MALKA – Marching Beats and Fuzzy Synths
Free from the shackles of record company control, MALKA’s debut album Marching to Another Beat is undoubtedly bonkers.
This brand new (part crowd funded) project from Tamara Schlesinger (former front-woman of the critically acclaimed 6 Day Riot) is a blend of synth enthused pop that experiments with pipes, authentic percussion and classic marching beats.
Comparisons to early Florence Welch are fair, but there’s a raw quality, brought through by the mix of buzzing synths and clunky percussion on tracks like I Never Needed Love and Let it Go that set MALKA apart.
The way the synths and drums battle for space in the mix creates an unnerving punk-ish blend, which is juxtaposed by Schlesinger’s ethereal vocals and backing. In an era when music seems to be increasingly bland it’s refreshing to hear something that rattles the synapses.
This jarring quality makes the album a difficult listen first time round, but those feelings subside after two or three repeats, as the band pull you out of your Coldplay* comfort zone, and introduce you to a unique blend of traditional, almost Gaelic tones, combined with the more bullish sounds of synth pop.
It’s as if MALKA crash landed from the space age in Galway and spent a week learning all there is to know about traditional Irish beats and syncopated vocals before taking them back to the spaceship to experiment.
Nothing on the album fulfllls this (perhaps misguided) analogy more than Eyes on the Prize, with verses driven by a wobbling, space age synth, cyclical pipes and a steady marching beat, into choruses of serene, pointed harmonies perfectly punched in unison with the drums.
What’s more, Schlesinger certainly has an ear for the catchy chorus. The aforementioned I Never Needed Love, Into The Night and My Body (Takin Over) all hook you in with a concoction of percussive vocal jibes and ghostly harmonies, which create a biblical experience on par with the likes of Kate Bush and more recently Bat For Lashes.
Ultimately the album is an upbeat collection of marching tunes, that when you scratch the surface deal with much darker lyrical themes, exploring issues of control and wanting to break away.
Wrap It Up, Let it Go and I Never Needed Love, could certainly serve as break up anthems and seem to explore the mixed emotions you feel after coming out of a long term relationship – jumping from nostalgic desperation to not giving a fuck in an instant.
On the whole, I would like to call MALKA’s debut album pop punk (with synths thrown in) but unfortunately that genre has been high jacked by an entirely questionable brand of music that doesn’t seem to have anything punk-ish about it. Marching to Another Beat on the other hand is a much heartier beast, with a radical mix of traditional rhythms, fuzzy synths and dark lyrical refrains.
MALKA’s Marching to Another Beat was released on June 1, 2015 and is available on iTunes and Bandcamp et al.
*Disclaimer: I actually quite like Coldplay, please don’t tell anyone…
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