Monolith Cocktail Blog

PLAYLIST/Dominic Valvona

If you’re reading this than thank you for actually clicking the link through to the latest edition of Dominic Valvona’s eclectic and inter-generational imaginary radio show playlist. With no inane chat, smug aficionado endorsements or petty factiods, it’s the best kind of playlist: Just 2 hours of incredible music to discover, embrace, dance to (if the mood takes you) and wrap your head around. With no themes, other than the inclusion of tracks by those who’ve passed away during the month and a number of anniversary celebrating albums, the Monolith Cocktail Social is one long musical odyssey.

On Volume #61 Sum Pear idolise the sun, Creepy John Thomas skin up, whilst Juicy Lucy turn out a vision of Spirit’s ‘Mr. Skin’; Frank LoCrasto sends us out on a sublime float across the plains, and a fiftieth-anniversary album celebrating Sly & The Family Stone play us out with the epic ‘Africa Talks To You (“The Asphalt Jungle”)’ from their triumphant tumult of an album, There’s A Riot Goin’ On.  Talking of anniversaries, this month’s playlist also includes the lead track from The Kinks country-yearned Muswell Hillbillies album (released this month back in ’72), plus tracks from Teenage Fanclub’s breakout album Bandwagonesque (30 years old this month), something from Japan’s Tin Drum (incredibly 40 years old), and a beauty from Bradford Cox’s Deerhunter side hustle Atlas Sound’s Parallax (only a mere ten years old this month). We also pay a special tribute to former New York art-rock, post-punk, avant-garde stalwart drummer Dee Pop of Bush Tetras infamy, and so many other experimental projects, including with friend of the blog Andy Haas. 

Track List::

The Kinks  ‘Muswell Hillbilly’
Return To Forever  ‘Do You Ever’
Juicy Lucy  ‘Mr. Skin’
Creepy John Thomas  ‘This Is My Baby’
Skinned Teen  ‘Pillow Case Kisser’
Times New Viking  ‘Pagan Eyes’ Urbano de Castro  ‘Giloso’
Balla Te Ses Balladins  ‘Yo Te Contres Maria’
Ted Taylor  ‘Days Are Dark’
Teenage Fanclub  ‘What You Do To Me’
Bush Tetras  ‘Too Many Creeps’
T La Rock  ‘Ya Pushin It’
Muchos Plus  ‘Nassau’s Discos (Short Version)’
Tamar Aphek  ‘Russian Winter’
The Beets  ‘What Did I Do’
Atlas Sound  ‘Angel Is Broken’
Long Fin Killie  ‘Homo Erectus’
Los Supersonicos  ‘Introduccion’
The Ban  ‘Bye Bye’
Sum Pear  ‘Hey Sun’
The Pretty Things  ‘Love Is Good (Radio 1 Session 1972)’
Manduka  ‘Entra y Sale’
Frank LoCrasto  ‘Simple Times’
Stone The Crows  ‘The Fool On The Hill’
Japan  ‘Visions Of China’
Gjennomslag  ‘Siste Dans’
Biting Tongues  ‘Probate’
Kaira Ben  ‘Singa’Jackson Conti  ‘Upa Neguinho’
Dundundun  ‘Dun In Outer Space’
Hasan Minawi  ‘Ana Ma Feieh’
Khmer Jazz Fusion  ‘Juno Katah’Rob Sonic  ‘Hammer Of Chaos’
Ramson Badbonez/Kashmere/TrueMendous/Micall Parknsun/Joker Starr, Gee Bag/Confucius/Jehst/Phoenix Da Icefire  ‘Black Hole Cypher’
Sly & The Family Stone  ‘Africa Talks To You (“The Asphalt Jungle”)’