Monolith Cocktail Blog

A ROUNDUP OF NEW MUSIC REVIEWS BY CULT INSTIGATOR OF THE NO-FI, AND SIBLING BAND MEMBER OF THE BORDELLOS, BRIAN SHEA.

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The Blow Monkeys ‘Stranger To Me Now’
(Last Night From Glasgow)

Admittedly I do like The Blow Monkeys from way back, but have sort of lost track over the years and have not really paid much attention since their 80s heyday, which on listening to this their new single has been slightly remiss of me as this is a lovely soft blue eyed soul slow dance of a song: a lovely little thing indeed.

Amateur Cult ‘Eyes’

This is a humdinger of a single, all 80s synth and sax post punkery with a splash of Krautrock and a dash of the Silver Apples like genius. We have a fine radio friendly experimental radio friendly smash here.

Bright Islands ‘Five Songs’

There is nothing surprising about this EP. It is simply well written guitar indie pop that has a lovely laid back feel, and could have been made anytime over the last 40 years or so. And there is nothing wrong with that, at times reminding me of Gene, at other times, the Wedding Present in their quieter moments. And any lovers of indie guitar and jangle pop should enjoy this EP.

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John Howard ‘Single Return’
(Kool Kat Records)

With it being 10 years since John Howard and The Night Mail got together to record their eponymous album, Kool Kat records have decided, it being a good idea, to release the original solo John Howard versions. And as an idea, it is indeed a good one.

Just John alone with his piano singing songs of love and loss and sketches of life and characters; songs that dip and swoon into memories, just a man alone putting his heart into his art, painting lyrical pictures of the poetic injustices and the apple stork romantic eccentricities that invade and dive bomb our thought’s on a daily basis. John Howard is a national treasure: a lost pleasure. If he was given the record label backing back in the 70s his debut album deserved John would now be seen as the English Randy Newman or the modern day Noel Coward writing pithy vignettes on the UK’s ever increasing lack of culture and panache; writing songs with a style and eloquence and wit one can only stand back and admire. Single Return is a great place to start if you have had the misfortune of never hearing John’s music before; a fine album from a fine artist.

Poundland ‘Mugged’
(Cruel Nature Records)

Sludge rock, the sound of old-fashioned punk rock, metal and the slow grind of decay erupting in an explosion of bile and chaos and shambolic tension. That is the ideal description of “mugged”, this fine album by Poundland.

Recorded in a studio in a day, ala The Beatles with their debut LP Please Please Me, but whereas The Beatles captured the excitement and joy and the freedom of being young in 1963, Mugged by Poundland captures the terror and horrors of life in the UK in 2024: the poverty, violence and dying high-street where closing banks are replaced by food banks and people working full time cannot afford to heat their houses or feed their kids.

Lets be frank about this music. It should and could be the catalyst for cultural change like Rock N roll did in the 50s and The Beatles/Dylan did in the 60s and Punk rock of the 70s. We need a revolution now in 2024 and we are slowly and quietly having one; it is slowly building momentum and will soon explode in a beautiful array of sound and when it does Poundland will be there at the forefront with their caustic tales of life backed by the sound of chaotic noise pollution.

Avi C. Engel ‘Too Many Souls’
(Cruel Nature Records)

“Too many Souls” is a hauntingly bewitching album; an album that carries the acoustically sonic ambience of the Gene Clark “No Other” LP – it carries the same atmosphere, the sound of mother earth placing her arms around you gently caressing, running her fingers through your hair whispering that all will be all right.

This is the sound of sitting on a mountain by a gentle running stream lost in your thoughts and memories and hopes; listening to the breeze echo around the majestic Ness of the fading light. “Too Many Souls” is once again a truly artful release by Cruel Nature Records.

Curling ‘No Guitar (Deluxe Edition)’

Do not let the title of this album fool you, “No Guitar” is in fact full of the little bleeders twanging and rocking away in an explosion of Big Star/Velvet Crush/Teenage Fanclub and Creation era Nick Heyward. Frenzied weaving melodies pull you into the days when radio and music magazines was a must in discovering what musical delights you should be looking out for. Yes indeed, this is an album of well written guitar songs that could have been written anytime over the last 50 or so years; songs that could have been entertaining you, soundtracking your preparations for a night out in the local bar to watch some wonderful up and coming guitar band: which could in fact sound like Curling.

Yes this is the sound of the days before smart phones and the Internet got in the way of seeking adventure, of not knowing what the band sounded like before going to watch them, of taking a punt on an album that you actually had to buy to hear. Curling brings all those days back, and if it was those days and you did take a punt on “No Guitar” then you wouldn’t have been disappointed.

Jordan Jones ‘And I, You’
(Kool Kat Music)

I do have a thing for tastefully produced melodious 70s style piano driven pop, so “And I, You” is right up my Tin Pan Alley. It is an album that brings the joy of mainstream 70s radio to your speakers; music to brighten up this horrible depressing decade with a touch of old fashioned flared sunshine; songs that could be introduced by Dave Lee Travis or Terry Wogan; songs that have you scrambling back through your memories to “just what was that Gerard Kenny hit again that I used to like” and “did the sun always seem to shine in the school holidays those where the days when the transistor radio was your best friend and you always had chips for your tea.” Yes Jordan Jones is a wonderful throwback to better times “And I, You” is a true beaut of a pop album.

Mark E Moon ‘Resist’
(Cold Transmission Music)

Resist by Mark E Moon is an over the top gothic flamboyance of album; the sort one should listen to wearing ill-fitting velvet pantaloons whilst sipping red wine from an engraved silver goblet. Imagine if Robbie Williams had taken a turn for the Goth instead of making his Rudebox monstrosity, if he had been injected with the blood of Dave Vanian circa “Eloise” and decided to thrill his adoring public with the outpourings of the slightly dark and sinister, it could have well sounded like this entertaining album.

Resist has a pop sheen and a camp glamour that is brought into line with the Depeche Mode and very early New Order synth like greyness that makes Resist an album that is in fact hard to resist.

NCD Instigators ‘Swimming With Sharks’

The NCD Instigators were Tony, Brendan, and Desi Bannon, three brothers from Newcastle County Down in Northern Ireland who decided to form a band in the 80s together after many years of playing in various other bands. They took their love of metal, prog, folk and rock and home recorded several albums for their own pleasure, burning them onto CDRs to give to friends and family and playing the occasional gig.

This Album, Swimming With Sharks, was the 5th album and their first concept album; one about a young lad entering into the world of big business and boardrooms, and one that became a bit of a considered lost underground prog classic, with burned off CDR’s passed around like nobody’s business – this was pre internet days remember. It has never been officially released until now, after a cdr came into the hands of myself which I raved about and passed onto the head of Metal Postcard Records.

This might well be an album that draws on the trio’s love of Pink Floyd (post Syd, a band, as many know, I hate) but for some reason I love this and prog folk in equal measures. There is a home recorded warmth and a love of prog that shines through, and it helps matters that at times Brendan’s guitar playing is simply stunning, and that the songs are just so fucking weird: “Hammerhead” is an early 80s New Romantic, Post Punk  and mid-seventies Pink Floyd on a collision course, that has one at times thinking of what the Orb would have sounded like if they had six pints of Guinness each before going into the studio and decided they  wanted to sound like Public Image Ltd.

“Shark Attack” is an instrumental gem; a duel of guitar and Keyboard that shows off Des’s love of The Doors.

There is just something quite magical about this album, and it is sad that now it is only being released years after the fact and that Tony (bass and vocals) is no longer with us, having passed away in 2020. Hopefully this release will ignite some long overdue interest in this underground lost great band from Northern Ireland.