Melting Pot

If you think of steel pan music as nothing but boring standards by a bored-looking busker, then Melting Pot will pound that prejudice into shiny metal. In the hands of Wade Austin and David Vine, the two pannists at the front of this eight-piece London-based band, we’re in a similar kind of virtuosic territory of a Gary Burton on vibes or a John Medeski on melodica. Steel Pan Fusion evolved out of a monthly club night at an Old Street bar, with the Trinidadian Wade Austin using the gigs to showcase the progressive end of pan culture. Powered by two further percussionists, two keyboardists, and woodwind and bass players, the band has evolved an intelligent groove-based, jazz-inspired soundscape that sweeps between grey London and the blue Caribbean. We all know that steel pans can conjure tropical sunsets and a beachy mood, but on Melting Pot they are shown to be adept at debate and drama: they can drive a musical theme and think aloud via jabs of staccato, zig-zagging scales, sublime chimes and raga-like repetitions. All of which is set against a rippling undercurrent of a pulsing bass line or a sinister sax. The steel pan is taken into territory that will be new for many listeners and thrilling for all. The ten songs all have something to offer, but the title-track packs so many moods and ideas in that it's an essential listen.