Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach can’t have played host to many pidgin rappers – something that Magugu – opening for Melt Yourself Down – acknowledges, thanking an unfamiliar audience for their open-mindedness. Bouncing rhythms, booming bass and assured delivery, plus some astute crowd manipulation, make him an effective hype man for the main act. Say Notin – one of several collaborations with the late DJ/producer and local legend Stagga – finds the Nigerian challenging those who chat shit about him: “Why you run your mouth?” After this, you can bet there’ll be a fair few people talking Magugu up, not down.
The headliners’ decision to name themselves after a James Chance song is a heavy hint of what’s to come. Classically trained saxophonist Chance was the arch provocateur at the heart of the short-lived, self-destructive but hugely influential no wave scene in late 1970s New York – an in-your-face performer hell-bent on sticking two fingers up at the city’s snooty, staid loft jazz set. Melt Yourself Down might not be quite so confrontational, but they too have no time for buttoned-up formality or standoffish, chin-stroking cool cats: on the contrary, their shows are about getting up close, personal, hot and sweaty.
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Former members have gone on to feature in Sons Of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, but the current lineup still boasts some serious pedigree. Founder Pete Wareham also performs with experimental jazzers Polar Bear and was a member of jazz-punk outfit Acoustic Ladyland, alongside MYD bassist Ruth Goller; livewire Mauritian frontman Kushal Gaya first came to attention with Bella Union-signed Bristolian band Zun Zun Egui; and perma-grinning drummer extraordinaire Adam Betts has provided percussive propulsion for acts as varied as the James Taylor Quartet and Three Trapped Tigers.
In the close confines of Clwb’s upstairs room, the consequences of their coming together – a melting pot/colourful clash of punk and Afrobeat – prove to be incendiary, riotous fun of the sort that obliterates all memory of the pandemic and leaves you breathlessly evangelising for days afterwards. Soak up the studio recordings all you want, but Melt Yourself Down really need to be seen to be believed.
New album Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In contributes a good portion of the set – perhaps most notably Boots Of Leather – but there are also older favourites such as Crocodile – from 100% Yes, the LP they had the misfortune to put out just as COVID-19 closed everything down – and an encore cover of I Wanna Be Your Dog that brilliantly imagines what the Stooges might have sounded like had Steve Mackay been on board from the start.
Wareham and fellow saxophonist George Crowley astonish with their superhuman lung capacity, Gaya hails us all affectionately as “animals” and I marvel at yet another song that approximates an Ethiopian Rage Against The Machine jamming with !!!. Cardiff is reduced to a molten puddle of rabid delight. Talk about affirmative action: 100% yes indeed.
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sun 13 Mar
words BEN WOOLHEAD
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