Thou Shalt Dance

Wild Marmalade are the kind of two-piece that really lingers in the brain. It’s about energy, raw beats and the didgeridoo.

If you’ve caught them live, you’d remember music that made you curious from the start. The white guy going hard on the didg and the skinny guy in the back cutting sick on all sorts of percussion. From his traditional kit to Pacific drums and bongo et cetera, Matt Goodwin keeps Si Mullumby’s didgeridoo on a path of driving beats.

Once curiosity’s lured you in, the energy would have got you moving. Even if it was just a toe to start, some part of your body can’t help but respond to this pared back duo.

Yep, anyone who’s caught them live would’ve almost certainly ended up dancing through their set. But ‘set’ isn’t really the word for it. As Matt tells it, he’s got one of the best gigs in the world. No set lists, no real ‘songs’ per say - just a stage, them and a crowd ready to blow away. And it’s keeping them busy - really busy.

Popular in Japan, busy on local festival circuits and back from four months touring Europe, Matt says Wild Marmalade went back to the basics in Barcelona. “It was actually a busking festival we played at, so we were able to play on the street and play to people on the street which we really love doing because our music; on the street, people go ‘what? Two people are doing that?’,” Matt says.

“It sounds like a wall of groove coming towards them, so they can’t help but come and have a look … after a few minutes we have a really big group of people (watching on). They all start dancing and we play better and better and then it all just explodes! “It’s a real sort of energy music, so the more people that dance and the more people that are there give us energy then we just go off on a journey and it’s a great thing.”

Matt says Wild Marmalade are about ready to shift gears from their high intensity live dance music to a high intensity hip hop inspired, dance music. It sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is: funky-arse music that you can’t stop yourself dancing to. Stay tuned.

Wild Marmalade play West End’s Uber November 13.