Monolith Cocktail Blog

REVIEWS GALORE/Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea

Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea joined the Monolith Cocktail team in January 2019. The cult leader of the infamous lo fi gods, The Bordellos, has released countless recordings over the decades with his family band of hapless unfortunates, and is the owner of a most self-deprecating sound-off style blog. His most recent releases include The Bordellos beautifully despondent pains-of-the-heart and mockery of clique “hipsters” ode to Liverpool, and the diatribe ‘Boris Johnson Massacre’. He has also released, under the Idiot Blur Fanboy moniker, a stripped down classic album of resignation and Gallagher brothers’ polemics.

Each week we send a mountain of new releases to the self-depreciating maverick to see what sticks. In his own idiosyncratic style and turn-of-phrase, pontificating aloud and reviewing with scrutiny an eclectic deluge of releases, here Brian’s latest batch of recommendations.

The Original Magnetic Light Parade ‘Smoke & Mirrors/Confusion Reigns’
(Bearsuit Records) Single/26^th June 2020

Once again Bearsuit Records bring us music of beauty and sheer magical elegance, with this fine experimental two tracker by The original Magnetic Light Parade. Sci-fi synths float and caress the air to bring us, the listener, to a higher state of consciousness; a lone acoustic guitar leads us on a gentle floating journey through the clear water of the love laden memories of a past we so wish we had. So yet again, a release of true wanton instrumental genius.

Deleo ‘Mythomania’
(Made It Records) Single/19^th June 2020

Ah at long last a song with melody and a melancholy pop freshness that has been missing from this batch of new releases. Yes I have had a heavy metal EP were all the songs are about video gaming and a LP the Quietus has said nice things about according to the press release (do they expect me to fall down to my knees get my cock out and wank over it just because the quietus likes it). If the quietus likes it, it can mean two things either that it is tuneless shit that so called intellectuals will pretend to like or it came out 40 years ago. But with this release the lovely sad mellow pop Deleo saves my early Saturday morning reviewing session with a blissful three minutes of sublimeness.

Bananagun ‘The True Story Of Bananagun’
(Full Time Hobby/Anti-Fade) Album/26^th June 2020

From the off I like this LP. It sounds like a barrel load of monkeys discovering the joys of sunshine pop. 60s harmonies, fast strummed guitars with wah wah solo’s, and that’s only the first track, this is a band that grew up watching Matt Helm films and Beatles cartoons and longed to own a time machine so they could have played the hip and happening clubs of swinging 60s London.

5th Dimension Funk meets Syd’s Pink Floyd in an explosion of technicolour wonderment, a true joy of nostalgic longing wrapped up in the sound of pure unadulterated joyfully playful psych tinged sunshine pop.

Colossous ‘Running In The Sand’
Single/15^th June 2020

This is a rather marvelous single; 80s pop synths and even amusement arcade middle eight. The kind of song that would have enriched an early 80s Top Of The Pops (you can imagine it sandwiched between Duran Duran and The Teardrop Explodes) but with a slightly post punk feel; John Peel no doubt tapping his toes and arching one eyebrow whilst we at home sang along from the printed lyrics in that week’s copy of Smash Hits. A gem of a single.

Sir Robert Orange Peel ‘Piers Morgan 1-0 Everyone Else’
(Metal Postcard Records) Single/9^th June 2020

I love this. There is revolution in the air and this wonderful track sticks two fingers up at the government and their bordering on criminal handling of the Covid-19 pandemic; a track that features the sense and outrage spoken by at one time one of the most despised characters on British TV Piers Morgan, but who for some strange reason has suddenly become one of the only voices of reason and true outrage at our flimsy poor evil fat cat government who puts money over lifetime and time again this is both a wonderful protest song and a tribute to Piers Morgan [who would have believed it ]shows what a crazy world we are living in.

Salem Trials ‘Pictures Of Skin’
(Metal Postcard Records) Single/13^th June 2020

The best new band of 2020 anyone?? The second single coming not even a month after their wonderful debut, these two tracks are ram jam packed of Wire like pop suss: imagine Pete Shelley gargling with a mouthful of spiders [from mars] whilst juggling old vinyl LPs of Tubeway Army and Subway Sect bootlegs, whilst starring Johnny Rotten style at some leather clad beauty who is far too good to even consider you. Yes this is perfect rock n roll that captures the magic and true spirit of the greatest of the art forms. And a big round of applause should go to Metal Postcard Records who released this, and who are quietly becoming the greatest label on the planet.

The Amplifier Heads ‘The Man With A Sun For A Head’
EP/18^th June 2020

Although at the moment of typing it is currently raining cats and dogs, but even the inclement weather cannot put a dampener on this fine EP of XTC like pop wonder. The lead off title-track is a fine example of how to make let’s throw the kitchen sink at it work. A song of bright sunshine goodness leaps from the speakers leaving the room to sparkle and bathe in a glow of sunshine psyche so much so that it could easily hold its own on XTC’s excellent Oranges And Lemons album: a song so British sounding it could have only been made by a American. If this was 1967 I would predict a hit single in the offing.

Ageing Children ‘Live’
(Bearsuit Records) LP/18^th June 2020

Noise is a musical virtue; it is one of the wonders of the world when it is performed right, and in the right situation can make the dullest of days seem like an adventure into the unknown, and this album of discordant guitar noise is a case in point. This has everything one wants in a noise album; it has atonal discordance it has melody seeping from the dark corners of your psyche. Track two, ‘You Have to Work Hard To Live Like This’, could have easily fitted onto Scott Walker’s masterpiece The Drift, and the wonderful ‘Silaninans Head’ sounds like the theme of Jaws played under water by the Mary Chain in the middle of a fox hunt: a truly magical listening experience indeed.

If anyone out there wants to dip their toes into something a little different and get away from the four white boys playing guitars and drums and singing about love, then this is an ideal place to start from. This is one of the most rewarding listening experiences I have had this year; for it has everything one wants from an album, it has noise power and moments of sublime beauty.