Malachi - Return To The Ugly Side
Gary Ealey and Scott Hendy are Malachai; a throwback to when psychedelia was king. Their often stripped down songs and eerie, layered music is very reminiscent of Maps And Atlases, though slightly more disjointed. 'Return To The Ugly Side' is the follow up to their 2010 release 'Ugly Side Of Love' and it is an odd assortment of manic psychedelia and experimentation.
The album opens with the first of the three instrumental tracks. 'Monsters' is quite odd and as it is just becoming annoying, the string sounds are introduced and the much improved sound (just) saves the track from being skipped. 1960s psychedelia is very prevalent with 'Anne'. Malachai can do this sort of stuff easily and quite impressively and it makes me wonder why there are not more of the same on this album.
There are two very short instrumental tracks; 'In The Hole' and 'Snake Eyes', the latter being deep and moody and far too short at only 51 seconds in length. There are some good moments on the album. I found myself returning to 'The Don't Just' and the quiet, off-set vocal duet of 'Rainbows'. Timings are off-set and challenging in places and the frantic, often disjointed feel can sometimes be a little overplayed as on '(My) Ambulance' and the first part of 'Monster' (not to be confused with the opening track, 'Monsters'), the latter having some irritating repetitive percussion but with some very nice mix of layers and moods later on.
'Let 'Em Fall' has some intricate instrument/vocal phrasing and the bluesy/jazz feel of 'How You Write' with its tinny drums are very appealing. 'No More Rain No Maureen' is put together well; the lamenting feel brought together nicely as a modern Sergeant Peppers style complete with the deep cello sounds. The closing track on the album isn't for me. 'Hybernation' begins with minimal oriental strings being strummed; the mood totally lost by the introduction of the wailing vocals. I think this was an attempt to return to the eerie mood making as on 'Distance', but it doesn't really work as well as on that track.