Melt Yourself Down, Shacklewell Arms, London

Tonight’s Melt Yourself Down gig takes place on an icy cold Wednesday in the cramped confines of the Shacklewell Arms – but it could easily be in a hot and sweaty club in South America. This sold out show is packed, and bursting with energy as the seven members of this ‘supergroup’ cram themselves on to the stage, blasting out their jazz-infused hybrid of kinetic, jittery music. If you’ve ever wondered, ‘How much is too much saxophone?’, tonight it’s answered. There is no such thing as too much sax.

Pete Wareham and Idris Rahman’s Tenor saxophones are involved a continuous duel against each other; they play with a vigorous fury, creating patterns over hypnotic rhythms. But it’s Kushal Gaya of Zun Zun Egui, a giant of a frontman, who provides the charismatic focal point for a band where so much is going. He leaps into the crowd right from the first blast of sax and doesn’t stop for the rest of the gig, his long black hair swirling around, his arms aloft beckoning the crowd to give more. At one point he simply screams ‘Make me dance!’ over and over.

When I say Melt Yourself Down are a ‘supergroup’ I more accurately mean they’re a collaborative project featuring not just Gaya, Wareham and Hutchings but also Hello Skinny’s Tom Skinner, Ruth Goller of Acoustic Ladyland, Satin Singh of Transglobal Underground and Leafcutter John.

And when all these talents come together it’s brilliantly vital. They start with ‘We Are Enough’ and proceed through a kaleidoscopic hybrid of psychedelic jazz, Afrobeat and post-punk that is intense and primal. The slower songs don’t work as well and sometimes they go down a wormhole too far, but when these ragged collages come into focus they prove irresistible.

They encore with ‘Fix My Life’ an overpowering explosion of sax riffs and thudding bass. It’s a party in a song basically; dark, enticing and exciting. As Pete introduces the band, he mops his brow and thanks the crows, ‘This is the warmest I’ve been in months.’ It seems the temperature is only set to increase. It’s easy to see these exotic sounds hypnotising festivals right through the summer.