Cardiff-based, DIY-folk-pop collecTve, Quiet Marauder, are set to release their 5th album at the end of October 2023. This follows on from their madcap 111-song debut album, MEN (2013), as well as the more recent Tiny Men Parts (2020) and The Giv (2021), and conTnues their long-established relaTonship both with their label, Bubblewrap CollecTve, and Canadian collaborators, The Burning Hell. Recorded in a Snowbird Studios pop-up in Lourinha, Portugal, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte conTnues the band’s fascinaTon with high concepts and musical, albumlength storytelling. At its core, it is an album about self-idenTty, isolaTon, and our innate fluctuaTons as human beings. Set during the pandemic, the album’s a very loosely autobiographical (read: almost enTrely false) account of band leader Simon M. Read’s day-to-day life during Covid lockdowns with partner, Kadesha Drija, and imaginary friend, Malcolm Del Monte. Choosing to largely avoid the topic of the pandemic altogether, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte instead charts the highs and lows of these living arrangements. These range from outrageous dayTme drinking (high) to disagreements on the nature of perversion (low), with the first half of the album covering Malcolm’s emergence and ulTmate expulsion from the house. With his absence being sorely felt, the second half sheds light on the alternaTve voices looking to fill that Malcolm-shaped space: a murderous green giant; a despondent Milk Tray Man; and a broken-necked, hypersexual Jet from Gladiators. As with their previous story-based albums, the foreground narraTves act to enable background allusions to other core concerns: the power of nostalgia; adverTsing and cultural consumpTon; well-being and isolaTon; balancing acts of the self. UlTmately, the album’s message is of striking a balance between self-quesToning and improvement, and most of all, not being too hard on yourself when things don’t feel quite right. Sonically and seamlessly ranging from alt-folk to industrial synth to melodic indiepop, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte covers a lot of ground. Injected with the musicality of Quiet Marauder themselves, as well as Canadian kindred spirits, The Burning Hell, instrumentaTon includes flute, piano, chunky bass, acousTc and electric guitar, programmed beats, synthscapes, bamboo clarinet, bongos, and a heap load of vocals. Indeed, alongside the main lead voices of Simon M. Read, Kadesha Drija and Malcolm Del Monte (Rowan Liggek) there are guest performances from My Name Is Ian and The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom. The album will be preceded by lead single and video Momma Mia! I Made You Some Sangria! on 22nd September, as well as Milk Tray Man in early October