Cargo Records

GLAND OF HOPE & GLORY + UGLY SIDE OF LOVE

"GLAND OF HOPE AND GLORY", THE psychedelic, blood strewn, Noise Rock Nursery, K-Hole of the summer/winter whatever, is an overblown beast of nightmarestuff. News is that recording was tough/ When you've got the kids AND the fucking culture bobbies knocking your door down, demanding you halt the caving in of their fragile eggshell noggins, every sweet lord given second, that their squall becomes a tinnitisual glory that only a chosen few can handle - you struggle.

Ready for something different? No, really different. Then prepare to meet the B-boy Syd Barrett. His name’s Malakai, and his debut album, Ugly Side Of Love, is going to fry your brain and serve it up in a full English. His name is Hebrew for ‘angel’, but he might equally be named after the ginger bloke from Children Of The Corn. We’re not sure, and neither’s he. One track, Fading World, was written after watching a news report on Hurricane Katrina, another heavily samples cult movie The Warriors and the closing track, Simple Song, namechecks an odd cast of characters, including Judy Finnigan, Bella Emberg, Cheryl Tweedy and Lord Charles. That’s why some of it sounds like an ADHD kid flicking through the Nuggets box set. At other times, Malakai’s music sounds like the apocalypse itself.