Grunge meets glam-rock, sort of, in the new single by Welsh rockers We Are Animal. They may have only been together since December, but the newbies are set to embark on a UK tour this week and release 'Black Magic' on 13^th of September.

Image by Timothy Saccenti

Tricky is set to collaborate with former bandmates Massive Attack, while his new album, Mixed Race, will be released on 27^th of September.

The record, which he himself has labelled a ‘gangster album’, is Tricky’s most upbeat effort to date. He says of the new album: “I’m comfortable in my own skin now, comfortable with being in the light. I’m not just a kid from Knowle West trying to build a future, I have some experience, I can experiment, I can be honest, and honestly, musically, I can’t be touched.”

“I used to hide in the shadows when I played live, now I perform. I used to hate doing interviews, now I feel honoured that people would be interested in what I have to say. I’ve spent my life going between cultures; Mixed Race is about that, and in a very direct way.”

Tricky left Massive Attack in 1995, amidst the release of his debut album Maxinquaye. He famously borrowed lyrics from two Maxinquaye songs for the band’s Protection album, having run out of time to finish them. While his former vocalist and partner Martina Topley-Bird appears on Massive Attack’s latest album Heligoland, the band have not worked with Tricky since the split.

“It’s true that I’ve agreed to work with Massive Attack again. A year ago I would’ve said no. But what I like about it now is that, if we do an album together, people’s expectations are gonna be high. It won’t be easy. We’re gonna have to make something really special. I think it’s a challenge.”

The first single to be taken from Mixed Race is ‘Murder Weapon’, a reversioning of an early 90s dancehall classic by Echo Minott, which has already been likened to his seminal 1995 guitar and Indian tabla reworking of Public Enemy’s ‘Black Steel’.

Catch the video after the jump.