Racism and immigration is, sadly, going to be at the heart of this year’s general election, with both mainstream and fringe political parties employing the tactics of scapegoating immigrants for social and financial issues in today’s society. Building on the positivity generated by recent demonstrations in Glasgow against immigration curbs Love Music Hate Racism aims to challenge racist ideologies by inspiring intellectual debate on these topics ahead of and beyond the general election through a number of music-based events.

On Friday, 01 May at Stereo in Glasgow wonky indie-soul purveyors Pronto Mama, a Glaswegian sextet who released their Niche Market EP in the latter half of 2014 will be supported by Bigg Taj and LM (Young People Army), in a first time show for this exciting collaborative hip-hop duo of a Roma collective member and talented MC and the eclectic free jazz-meets-John Carpenter sounds of duo Cutty's Gym, a band whose discography equals the Sick Glass EP released last year.

The event will be compered by NorthernXposure’s Qyeen, with additional guests also speaking on the night and the event is kindly being sponsored by the Musicians’ Union and Unite Community.

A further event will follow on May 10 with a free screening of The Clash: Westway To The World film at the CCA in Glasgow. The Clash played an important role in the Anti-Nazi League, the precursor to Love Music Hate Racism, making it a wonderfully relevant choice of screening, which will be followed by a short discussion introduced by a panel of guests. The film screening is kindly being sponsored by Unite Community, and supported by the CCA itself.

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Film Screening Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/984083311602106/

Gig tickets from Tickets Scotland: http://t-s.co/pron1

Travel, rather than hallucinogenics, has apparently been the main thing expanding Jacco Gardner's mind during the process of creating Hypnophobia. That and a bit of difficulty "letting go of reality" and drifting off to sleep.

Certainly there is a touch less whimsy herein than on 2013 debut Cabinet Of Curiosities, which could be attributed to that strong grip on the day to day whilst experiencing more of the world.

This has not been gained with an equivalent lessening of the psychedelic quotient though; things are still fully operational in that department. Structurally Hypnophobia builds ever upwards and things get seriously psychy from 'Find Yourself' onwards. As with album number one Gardner easily manages to both hark back to the Sixties beginnings of the sound he purveys whilst sympathetically modernising it here and there ('Before The Dawn' being a fine example of this in practice).

The implied menace of the album's Giallo-like cover art (and, lets face it, any word ending in 'phobia') from The Focus Group's Julian House finds its musical representation perfectly realised on the title track, by far the darkest composition of the ten tracks after which 'Make Me See' ends up feeling almost inconsequential by comparison. Thankfully though this doesn't result in the album fizzling out in the closing stage as the harpsichord & mellotron of the aptly titled 'All Over' provide a jaunty although not altogether light of touch ending to what is, on the whole, a very strong second album. 

Hypnophobia is available from amazon & iTunes.