Malka 'The Constant State' (EP REVIEW)

Unbeknown to us, Stateside guitar bands have been secretly gorging themselves on our home grown Indie Top 20 era sound from a generation ago, and in some cases stealing the thunder of a milieu of UK outfits, struggling under the weight of expectation to recapture the excitement of their predecessors. Now it’s Big Apple 4-piece Malka’s turn to mine a rich seam of dreamy shoegaze and make it their own on their inaugural offering, this rather splendid mini-album ‘The Constant State’. 

Darko Saric (Vocals, guitars, keys) Mike Dawson (drums) EJ De Coske (guitars, keys, vocals) and David Ciauro (bass & vocals) have also shrewdly made some friends in the right places, for example, enlisting the services of veteran sound engineer Butch Jones, whose previous roll-call includes Madonna and Talking Heads. His experience is definitely felt on the lush enveloping sound they’ve created here, every bit as dense as the woodland scene on the album’s cover.

Opener ‘A Flock of Crows’ gets things underway in fine style, an ethereal swooping waltz, part Cocteau, part MBV. ‘For Now We Live’ is a more sombre slice of post-rock, elegiac segments punctuated by walls of noise, furious drums and screeching guitar vying for attention. ‘Mientras Se Respira’ the first song the band ever shared continues the dreaminess, coming across like the gentler cousin of the Teenage Fanclub classic ‘I Don’t Know’, complete with Spanish lyrics, the song’s title translating as ‘While Breathing’. ‘Wolves and Sheep’ delivers a more hurried and sinister in tone whereas ‘Diamond Girl’ is textbook euphoric space rock with the eyes fixed firmly on the sneakers.

Penultimate track ‘Corazin’ returns to the dark side as well as the somewhat fragile Spanish vocal, perhaps sounding a little timid when having to compete with such gloriously screeching slide guitar lurking menacingly in the shadows. Finally ‘Swoon’ with its great big slab of moreish melody, brings ‘The Constant State’ to a joyous end.

Promising. 

Words - Mike Price

'The Constant State' is available now via itunes

Malka Official

TRACKLIST:
1) A Flock Of Crows
2) For Now We Live
3) Mientras Se Respira
4) Wolves And Sheep
5) Diamond Girl
6) Corazon Sin Sangre
7) Swoon