfish Records label; Wareham contacted Chance, who granted his approval. After three months of intensive rehearsal, the band began performing on Bristol's club circuit and soon signed with the Leaf Label. The self-titled debut appeared in 2013 to widespread critical praise. A year later the live recording Live at the New Empowering Church captured performances with Wayne Francis substituting for Hutchings and bassist Leon Brichard filling in for Goller. As members, particularly Hutchings, pursued other projects, Melt Yourself Down scaled back activity while refining its Nubian-inflected punk-jazz anthems. The original lineup reconvened for the Leaf Label's final release, 2016's Last Evenings on Earth, which earned international acclaim, and the 2017 single "Dot Dot Dot" followed. With Hutchings and Skinner occupied elsewhere, Wareham brought in Crowley and Betts.

Decca signed the band in late 2018, after which Wareham and his colleagues entered the studio with producers Youth and Ben Hillier. Several singles emerged, among them the futuristic jazz-funk track "Every Single Day." The third album, 100% Yes, retained the group's raucous, cross-genre party ethos yet placed greater weight on Gaya's lyrics; where earlier work had featured concise, chant-like statements that supported the instrumentation, the new songs presented fully developed topical messages. Released in March 2020, the record's touring plans were curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so the musicians returned to writing and recording. A cover of M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gun" appeared in 2021, followed by the title track "Pray for Me I Don't Fit In." Produced again by Hillier—whose credits include Blur and Nadine Shah—the album once more challenged conventional genre boundaries. Pray for Me I Don't Fit In reached listeners in early 2022.