MALKA – Reach Out (self-release)

MALKA – Reach Out (self-release)

MALKA, AKA songwriter Tamara Schlesinger returns with woozy alt-pop single Reach Out to get kitchen dancefloors popping in lockdown and to showcase her expanded musicality and forays into self-production. 

MALKAArtist: MALKA
Track: Reach Out
Label: Self-release
Released: 26 January 2021
Find it: Spotify

The only dancefloor open to us now is the kitchen, and we must sway alone in the half-light, with bittersweet tears and longing which pulls us apart from the inside. We are filled with the visceral yearning for the return of everything.

Everything must wait, but MALKA brings comfort to the lonely dancefloor with new single Reach Out brimming with woozy alt-pop electro melody and the needed reminder the light will return.

Struggling with the fatigue and frustration of long COVID MALKA, AKA songwriter and frontwoman of alt-folk collective 6 Day Riot, has processed her emotions through scattering percussion, analogue synths, and soft vocals. The result looks with optimism and gentle trust that better days are to come, and with respect and care for what drew us here encourages us with uplifting melody and catchy hooks.

‘But oh / The light will always follow the dark / Oh, the light will always follow the dark / so reach out and take it’

The track is the first new must since 2020 album I’m Not Your Soldier, and sees MALKA use the necessity of lockdown to deeper her musicality and self-production. With expansive woozy passages interspersed with chasing rhythms and climbing synth lines the track nods to ’80s pop without sinking into nostalgia.

Reach Out is the hint of warmth from Spring sunshine on chilled skin, the refreshing blast of freshness after so long within our own walls. It’s a track which murmurs gently to us as we dance in the dark of our kitchens grasping at the the dream of hearing it expand to fill some larger place where with distances closed we can move as one to its call. The better days are coming and until they arrive we have the hope within this song to hold on to.

Reach Out by MALKA is out now on all digital platforms.

Find MALKA: website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify

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Sarah Lay

Sarah Lay is editor of Popoptica.
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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