Aldus Santos

There’s something disarming about Marlovers’ approach to the concept album. Case in point: their new release ‘16 Sunrises from the Soyuz,’ which, in a manner of speaking, is a duck that refuses to quack like one or walk like one. In Marlovers’ able hands, the concept record disarms simply because, well, it charms. Nevertheless, being a sucker for allegory, it was a sweet thing to learn about their narrative frame for the record.

I got sent Morphelle’s track on a cold Sunday morning – over a champ of a breakfast, with my beautiful family, in a town where loved ones currently live, but also where some are buried – and it soundtracked the moment beautifully. It’s not a whiskey wallower, but also not a lilting latte ladida.

I confess to waxing lyrical before I drop bombs, but allow me to shift gears this time and say this in the plainest declarative: Kubra Commander’s ‘Metabolic’ is, easily, this label’s strongest longform release this year. It treads that razor-thin wire between heart and art quite well, and we’re lucky it does. My critical tendencies tell me to probe so I do, but Bobbi Olvido is routinely evasive in all our pre-release Q&As. That’s par for the course, though.