Monolith Cocktail Blog

BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS. ALL ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

bigflower ‘Difficult Times’
Track – Released 11^th June 2026

Now then, this does not sound like the Rolling Stones but for some reason reminds me off them: Maybe if sucked through a high-powered vortex and fed into a mincer of self-doubt paranoia anger and hope it might be what they would sound like. It certainly has a rather nagging wonderful guitar riff that is digitally delayed to the inch of its life. Once again bigflower blooms again. 

Cult Of Free Love ‘Know Your Name / She Floats On Fire’
Single (Fuzzed up & Astromoon Records) Released 19^th June 2026

Psychedelic is what we have here, not the 60’s variety but an early 90’s sounding  variety [to my ageing ears anyway], the kind that would have had A&R men stroking their chins and wallets to sign back in the day when The Stone Roses ruled the roost and bands like the Telescopes were releasing sublime and ignored gems of albums like their second album Higher And Higher, and Thee Hypnotics were playing to 5 men and a slightly bedraggled caricature of Moe Bandy who had turned up thinking it was country night.

Yes indeed, The Cult Of Free Love have captured the magic in the bottle of that era and shaken it up and soaked we the jolly listeners with a splendid froth of psychedelic guitar riffs that leaves us an aural adventure of crushed velvet; of a time when goths where goths and knew a thing or two about style and elegance. All in all, a psych goth gem.

Earth Mother Fucker/ Poundland ‘Split”
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 8^th July 2026

Mind-bending blitzkrieg bop punk rock garage punk sizzle. Yes, that is one way to poetically describe this fine album by Earth Mother Fucker and Poundland. Two bands that soundtrack these unpleasant divided days of living in the UK when life is coloured concrete grey and all the magic has gone.

Life is no longer John Lennon chewing gum while singing “All You Need Is Love” or The Sex Pistols saying shit on national TV. Music really does not speak to a nation anymore. It is as underground as it has ever been. It no longer shocks or delights a nation. Music no longer matters to kids like politics no longer matters to kids. There are no longer any teenage tribes. They all dress the same, they have had all the individuality drilled out of them by the saturation of not upsetting the norm.

I guess that is why Earth Mother Fucker and Poundland sound like they do, because they are probably at the age when they knew how much music mattered and changed lives and brought great change to life and culture. And if a couple of people under the age of twenty hear this album and it inspires them to pick up an instrument and express emotion and love and anger there is hope for the world yet.

Max Knouse ‘Goat Pupil’
Album (Ruination Records) Released 12^th June 2026

Goat Pupil is an album of well written and performed Smog like alt country blues folksongs. Max Knouse is a talented chap and has a wonderful way about how he draws you in with his laid-back lazy drawl (drawl you in even). There is a charm and earthy gentleman like elegance about his delivery and his softly picked strummed guitar floats like a fading butterfly surfing the barbecue smoke filled evening air casting future memories waiting to be plucked from the shadows of the dying sun.

The Loft ‘Badges’
Album (Tapete) Released 8^th May 2026

The Loft are back with their second album, and very good it is to if you are fan of indie guitars that chime and jangle and were young when Creation Records had never even heard of Oasis; and  yes I  am all of the above so love the T-rex guitar riffage of “Sad Comedian” and can appreciate the summery Go Betweens’ pop “Campervan”: how middle aged is to write an indie rock song about escaping in a campervan…Very.

This album is indeed a fun listen and is always a delight to hear the distinctive vocals of Pete Astor backed by the fine indie guitar chime of Andy Strickland, and lovely to know that they still have it after all these years.

Oopsie Daisies ‘HAGS’
(Metal Postcard Records) Released 11^th June 2026

The warm swooshing sound of synth; the jangling of guitars; the sublime melodies of youth; yes, this is the sound of Bedroom pop, the true magic of music captured not in the hallowed walls of Abbey Road haunted by the ghosts of The Beatles and The Hollies and George Martins’ white shirts but in a room with a bed in it and curtains overlooking the streets of Portland. Yes, indeed music can be made anywhere, all you need is some cheap instruments and songwriting talent which Mr Oopsie Daisies has in abundance it seems. 

Schizo Fun Addict ‘Indigo Teleport’
Video B-Side (Fruits de Mer Records)

Indigo Teleport is the latest track by Schizo Fun Addict. Well actually it’s the B-side to their last single, released as a very ltd 7 inch on Fruits De Mer, but they have posted it now online and it can be heard on YouTube, so if that is your thing give it a watch and listen and you will find them in and on post punk territory. Yes, touches of the mighty Fall and early Pavement lay waste to the  slumber party of life, and we are left  deriding the pitiful state of UK radio when one would hear this and its ilk on night time national  radio and now we are left scouring YouTube for morsels of musical glory.

Emmaleen Tangleweed ‘The Weaving’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 31^st July 2026

The Weaving is a Country blues and folk masterclass, the kind of album that could have been made any time in the last 70 years, not a synth or any AI in sight, just a talented songwriter guitarist singing well written and performed magnificently songs of darkness and loss and death. Not an album to be played at your daughters twelve birthday party, and I cannot imagine any tracks being slipped in between “Agadoo” and “Ooops Upside Your Head” at a wedding disco soon.

The Weaving is an album to be played late at night as the rain bewitches the window, with a glass of whiskey by your side as memories and heartache waltz seductively like a candleflame dancing sweet nothings casting shadows of virginal enticement.

Wire Worms ‘Beneath The Eildon Tree’
(Cruel Nature Records) 31^st July 2026 

Wire Worms are a six-piece Northern neo-folk band and like all the best neo-folk bands draw influences from many other genres; so one can feel the influence of experimental noise and the whispering tangents of Black Metal if not in sound but in atmospheric Eastern European wanderings.

Beneath The Eildon Tree is an album that should appeal to both those with a fondness of traditional British Folk and those who bow their heads at the altar of Current 93 and Death In June. There is a wonderful darkness and melancholy that seeps and indeed sweeps from Beneath The Eildon Tree that leaves the listener in a catatonic trance like state of pure oneness with bliss.