Forwards Bristol Music Festival
Clifton Downs
 

Gathering outside with drums pounding is basic to humanity
Since before the neolithic counter-revolution you call the dawn of history

First up today is Melt Yourself Down
Purveyors of a visceral new sound
Tired of faking the ride
They respect and connect with the storm inside
Ruth Goller, the pounding heart of the place
Gutsy and raw and born to rock bass
Two saxes collide, punchy as fuck
Perfect for yer sunday morning moshpit ruck
The urgency of now built on a power of old
African rhythms with a beauteously dirty punk soul

Next up in the same vein only more so
Comet Is Coming come to shock your torso
Hairs on end from the first dash of synth
Levels of intensity pushed right to the brink
The power of the three piece
Drums, synth and sax
Relentless beats cranked out by Betamax
Danalogue crouched over the Rolands, head bobbing
Like a green-hooded monkish medieval hobgoblin
He don’t just play keys he plays filters on a squelch
The art of sound transgressing the alienated self
Gliding over it all comes King Shabaka
Summoning up the spirit of ancestral power
With Tupacs Amaru and Shakur he conspires
Sent to the belly of the beast to bring the fire

Kae Tempest preaches over beats like the birth of hiphop
Sometimes they just keep going long after the beats stop
When will the beast stop
They ask - not til wil face it, don’t project it; feel it, don’t fake it
Kae becomes they as I becomes we
“The days rise in our bodies and we take them in hand”
The line is a curve or maybe a curse
If it delineates us from them and me from you from birth
“Even when I'm weak and I'm breaking
I'll stand weeping at the train station
'Cause I can see your faces
There is so much peace to be found in people's faces.”
I was inconsolable; though, bless ‘em, many tried:
‘Ah, Sleaford Mods, that’ll change the mood, you gotta check these guys!’

Two blokes from Nottz take the stage
One rocks the beats, one brings the rage
Tried and tested tactics for unleashing the pain
Well armed with scuzzy basslines, visceral vehemence well aimed
Spitting globs of sardonic phlegm with awesome temerity
Like Ian Dury fronting a Fall raised on speed and austerity
Even got the rare blessing of Mark Smith
For sure a 20p in your 10p mix
“Big up the riots!
Smash the fucking window!”

All these acts for me have one thing in common
Creating a culture of resistance to supremacy and oppression
By any genres necessary, connection’s a blessing  
A taste of how we might live beyond alienation
Still it hurts the soul how Africa is ever-present but never mentioned
Still remains the target of our projection  
The task is a culture without supremacy
Love for Africa: the precondition for this remedy

With thanks to Juju Rantin.
Melt Yourself Down will play 100 Club on November 18 2022; Comet Is Coming are at the Colour Factory, London on September 22 2022