Here’s a linguistic lesson, boys and girls. Malachi means ‘”My Messenger” in Hebrew. The slightly tweaked name of Malakai means a group from Bristol, UK. If you’re going to name yourself after one of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, you better be damn heavenly. And while the band may not be a religious experience, it does act as a messenger of a hybrid form of dubstep and straight trippy rock.
The group is basically a duo. Leading the way is the fiery haired mononymous Gee. The man behind the beats is a complete mystery (that should boost sales). However, acting as a mentor and guide is Portishead frontman Geoff Barrow. The songs are purposefully genre-less. A track like “Warriors” (which samples and pulls from the seminal film) has the delivery style of a U.K. Beck, a slow, drawn out quirky and eccentric tone and nature. But songs like “Another Sun” and “Snowflake” portray a hip hop production value with the energy and spirit of ’60s psychedelia. For Gee, the excitement stems from the open spaces the band’s free to play with.
“It excites me to think where I’ll go musically, ” says Gee. “It’s not about cherrypicking, it’s more about how ‘it’ fits into me rather than how I fit into ‘it’.”
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Helping his free-spirited style is his home base of Bristol, which Gee says lacks any real scene, thus freeing artists to take figurative stabs into the musical darkness. The album Ugly Side Of Love came out earlier this year on Barrow’s Invada imprint. Now, Domino Records is bringing it to the public on November 3rd. Until then, listen to the MySpace for some samples and stay tuned for tour dates if the group hits the road.
Ugly Side Of Love Tracklist:
01. Warriors
02. Shitkicker
03. Snake Charmer
04. Snowflake
05. Blackbird
06. Moonsurfin’
07. Meechs’ Theme
08. Only For You
09. Lay Down Stay Down
10. Another Sun
11. How Long
12. Fading World
13. Simple Song