- With a capacity of 20,000 people, Melt! is one of Germany's biggest music festivals, offering mostly electronic music with a healthy dose of indie. But its most notable feature, one of the first things anyone will tell you about it, is the festival site. Ferropolis, AKA the "City Of Iron," is an open-air museum devoted to the strip-mining history of the location, a tiny peninsula of land jutting into a large lake in former East Germany. The huge digging machines that were used to remove layers of earth now form a truly spectacular backdrop for post-industrial raving, a German specialty.
With eight stages, you could never hope to see even half of the artists at Melt!, but this made for a steady stream of interesting music without too much downtime in between. Each stage had its own personality, either in its programming or setting, and part of the fun was working them out. Peverelist and Kowton were serving up a tasty back-to-back of bass-heavy UK funky at the Melt! Selektor stage when I arrived—Ferropolis is not the easiest place to get to, so there's nothing like the rude basslines to massage a hard landing. The audience, primarily German, were loving it.
Later, over at the Big Wheel stage, Andy Stott's live set was brilliant. He was mostly deploying breakbeats, referencing UK garage, broken beat, dubstep and grime against a backdrop of his trademark haunting atmospheres. Back at Selektor, Zed Bias's soulful garage was sadly only a pit stop before Skepta's high-energy grime at Medusa, Melt!'s second largest stage. A case of right place, right time meant I was treated to a guest appearance by LA hip-hop star Makonnen, who joined the London rapper onstage for their new collaboration "Coming Soon." As fun as that was, the real highlight was hearing Skepta, backed by Boy Better Know stalwart DJ Maximum on the decks, bear down in fine grime flow, especially over one of Wiley's classic eski instrumentals.
It may have taken a few years and a bump from Drake, but the reception for both Skepta and Lady Leshurr—who performed on Saturday night at Selektor—showed that grime is more viable than ever outside the UK. The cheers that met the intro to the latter's "Queen’s Speech Ep. 4" could have come from a knot of Brits down the front, but with close to 31 million YouTube views, I'd guess there were a few other nationalities in the mix too. The ever-reliable Kode9, who tends to rep new music more than specifically British music, played half-step and 140 BPM grime before moving through UK funky, gqom and ending on a footwork bass assault.
British music was also present on Melt!'s main stage. Jamie xx played a vinyl-only set on Saturday night, starting with Joy Division before occupying a funky sweet spot that showed us how pop dance music should sound. He also played grime, bashment, gospel house and Roy Davis Jr's "Gabriel." (I've never seen a garage classic dropped to an audience that large.) The Londoner has an ear for sweet pop and an understanding of dance music, which is probably why his selection of obscure disco as well as his own tracks—"I'll Take Care Of You," "Gosh," at least one from The xx—worked so well.
Disclosure's headline set on Saturday provided an interesting contrast to this. Playing along to pre-programmed backing tracks, Guy Lawrence played percussion and triggered samples, while his brother Howard sang and fingered the bass. It was an impressively polished show with great set design, and their level of musicianship is high, even if the music itself isn't particularly inspired. Overall, I left Melt! convinced that Disclosure and Jamie xx are adding more to the musical conversation than I had previously realized.
Ditto Sleaford Mods were one of the surprises of the weekend. The act is basic—one guy grooves along to a laptop while a John Lydon-esque vocalist exhorts the audience with political rants—but it's a surprisingly effective evolution of Public Image Ltd-style post-punk, using electronics instead of guitars and with a talented, wittily sarcastic frontman. Post-Brexit, their anti-Tory barbs and working-class laments felt particularly poignant.
Peaches gave arguably the funnest performance I saw, nailing the right mix of theater and energetic electroclash. Her sexually-charged lyrics were enhanced by a troupe of dancers, whose costume changes included vagina outfits, fetish wear and a giant inflatable hot dog (for a song about dicks). She also crowd-surfed. At the scenic Gremmin Beach, one of my favorite stages, Kollektiv Turmstrasse had thousands dancing by the water with a live set of euphoric deep house. The Big Wheel stage, which allowed you to get up close and personal with one of the site's big digging machines, saw The Black Madonna show off her extensive house music knowledge on Sunday night.
Almost as important as the music was the festival's spotless organization. Now in its 19th year, Melt! has been held at Ferropolis since 1999—probably the main reason things ran so smoothly. Hassle-free toilets and abundant food options, plus unobtrusive security and efficient shuttle buses, gave the impression that the organizers saw festivalgoers as more than just customers. To see this put into action at a festival the size of Melt! felt reassuring and important. Germany may take some cues from the UK when it comes to music, but UK events would do well to learn something from Germany, too.
Photo credits /
Max Nathan
Borke Berlin
Ditto Sleaford Mods were one of the surprises of the weekend. The act is basic—one guy grooves along to a laptop while a John Lydon-esque vocalist exhorts the audience with political rants—but it's a surprisingly effective evolution of Public Image Ltd-style post-punk, using electronics instead of guitars and with a talented, wittily sarcastic frontman. Post-Brexit, their anti-Tory barbs and working-class laments felt particularly poignant. Peaches gave arguably the funnest performance I saw, nailing the right mix of theater and energetic electroclash. Her sexually-charged lyrics were enhanced by a troupe of dancers, whose costume changes included vagina outfits, fetish wear and a giant inflatable hot dog (for a song about dicks). She also crowd-surfed. At the scenic Gremmin Beach, one of my favorite stages, Kollektiv Turmstrasse had thousands dancing by the water with a live set of euphoric deep house. The Big Wheel stage, which allowed you to get up close and personal with one of the site's big digging machines, saw The Black Madonna show off her extensive house music knowledge on Sunday night.
Almost as important as the music was the festival's spotless organization. Now in its 19th year, Melt! has been held at Ferropolis since 1999—probably the main reason things ran so smoothly. Hassle-free toilets and abundant food options, plus unobtrusive security and efficient shuttle buses, gave the impression that the organizers saw festivalgoers as more than just customers. To see this put into action at a festival the size of Melt! felt reassuring and important. Germany may take some cues from the UK when it comes to music, but UK events would do well to learn something from Germany, too. Photo credits / Max Nathan Borke Berlin