Monolith Cocktail Blog

BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.

Arab Strap Photo: Luke Bovill 

Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Single (Rock Action Records)

If I was young and one of these influencer types you see popping up on YouTube and such, being all jolly and hip and now and current and suchlike, I would describe this as a bit of a banger and not mean old car or sausage but a bit of a toe tapper, one to cut some rug to; a record in the bygone age of when Morrissey had something to say; a record that would have dented the bottom half of the Hit Parade as indie crossover singles tended to do. Ahh…those were the days, of Gallup chart machines and record shops. And this song would have been good enough to visit your local record store and part with your penis. I meant to write pennies but I will stick with penis as it could even be good enough to part with your penis, unless you don’t have one which would mean having to borrow someone else’s to part with, and if you did, what compartment in the till would you put it? The notes or change compartment? The mind boggles. 

Double Francois ‘La Poursuite’
EP (Freaksville) 15^th May 2026

La Poursuite is a rather lovely thing indeed. 5 tracks of pure French pop from the synth pop of Allumeur to the lovely acoustic summery jazz Trop Ou Paz Assez and the blissfully sweet romance of the love duet Un apres- midi a Paris which features the wonderful Benjamin Schoos. Yes, five wonderful tracks that will soundtrack the oncoming summer; songs to lick ice cream and drink wine whilst trying to look cool in ill-fitting flannel trousers.  

Filalete ‘Frequencies Of The Soul’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 16^th June 2026

I will be completely honest, me writing about modern classical is like asking the incredible Hulk to successfully reenact the final meeting scene in Brief Encounter: it is not going to end well.

Modern classical is a musical genre I have only occasional dipped into, mostly when I have been sent some new music to review. But I am a human being for god sake! And have emotions and fallibilities like most others, so can appreciate beauty and soul and feeling. And those three things are in abundance with this rather lovely album and has me thinking there are far worse ways of me spending my Sunday afternoon than being totally moved by the outpourings of instrumental piano emotional grandeur. 

The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Sci Fi Hi Fi’
Album Released 7^th May 2026

Well, what’s not to like about an Sci Fi themed album with songs concerning planets and space and aliens and ray guns. It’s all twanging guitars ala The Ventures and suchlike and whooshing sci fi synths and Monochrome Set like vocals. Sci Fi Hi Fi has a wonderful eccentricity and includes many rewrites of Incense and peppermints, which believe me can only be a great thing. 

Occult Character ‘The Zodameta Working’
EP (Subvert)  

This is rather wonderful, the new EP by Occult Character is a splendid three track EP of pure bonkers experimental pop/dance part Eurovision, part Welsh Male voice choir, part satanic black mass. The Occult Character never fails to astound and surprise with this quite hypnotic three track gem.

Opus Kink ft The New Eves ‘The Head Tree’
Single

I quite enjoy the madness of this track. Imagine if you will Sam and The Womp getting together with Nick Cave to perform a track about hanging a witch, the kind of thing one really does not hear much about these days on the radio: That’s if you still listen to the radio, nowadays it’s all curated playlists and suchlike. I know that makes me sound like I am old enough to remember the days when they used to burn and hang witches but maybe it’s because I am. 

Schizo Fun Addict ‘Desolate Ecstasy’
Album (Fruits de Mer) 10^th June 2026

The world needs a new album by Schizo Fun Addict, it honestly does. The tragic thing about this is that the world does not realise it yet as they are criminally undervalued. The perfect pop band, just like The Beatles and The Beach Boys (in the 60s and 70s) and the Velvet Underground are perfect like Orange Juice (another criminally undervalued band), The Smiths and first few albums by the B52s where perfect. 

SFA have a wonderful sense of adventure and inner spirituality that all the finer artists and, indeed, people do. In fact, there really should be a Schizo Fun Addict cartoon (Hanna-Barber get on it please). The world is a mess, more of a mess than I have known in my near 60 years on this planet, so we need Schizo not just to soundtrack these times but also give us an escape route from life for the 35 minutes that this gem of an album plays. The radio and mags and blogs in an ideal world should be all over this album.

Desolate Ecstasy is a pop fantasy. It is the lighted up pave stones of Billie Jean. It is the mop top headshake. It is the aural image of Otis Redding falling to his knees and begging for a little tenderness. The band bring all the magic and danger and sexiness of the last 60 years or so of Rock ‘n’ Roll because they still believe in the magic.

The album kicks off with the single “Pasteline Dream”, a guitar jangling pop beauty that brings the sound of the early Stone Roses being fronted by the girls from The B52s. Jayne Gabriel and Ilona Virostek voices blend perfectly: they have that perfect blend of heavenly sass that all the best 60s girl groups have and again on “The Scent Of Heather” the sound of the BJM being fronted by the Shangri-La’s – perfect heavenly sass psych pop.

Desolate Ecstasy is one of those albums when it really is impossible to choose your favourite track as it constantly changes depending on your mood, and because all the tracks are quite special. “Coming To You” is a rather hypnotic and beautiful mellow gaze of a dance track that once again highlights both the spirituality and sensuality of the girls’ vocals, a song that takes me back to the days of the Manchester Acid scene when the Hacienda was many a peoples place of worship: “Coming To You” is an aural E of togetherness. “The Line Is Gone” is a somewhat darker beast of a track, one that highlights the genius of guitarist and producer Rex John Shelverton; a song drenched in fury and guitar twang in equal measure, the sound of the priest in the Exorcist driving the Demons out of Linda Blair by playing her The Ventures greatest hits. “Strange Theatres”, at the time of writing my current fave from the album, is a wonderful baggy like dirty pop gem of a track with sleazy bass and groove drums of Daniel Boivin and Jet Wintzer sounding like he has been possessed by the spirit of Sean Ryder chanting “let the people all die”: a truly dark and hypnotic listening experience I tell thee. So Desolate Ecstasy is quite wonderful and could be the best Schizo Fun Addict album yet and probably already my favourite album of the year. I have just realised I have not mentioned the track “Cathedral Sunshine”, a song so perfect that JAMC could have written it when they were very special…And that is very good indeed.