The Constant State of shoegaze continues.

For fans of: ‘Leisure’-era Blur; The Horrors

Modern Indie music seems to be stuck in a constant unshifting state of wide-eyed shoegaze awe. Fitting, then, that Malka’s debut EP ‘The Constant State’ fits the typical mould of a shoegaze indie band.

That would be, an EP packed full of swirling vocal hurricanes, whirlpools of delayed guitars and cascading landslides of drums. Malka do it all and they do it well, standing a little on the outskirts of shoegaze. You never get fully immersed and captured in the inescapable guitars on ‘The Constant State’, it seems to just spin around you.

But that’s not a bad thing. Too much of a feeling of being trapped within a shoegaze storm can feel suffocating, especially with the volume of shoegaze releases. Malka manage to make the intolerably overused style tolerable, offering a more psychedelic spin on it. Much of the EP feels more along the vibe of Fouintains Of Wayne’s ‘Supercollider’ or – at a push on ‘Mientras Se Respira’ (yes, not satisfied with chilling in one language they fully embrace two) – like something from Blur’s baggy debut album ‘Leisure’.

I honestly hate to have to lump this in with my shoegaze hatewave, but it feels like the most fitting label. Malka are worth listening to, and ‘The Constant State’ is enjoyable. But I hope that Malka are just passing through shoegaze, on their way to somewhere more civilised and exciting.

You can buy and stream ‘The Constant State’ here.