Waldo's Gift - Malcolm's Law (2025)

An electrifying new force in the new wave of UK Experimental music, Bristol trio Waldo’s Gift announce their debut album Malcolm's Law for release 24th January 2025 via their champions Ishmael Ensemble’s label Severn Songs. Following a string of early releases lauded by tastemakers across BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 1, Malcolm's Law captures the story of their unusual beginnings: the intense, bizarre weekly residency at Bristol’s Gallimaufry where they built a cult following.

Led by the brash, technicolour lead single ‘Candifloss’, Malcolm's Law is a sizzling, maximalist, impossibly complex guitar record. While Waldo’s Gift have been associated with the UK jazz explosion, mainly owing to their focus on improvisation, there are shades here of prog-metal, math-rock, and the more intense ends of Squarepusher or Aphex Twin. Unbelievably, every track is a single live performance, recorded with no overdubs or extras. “We’re all on the limit of what we can physically play,” says drummer James Vine, “and that’s where the fun comes from.”

The album is a distillation of their origins at The Gallimaufry: a venue which was becoming a hub for Bristol’s leftfield music. At the instigation of the venue’s owner, Vine formed the band with new friend Alun Elliott-Williams and Elliott-William’s friend Harry Stoneham – performing their blistering, heavily-improvised sets there every week from 2017 to 2020.