Bristol duo Malakai are a mysterious pair consisting of Gee and Scott (yes, that’s as much as we get); Gee being the vocalist, and Scott the general ‘effects’ man. They wear masks on stage, and avoid giving genuine answers to interview questions by amusing themselves with their own in-jokes. Ooh the mystery.
Anyway, to the music
. “Snowflake”opens with a psychedelic piano line and a dinosaur of a fuzzy guitar riff. All of this, along with the production, places
“Snowflake” firmly in the 1960’s, sounding a little like early Status Quo. Sadly, thanks to Gee’s overly-raspy vocals, it also treads dangerously close to Reef, and nobody should EVER do that. I just hope for Malakai’s sake that it doesn’t join Reef in a setlist at your local generic indie club, right in between
“I am the Resurrection” and
“Live Forever”; unless of course that is what they were aiming for. Each to their own, if so.
The disc also features two remixes, the first by Brendan Lynch is a welcome one, adding some lovely mellow, psychedelic organ, adding to the songs already retro feel. With less vocals, it’s less macho, which is nice, as the A-side was a little too virile. The second, Herve’s “Knocking” remix, just doesn’t work at all. Attempting to turn such a retro sounding song into a techno/eletroclash club hit was always going to be tricky (and kind of pointless), and so it’s no surprise that Herve has failed miserably.
The other track to feature
"Simple Song" is more interesting than anything else on the disc, and clears a path that perhaps Malakai should tread more often. It’s only just under two minutes long, but it’s a nice sample based, almost trip-hop inspired track, with much more palatable vocals from Gee and some rather nonsensical lyrics. It sounds like it’s been influenced by the Bristol music scene of years past; and the band do have an association with Portishead that perhaps they should exploit a little more. It’s also the best song ever to name drop Judy Finnigan, which I guess
exposes (sorry) their sense of humour in their music.
It’s almost impossible to judge Malakai based on this release, as it’s such a mixed bag. Their music sheds no further light on the mystery that is Malaki. Time to take off the masks boys.
http://www.myspace.com/malakaibristol
