| Melt Yourself Down | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 17 June 2013 | |||
| Genre | Afrobeat, punk jazz, jazz fusion, art punk | |||
| Length | 34:00 | |||
| Label | The Leaf Label | |||
| Producer | Leafcutter John | |||
| Melt Yourself Down chronology | ||||
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Melt Yourself Down is the debut album of the London-based band of the same name.
The group is led by Pete Wareham, the ex-leader of defunct outfit Acoustic Ladyland and saxophonist in British jazz group Polar Bear. [1] The album as released by The Leaf Label and features the singles "We Are Enough", "Release!" and "Fix My Life". [2] Wareham spoke about the process of creating the album in an interview in an interview with Loud and Quiet:
"Normally we are more live players than we are studio players. And so, normally we would have gigged the hell out of it before recording it, but we can’t do that with brand new bands. No one is going to give you a gig without a recording; a recording isn’t going to be at its best unless you play live, so I just had to edit the tunes really hard, so that they stood up on their own [and] the writing had to be really solid…. All the rehearsals were recorded and then I chopped up the recordings of the rehearsals and then arranged the tunes and wrote them that way. I made my own demos of each one, I took the demos to the rehearsal and we recorded the rehearsal and chopped up the rehearsals" [3]
The album was re-issued in 2015 as part of The Leaf Label's 20th anniversary celebrations, after being selected by fans. This limited edition re-release featured a variant on the original album artwork and was made available to fans via the PledgeMusic service. [4]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100 [5] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllAboutJazz |   [6] |
| AllMusic | [2] |
| The Daily Telegraph | [7] |
| The Guardian | [8] |
| musicOMH |  [9] |
| Pitchfork | 6.4/10 [10] |
On the Metacritic website, which aggregates reviews from critics and assigns a normalised rating out of 100, Melt Yourself Down received a score of 80, based on 1 mixed and 8 positive reviews. [5] It was described as "The sound of Cairo ’57, Cologne ’72, New York ’78 and London 2013" and "[a] hectic and freewheeling duststorm of punk, funk, jazz and world music" by The Daily Telegraph , [7] and "insanely full of energy and ideas, a tumultuous barrage of snaky, infectious hooks and punishingly addictive grooves" in a review by The Quietus. [11] AllAboutJazz described the album as a "collection of songs that demands, and deserves, attention, respect, love and dancing in equal measure". [6] The record came in at number 10 in Time Out's "40 Best Albums of 2014". [12]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fix My Life" | 4:03 |
| 2. | "Release!" | 4:19 |
| 3. | "Tuna" | 4:27 |
| 4. | "We Are Enough" | 4:34 |
| 5. | "Kingdom of Kush" | 4:38 |
| 6. | "Free Walk" | 3:49 |
| 7. | "Mouth to Mouth" | 4:27 |
| 8. | "Camel" | 5:02 |
Acoustic Ladyland was a London-based jazz-punk band consisting of Pete Wareham on vocals and saxophone, Seb Rochford on drums, Chris Sharkey on guitar, and Ruth Goller on bass guitar.
Polar Bear is a British experimental jazz band led by drummer Seb Rochford with Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart on tenor saxophone, Tom Herbert on double bass and Leafcutter John on electronics and occasionally guitar or mandolin.
The Leaf Label is a British independent record label based in Yorkshire, England. Initially an electronic music label, releasing mainly instrumental music, the company's approach now features artists spanning jazz and post-punk.
Sebastian Rochford is a British drummer and composer. He has recorded and released music as leader of the British band Polar Bear, as Kutcha Butcha and as part of numerous collaborations.
Pete Wareham is a British saxophonist, composer and band leader. He leads the genre-defying North African/punk/jazz/dance band Melt Yourself Down and is a member of Nadine Shah’s Mercury Prize-nominated band, Seb Rochford’s Pulled By Magnets and also ran the influential group Acoustic Ladyland. Formerly of Rochford’s now disbanded Mercury Prize-nominated Polar Bear, Wareham has also played saxophone with Sons Of Kemet, Mica Levi, James Chance, Supergrass, Ben E King.
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, drummer Tom Skinner, vocalist Kushal Gaya, bassist Ruth Goller and percussionist Satin Singh.
Live at the New Empowering Church is a 2014 album by London-based band Melt Yourself Down. It was recorded live at The New Empowering Church in Hackney, London, and was released as part of Record Store Day 2014. It features seven tracks from the group's debut album Melt Yourself Down and was released exclusively on vinyl with only 900 copies available worldwide. The line-up on this record sees saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and bassist Ruth Goller replaced by Wayne Francis and Leon Brichard respectively. The Leaf Label later released this record on CD, combined with the band's debut record, for a special North American release.
Dim Lit is the debut album by British jazz band Polar Bear, formed and led by drummer Sebastian Rochford.
Polar Bear is the eponymous third album by Sebastian Rochford's British jazz band, Polar Bear.
Peepers is the fourth album by Sebastian Rochford's British jazz band Polar Bear.
Held on the Tips of Fingers is the second album by Sebastian Rochford's British jazz band Polar Bear.
In Each and Every One is the fifth album by Sebastian Rochford's British jazz band Polar Bear.
Same as You is the sixth studio album by British jazz band Polar Bear. It was released on 30 March 2015 by The Leaf Label.
The Comet Is Coming is a London-based jazz-rock band who incorporate elements of jazz, electronica, funk and psychedelic rock.
Prophecy is the first release from London-based band The Comet Is Coming. It was released by The Leaf Label digitally and as a 12" vinyl EP on 20 November 2015.
Last Evenings on Earth is the second studio album by the London-based band Melt Yourself Down. It follows 2013's eponymous debut and Live at the New Empowering Church, released for Record Store Day in 2014.
Thunder of the Gods is an album by Sun Ra and His Arkestra featuring unreleased live and studio recordings which was issued in April 2017 on the Modern Harmonic label.
Snapped Ankles are an English, London-based post-punk band, incorporating elements of performance art and art rock. They signed to The Leaf Label in 2017 and have released four albums, two EPs and numerous singles to date. The band members' identities are unknown, due to the fact that the group performs in ghillie suits, but they claim to be "forest folk...descended from the trees"
Shabaka Hutchings is a British jazz musician, composer and bandleader. He leads the bands Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He is also a member of The Comet Is Coming, performing under the stage name King Shabaka. Hutchings has played saxophone with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Floating Points, Mulatu Astatke, Polar Bear, Melt Yourself Down, Heliocentrics and Zed-U.
The discography of Sunn O))), an American drone metal band, consists of nine studio albums, three collaborative albums, six EPs, four demos, one remix album, eight official live albums, one box set compilation, one stand-alone single and three compilation contributions.