There are ghosts all across AVANTI, the debut album from Malice K - the record wades through a disarray of chaos and loss with a sharp-toothed fervor.

At points it's howling and unhinged, a grungy layer atop a lush foundation of melodic capital-s Songwriting akin to the golden-age pop of the '70s, but in other moments it dissolves into a gentle, wistful haunting.

Malice K's songs are blunt, uncomplicated and unflinching as he probes the interiority of memories, of mistakes - saturated with an innate intensity that sucks you into his gnarled and visceral world, so barbed it could draw blood.