Apollo Brown | Monolith Cocktail Blog

25 for 25: an alternative hip-hop retrospective

December 17, 2025

Matt Oliver’s Choice Hip-Hop Releases of 2025

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist ‘Mercy’ (Backwoodz Studioz)

Armand Hammer = uncommon carnage and luxuriously slow violence, where “everything justified when you’re starving, right?” Challenging Alchemist time signatures give the MPC twisted blood, finding the unfazed ELUCID and billy woods counteracting with formidable, structurally-dismissive street riddles and artisan rambling from beyond off-the-top. In a game of who’ll blink first, a band of drizzly soft rock head nodders (‘Peshawar’ and ‘Calypso Gene’ reflecting ALC’s work on Evidence’s ‘Unlearning Vol.2’), turn the page in a surreal, open-ended world filtering between pure, “aura matte black” menace, Alchemist looping on his merry way and a kind of spectral connection/disconnect (‘Nil By Mouth’ and the magnificently dead of night ‘Crisis Phone’), as if ELUCID and billy woods are occupying disembodied mid-regeneration. Riding designer gangsterisms into town with bulletooth brainteasers where “every story tell a story that’s already been told” and barely allowing any breathing space, Mercy is a tour de force, probably reaching unexpected new levels of notoriety.

Batsauce ‘Echolocation’ (Full Plate)

Apollo Brown ‘Elevator Music’ (Escapism)

Lord Finesse ‘The SP 1200 Project: Sounds & Frequencies in Technicolor’ (Coalmine)

Leading the instrumental set this year, classy head nods and hip-hop time-outs from Florida’s bespoke Mexico-crossing beat director Batsauce red-carpets an instrumental set waiting for a soundtrack call-up. Echolocation darts between suited-and-booted scenarios, that even with the wind in its hair and its cufflinks checked, like the casting of a retro Bond who wants a Blaxploitation assignment via some folky replenishment, doesn’t forget the requisite thump of the breaks.

‘Elevator Music’ doesn’t do the creamy, calming creations of Apollo Brown any disservice; it’s his long established craftsmanship and detail, politely shushing vocals (few would be worthy of having the mic passed to them anyway – Bronze Nazareth a worthy accomplice on July’s collaborative LP ‘Funeral for a Dream’). Summoning the fading of summer with autumn leaves paving the way, whispered realisations of it being better to have loved and lost than not at all, and palm tree flutters found in finessed keys, this is a resplendently solemn, Michigan state of mind.

Legendary Bronx boardsmith and Diggin in the Crates PhD Lord Finesse keeps the boom bap simple and uncluttered with his weapon of choice, not forgetting the omnipotent sleigh-bell and horn stab combo that any emcee worth their salt sought out in the 90s. The SP1200 Project lets its warm elements breathe in the fresh air of the streets, creating smooth joints and vibes that cliques will want to huddle around and call their own, and whose exclamation points snap on instrumentals for cold calculations and dramatic entrances. Both a preservation and cracking open of a boom bap time capsule.

BlackLiq & Dub Sonata ‘Much Given Much Tested’ (Dub Sonata)

Blackliq has got prime previous with Monolith Cocktail after 2023’s Choice Is A Chance and The Lie, that mercilessly intelligent cackle-drawl from Virginia (‘I’m not a musician, I’m a conduit’) pulling New York’s Dub Sonata into his orbit. Production regularly resembles a marching orchestra bundled down the wrong side of the tracks, thrust down mystical rabbit holes. While ’10 Black Commandments’ is a smart re-up of Biggie’s classic shopping list to live by, the key here is the ferocity of rhymes that are comfortable in loosening the armour. ‘Traumatized’, ‘Me Too’ and ‘The Ride’ put everyone on an even footing, and ‘Rockwood’, with a combustible mixture of pride, defiance and bitterness, reminisces on the crest of sweeping black & white movie strings. Rugged, ruthless (the title track issues the mother of all bruises) and with rich trains of thought, Blackliq going for self ends up as catharsis everyone can tap into.

Black Milk & Fat Ray ‘Food of the Gods’ (Computer Ugly)

Detroit dream team business overdue a re-up after 2008’s The Set Up, Food of the Gods is ripe for metaphors about being a feast of beats and rhymes. And rightly so, with that Fat Ray stare down, fuck-around-and-find-out flow, and Black Milk’s production that’s customarily funk & soul-rich. An anxious patina runs through the LP’s early stages, before the Gods open the throttle (literally, on the road-ready ‘CANE’) and pop the cork so that swirls of colour mingle with record crate dust catching the light. Milk’s expressiveness and Ray’s staunch stance, elevated further (while inversely feeling looser) during the album’s latter stages, brokers a laser-like focus, as if every 16 is a business deal, reflected in the short 11-track time. Therefore, there’s no need for overcooking – just know the recipe and let it set, with Guilty Simpson, Danny Brown and Bruiser Wolf passing through a prize pick-me-up for your palette.

Buck 65 ‘Keep Moving’ (Bandcamp)

Packing 31 tracks into 50 minutes, prolific Canadian vet Buck 65 acts as someone whose thumb is constantly hovering above the pause button in the hope his mixtape can become local currency. Dressed in old skool garb (more a Beastie Boys tracksuit than a gold chain and fat laces) and where keeping it real reflects the joy of receiving a Bandcamp payment – also seeing his leftfield standing way off into the distance – it’s no problem that some of the samples and breaks you’d have heard umpteen times before. The craft of Buck’s transitions is twofold: there’s the undeniable funkiness of his sub two-minutes throwdowns, and his unphased, Ugly Duckling-meets-Paul Barman nerdiness (“hip but I’m not pelvic…I’m Robin Hood giving the nerds their lunch money back”), knowing when rhymes need a natural full stop and pause for thought after racking up rat-a-tat word associations. Always engaging, Keep Moving does indeed make you wonder where’s he gonna turn next.

Cappo ‘Houses’ (Plague)

Cappo’s subtle advancement of the art continues. In the aftermath of STARVE and Canon, Houses has Nottingham’s elite kitchen sink dramatist rhyming, daft as it sounds, more from A to B (though no less expressively or bloody-mindedly, as he does on the bit-between-teeth follow-up ‘ITO’), rather than going off on name-dropping tangents. Understandably so perhaps, given the gravity of the subject matter in this ode to domesticity and its surrounding killjoys. Sleepless nights, debt collectors, personal loss, striving to defeat stacked odds, provider’s pride and just ‘being’, and where the overlapping of all of these activates the closing in of walls – the ghosts seem to talk back on the greasily uneasy ‘Will We’. Ultimately, the need to have backbone and staying power to see things through is never in doubt, over suitably pensive, wary production. Coupled with some excellent HMRC-themed packaging and promo from Plague, Cappo continues to preserve his national treasure status.

Confucius MC & Bastien Keb ‘Songs for Lost Travellers’ (Native Tribe)

A definite hip-hop outlier in this list but all the better for it, a folky; lute-plucking, through-the-looking-glass rumination whose deep sighs and woodwind washes nullify outside noise while relaying being burdened and battered by it. Confucius MC’s always nice, levelheaded South London pen game allows the cradle-rocking narration of gentle lullabies (‘Little Man’) to become easily transferable to the grit of the screen-burnt real world (‘Fairytale’ finding itself “taught between the lines and the margins: life really is quite a sentence”; ‘Question Or Consume’ finding idylls pulled from under). Midlands Midas Bastien Keb sends you to catch Zs (‘It Would Speak’), his fantastical micro concertos and sub-Tolkien worlds conversely challenging you to a spiritual, danger-laden quest attached to “the burden of a heavy chain, the urgency of heavy shame”. The cocooned hush slowly develops into a more of a jazzy, beat-lead murmur, without the pretention of a poetry slam or coffee house special, as the pair craft a precious sonic compass.

Crimeapple & DJ Skizz ‘Rose Gold’ (Different Worlds Music Group)

After collaborative albums Wet Dirt and Breakfast In Hradec (both referenced on the track ‘Trifecta’), this latest, consummate gangster experience from Skizz and the never static Crimeapple is beautifully tailored as an NYC’s kingpin day-to-day – heads will roll, and stylishly so, with conviction always trumping the ostentatious. With the audacity to interpolate R Kelly (‘Taste Like Butter’) Lisa Stanfield-Notorious BIG (‘Congratulations’) and what we’re pretty sure is Skizz messing about with Wings’ ‘Jet’ on ’97 Tape Master’ – and steadfastly meaning it – Rose Gold represents cold-veined composure when there’s panic in the streets, but where there’s always time for a punchline for that extra chef’s kiss of respect. ‘Paradigms’ runs rampant, hook-less rhymes to destroy ciphers like drug rings, crystallising that subhuman/beyond emotion strand of focus that won’t stutter, but project the voice. As both promote the quiet storm ethic amidst the Blaxploitation resets, the pair then take it to the church on ‘The Pastor’s Whip’ as Rose Gold racks up the carats.

Defcee & Parallel Thought ‘Other Blues’ (Parallel Thought LTD)

One of the coolest sounding albums of 2025 – deferred from 2022 – Other Blues humbly never sets out to achieve such Holy Grail status of electric relaxation. New Jersey duo Parallel Thought achieve this by glossy funk and soul that learns to see past the red carpet light bulb flashes with reverent mastery of the MPC. The conversational grown man rhymes and down to earth done goodness of Illinois 9-to-5er Defcee (‘You Still Rap?’ downplaying status by being “not even Chicago famous”) develop into lore without ever yelling at any clouds, getting front rows straining to reach out in appreciation of his clarity and pragmatism. ‘Graduation Picture’ is a storytelling what-might-have-been highlight, while ‘Beasts’ emerges from the happy-to-be-here dwelling to apply a sabre prefix to being long in the tooth. A road trip of carefree origins before home truths start hanging heavier in the air (nothing realer than ‘Big Sisters’), Other Blues is everything that the beats-and-rhymes bedrock should be.

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove ‘All Portrait, No Chorus’ (Backwoodz Studioz)

2025’s grungiest, most super-villainous flow belongs to doseone; but those who know their Anticon archives will understand how these things work. Seemingly burying his hissing, cackle-cracked flow under bedcovers by torchlight and then capable of twisting his jowls double-time, in a Hanna-Barbera-meets-death metal fashion, doseone has long perfected the classic of sermons being at their most haywire when all seems hushed (‘Went Off’), bending the leftfield to his will (“semantics steadily setting these idiots free”) and leaving nothing to chance on the eye-popping ‘Inner Animal’, sustaining a Busta Rhymes-Sticky Fingaz hybrid. With the shakiness of a Blair Witch camcorder, Steel Tipped Dove’s production dares to dream, strikes out with forked teeth, holds its ground, and recognises every variable is fair game in keeping up with/goading doseone’s mindstates. The mad scientist writ large on ‘Epinephrine Pen’, it’s uneasy listening, but All Portrait, No Chorus will definitely prise ears open, by fair means or foul.

Farma G ‘How to Kill a Butterfly’ (High Focus)

Still posing one of the most potent, be-careful-what-you-wish-for flows, Task Force’s Farma G challenges himself on the mic after a prolonged spell producing underground heaters and artefacts, making a bold call for album of the year in January. How To Kill A Butterfly is an enjoyably bruising experience, the UK hip-hop legend shrouding himself in a fog weighing the world down which turns everything on the brink of lopsided, while muscle memory maintains the straight and narrow (‘Bearskin Coats’, ‘Classic Tech’). A technician, of the mould seemingly rubbing his eyes from slumber but whose survivor instinct never dulls, is always enlightening in staring down struggles and close-to-home tribulations (“the all consuming battle between happy and sad”). The likes of ‘Say It How You See It’ encompass Farma’s rounding up of weary troops to offer a sense of rain-lashed, underdog belonging; and his way of floating like a ‘Butterfly’ is to swarm opposition into suffocation.

Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals ‘A City Drowned in God’s Black Tears’ (Phantom Limb)

The axis of provocation and punishment – but then you shouldn’t expect anything else from a title screaming that this is not a drill. Maryland duo and Kneecap-supporters Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals are pourer of fuel on fire with the sort of rhymes that are done tolerating the world mark 2025 (“the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million – is a statistic”). Conspiracy quashing and intense namedrops are all part of the game, but their loose canon nature (“alcoholic househusband, I was made for that”) is actually heightened by genuine moments of calm, sometimes pastoral reflection/dysfunction. Quieten the vocals, and you’re subject to a warped, cut-n-shut jukebox of clppng-like static and metal blackouts, with glossy R&B, psychedelic Bond themes, OutKast-like groove and folk acoustics. Showing moments of universal appeal on the theoreticals of ‘Sometimes, Papi Chulo’, the pair pleasingly offers as much intrigue and complexity as the obvious DGAF shock value on display.

Jansport J ‘West Covina Prayer’ (All Attraction No Chasin)

Hard at work as ever through 2025 with ‘The Weight of the World’ and ‘Hard 2 Hate’ bookending this ode to California, the evergreen Jansport J pushes a local feelgood factor bathed in West Coast warmth and well, coasting, as only the Golden State knows. J’s mixboard smoothness, where cruise control supplants hydraulics, throws in a handful of 80s throwbacks stark (‘T-Top’), glossy (‘Brown Suga’) and with water pistols cocked (EDF running the cook-out of ‘$100 Soup’), and works with a juxtaposition of swaggy emcees that won’t retreat to the shade – the heat only makes them work harder (West Covina’s motto is “live, work, play”, so it checks out). It also comes with a touch of danger when the LA temperature turns slightly redder and mistier, exemplified by album highlight ‘It’s A Game’ featuring AJ Snow & Polyester The Saint. Just over half an hour long, but well worth the visit.

Lee Reed ‘Pitchforks & Torches’ (Strange Famous)

“I don’t know who needs to hear this – but you’ve been warned”. Armed with the baying mob’s titular weapons of choice, veteran Canadian Lee Reed is the classic antagonist elect going against the world’s current negative, vegetative, corrupted and fat cat-rewarding state – from cost of living to the declaration that “this ain’t rap, this is class war” and then directing the placards on ‘This Economy’ – with an outlaw status sipping liquor neat and done taking no for an answer. The sound of vengeance from producer ripple-eh-hex is rock-n-roll brawl, bang-your-head ready with a little voodoo seeping in, and it’s easy to imagine Reed marching from town to town in a swirl of backwater dust and scorched vocals, pistols cocked and movement mobilised to the jangle of cowboy spurs. No pauses for thought or reflection, this is undiluted and unapologetic: just as the world likes it right now.

LMNO & D-Styles ‘Three Mimes & An Elephant’ (Perpetual Stew)

This starts with slightly American gothic/folky backwater production from Beat Junkies associate D-Styles, immediately putting this 10-track album down in the trenches. With an elephant’s turn of speed it then moves into funk delivered on the low, then into super catchy stripped back loopage, and then back again to tread on eggshells. Underground Cali stalwart and Visionaries alumni LMNO is the tale-teller whose solemn, soft-edged delivery doesn’t mean it should be taken lightly (‘Hip-Hop AF’ knows the ledge, issuing a notice to turn the screw). For when the backpack starts to weigh heavy – eyes of innocence or a thousand yard stare? – ‘Three Mimes’, featuring an appearance from the ubiquitous Blu, is an ideal after-hours soundtrack bursting into life and making the shadows dance. The lane drifts, continuing with ‘Bloody White Flags’, ‘Garlic Braid’ and its line of “diarrhoea of the mouth, it’s a vowel movement”, are unexpected sneak attacks beyond the first listen. Such more-than-meets-the-ear stage management creates an absolutely rock solid, cult listen for 2025 that’s “a masterpiece born out of catastrophe”.

miles cooke ‘ceci n’est pas un portrait’ (Rucksack Records)

2025’s slurpiest, most rottonous flow belongs to miles cooke; from the first bar the Brooklynite is great at plugging ears with cranky-to-put-it-mildly disdain on the Company Flow-themed ‘negus’, a flow baptised in dirty water or birthed in Oscar the Grouch’s trashcan. Beats get lighter and varied over the course of the LP, but cooke is not a horses for courses emcee, consequently creating a savage contradiction never skimping on syllables, as an antihero not in the business of sympathy (“just trying to keep the roof over my head daily”). The refusal to budge from his wallowing, worn down by his environs and American dreamisms so that his sneer becomes unadjustable, weaponise ‘sangria’ and ‘dismiss the fear of being you’ as two of 2025’s bleakest landscapes. It’s safe to say that you shouldn’t look at ‘…portrait’ the wrong way when cooke declares “I’m half altruistic, half horrible/but you won’t find me resting on my laurels”.

Mr Muthafuckin eXquire ‘Vol 2: The Y.O.UPrint’ (Old Soul Music)

While we’ll probably never get the sleeve to Kismet out of our head and some of the barbs on the self-titled 2019 album won’t ever be safe for work, Mr eXquire continues to quell the rage of moral panickers by continuing as an older and wiser Brooklyn headhunter. Not to say he’s downgraded to a PG13 status of adult situations, but as a leader (‘It IzwWhat it iZ’) rather than a pure troublemaker (living the most opulent gangster life on ‘Y.O.Utopia’), eXquire as ghetto Sherpa (‘The Magician’ might surprise you) hits upon one of the year’s most consistent albums in terms of no skips from first track to last. In a 43 minute ball of sweat, muscle and no little wit (the pure show and prove of ‘The Soloist’) over a funky clatter of beats from KRILL, MonkeyRad7, Griff Spex, Enoch and EV – with some bars still beyond pardoning – do as the man says: “if you want some understanding, then humbly, listen to me”.

Nacho Picasso & TELEVANGEL ‘Séance Musique’ (Last Epoch Records)

Put your hands together for Séance Musique’ Woozy with a capital ‘ooh’, Portland’s TELEVANGEL, who also came correct with Lord OLO on Demon Slayer 2 in 2025, absorbs the energy of irrepressible supersonic Nacho Picasso, whose husky wisps and horizontal, Lyrics Born-meets Mr Eon flow with a mouthful of munchies, delivers zingers by the dozen. Séance is cloud-sent, undoubtedly chill and will make your lights flicker, but through the smoke there are moments of vigilance (‘Skylar’), and Nacho’s snaking through the nooks and crannies with a preference for simple structures, is a stoner style you can still follow word for word despite sitting below the mix. ‘Toast to the Chaos’ typifies both Nacho working the axis of slack and locked on, and TELEVANGEL’s intelligent lacing of the psychedelic with sufficient anxiety. The burning of incense as a perilous pursuit is hammered home on the VHS imbalance of ‘Fly Ritchie’, featuring a surprising guest hook from Mayhem SAS.

PremRock ‘Did You Enjoy Your Time Here?’ (Backwoodz Studioz)

Of an arid drawl that barely looks up from the mic – engaging in eye contact is asking for a hiding to nothing lest he loom over you – New York’s PremRock would probably dismiss adjectives such as enigmatic and scoff at being labelled leftfield. Production from ELUCID, YUNGMORPHEUS, Blockhead, Controller 7 and more elevate their target, coming in off the beaten track with a degree of admiring lo-fi mystique smuggling a reserve of trip wires (‘Aim’s True’ sounds like Pandora’s Box being jacked open). PremRock perpetuates a recluse (“complicated man, simple needs” / “up Schitt’s creek without an either/or” / “hello darkness my old homie…you’re lucky I’m so low-key”) who won’t beckon you to come closer: so listen very carefully when he starts piling up syllables while barely giving himself a run-up (and usually within a three minute timeframe). The title may be rhetorical, but you’ll get lost in this one quickly as Backwoodz Studioz chalk up another victory.

R.A.P. Ferreira & Kenny Segal ‘The Night Green Side Of It’ (Ruby Yacht/Alpha Pup)

Aboard the good ship Ruby Yacht out of Nashville, Green represents the smoothness and disruption of jazz, a rash and a methodical finding of notes, partnered with chatting where the beats don’t go and the exacting precision of line and length. Segal’s clatter of free-jazz spitballing and the sheer fucking around of ‘Blood Quantum’, is embraced with a cocksure rebuttal of “can you find the difficulty in this style?” – the atonal and off-kilter deserving of Ferreira’s acute turns of phrase (“I emailed God once, reply came back from a Mailer-Daemon”). Showing-and-proving between feeling himself and look-what-I-can-rhyme-over, Ferreira owns the double bass dope of ‘Dazzle on the Casual’ and thoroughbred jazz hop of ‘Defense Attorney’, and has the underground pluck to chronicle the ultimate triumph in adversity of ‘The Night Dreamer’s Flu Game’. All shades of green are game when he poses conundrums and reveals fleeting vulnerability, detailing that “I’ve been everything from a poet to a punching bag, an inspiration to a coulda-had” on ‘Credentials’.

The Cool Kids ‘Hi Top Fade’ (Fool’s Gold)

Generational retro from Midwest MySpace graduates Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks. From the on-point sleeve to the title to their resumption of redressing low-rider music that they’ve been doing since 2008’s The Bake Sale, the pair still have the skills to back the B-boy stances. Drum machines locked in with monster kicks for your hydraulics (the unavoidably catchy ‘Rockbox’ – an open house party invite), interplays over jazzy recliners (‘We Got Clips’, the great ‘Cinnamon Pt.2’ flipping 50 Cent), and with more than a little mining of peak era Neptunes (‘Foil Bass’), their pick-up-and-rhyme styles bearing a slight Clipse equivalency, don’t always feel they have to lock together to form a single mouthpiece. Slick and willing to knock out frauds in a second, but also in it for a summery good time with a touch of 80s electro-fied flossing, ‘Hi Top Fade’ will cause a spike in ghettoblaster sales – “this not for airpods, you gonna need good speakers”.

The Expert ‘Vivid Visions’ (Rucksack Records)

This year’s one producer-extends-invite to underground emcee roster package belongs to Ireland’s The Expert, encouraging the everyman for himself ethos while attempting to sneak a unifying headswim through each track. From humbly funky beginnings, highlights are the prescription posse cut ‘Take A Trip’, the downright nasty, leather jacketed boom bap of Buck 65’s gangster geekin’ ‘What It Looks Like’, and the cop chase ‘Acid Test’ with its scraping, TikTok-ready percussion. It’s an 18 track whole or 18 individual stand outs without a weak moment to be found, subsequently leaving you poring over the back catalogues of the album’s contributors. Playlisters can separate from the psychedelic and the flat out, the long-gamers will revel in the back and forth of the full on and easing back. ‘Running’ provides the bridge, a slide guitar loop ridden by Andrew & Defcee, who then provides a closing, slightly more caustic commentary on ‘In The Style of Bigg Juss’. A vast yet compact collection, big on discipline and the disciplines.

Von Pea & The Other Guys ‘Putcha Weight On It’ (HiPNOTT)

A collaboration well versed in hip-hop fundamentals (see 2017’s The Fiasco), there’s much to appreciate about the quality and calibration of the loops laid down by DC’s The Other Guys – on the surface there’s nothing complicated about the funk, but then there shouldn’t be with the best snare-snapping, soul/jazz refitting boom-bap. This’ll sort stiff necks immediately in one chiropractor-sacking 32 minute appointment such is their complete measure of the MPC. Von Pea’s lyrical demeanour over this rugged luxury gambols down the street, passing through (and owning) as many street corner ciphers as possible, with a little singsong in his voice (‘Slide Off With Her Homie’) and call and response prompts at all the right points adding to his too-cool-for-school knowledge (“does music even exist without wi-fi?”) that packs a deceptive amount of heft (“don’t confuse my energy with meek, I’m making chess moves as we speak”). Add spots from Che Noir, Skyzoo, Oddisee and Tanya Morgan teammate Donwill and ‘…Weight…’ represents cracking pound for pound value.

Honourable mentions:

Open Mike Eagle – Neighborhood Gods Unlimited

TELEVANGEL & Lord OLO – Demon Slayer 2

J Littles & Kong the Artisan – Furthermore

Aupheus – High Artifice

Da Fly Hooligan – Nocturnal Hooli 2.0/3

sleepingdogs – Dogstoevsky

Brother Ali – Satisfied Soul

OldBoy Rhymes – Curly Head

Verbz & Mr Slipz – The Way FWD

Jesse The Tree – Worm in Heaven

Oh No – Nodega

Extras: Matt’s essential hip-hop soundtrack to 2025; 108 tracks that represent the last year in rap.

Matt Oliver

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The End of the Month Revue for November 2025: Playlist & Choice Album Releases

November 28, 2025

Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music and Choice Releases list from the last month.

We decided at the start of the year to change things a little with a reminder of not only our favourite tracks from the last month but also a list of choice albums too. This list includes both those releases we managed to feature and review on the site and those we just didn’t get the room for – time restraints and the sheer volume of submissions each month mean there are always those records that miss out on receiving a full review, and so we have added a number of these to both our playlist and releases list.

Keep an eye out next month for our end of the year lists; a compilation of all the choice releases from 2025.

November’s Choice Albums (in alphabetical order):

Babau ‘The Sludge of the Land’
(Artetetra) Review

Bad Trips ‘Nothing But Trouble’
Review

The Cindys ‘S-T’
(Breakfast Records/Ruination Records) Review

The Flower Press ‘Slowdance’
Review

Imperial Motors ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’
Review

Neon Kittens ‘21 Minutes of Adventure’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review

The Noisy ‘The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat’
(Audio Antihero) Review

Plants Heal ‘Forest Dwellers’
(Quindi) Review

Shoko Nagai ‘Forbidden Flowers’
(Infrequent Seams) Review

SML ‘How You Been’
(International Anthem) Review

Super Grupa Bez Fałszywej Skromności ‘The Book Of Job’
(Huveshta Rituals) Review

Suntou Susso ‘Jaliya Silokang: The Path Of A Griot’
Review

The Playlist:

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The End of the Month Revue for March 2025: Playlist & Choice Album Releases

March 28, 2025

The Monthly Playlist selection of choice music, plus our Choice Albums list from the last month.

A couple of months back we decided to change things a little with a reminder (if you like) of not only our favourite tracks from the last month, but also a list of choice albums too. This list includes both those releases we managed to feature and review on the site and those we just didn’t get the time or room for. All entries are displayed alphabetically.

Our Monthly Playlist continues as normal, with tracks this month chosen by me, Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.

A Journey Of Giraffes ‘Emperor Deco’
(Somewherecold Records) Review

MC Paul Barman ‘Tectonic Texts’

Elea Calvet ‘Seasons’

Inturist ‘Tourism’
(Incompetence Records) Review

Eiko Ishibashi ‘Antigone’
(Drag City)

Timo Lassy Trio ‘Live In Helsinki’
(We Jazz)

Nickolas Mohanna ‘Speakers Rotations’
(AKP Recordings) Review

Che Noir & Superior ‘Seeds In Babylon’

Alberto Novelle & Rob Mazurek ‘Sun Eaters’
(Hive Mind Records) Review

Andrew Rumsey ‘Collodion’
(Gare du Nord) Review

Schizo Fun Addict ‘An Introduction To…’
(Fruits der Mer) Review

Snapped Ankles ‘Hard Times Furious Dancing’

Sonnyjim & Kong Artisan ‘Effortless, Almost Dead’
(Noel & Poland Records)

Russ Spence ‘Phase Myself’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review

Macie Stewart ‘When The Distance Is Blue’
(International Anthem) Review

Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes ‘Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes’
(International Anthem) Review

The Young Mothers ‘Better If You Let It’
(Sonic Transmissions) Review

Previous Monthly Choice Releases:

February 2025

January 2025

And now, the tunes of the month playlist selection:

Snapped Ankles ‘Pay The Rent’
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets ‘Weird World Awoke’
MC Paul Barman, Donwill ‘Killinagame’
Jansport J, Airplane James, Sham1016 ‘T-Top’
Alessandro Alessandroni ‘Militari in allarme’
Black Mynah ‘Colleen’
Che Noir, Superior ‘Sovereignty’
Droogie Otis, Boldy James ‘Everything Designer’
Timo Lassy Trio ‘Rumble Outro – Live’
Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes ‘Marvis’
Takuro Okada ‘Howlin’ Dog’
Inturist ‘Special Offer’
Elea Calvet ‘Bad Joke’
Sweeney ‘Love Is A Waste Of Time’
Eiko Ishibashi ‘Antigone’
Meggie Lennon ‘Connexion Astrale’
Apollo Brown ‘Honestly Don’t’
The Moose Funk Squad ‘Cheetah Piss’
Black Josh, Lee Scott ‘Aw, Here It Goes’
Queen Herawin, Pretty Bulli, Illa Ghee ‘Denial’
The Young Mothers ‘Better If You Let It’
Lord Finesse ‘Habits of Desperation’
Sonnyjim, Kong The Artisan, Lord Sko ‘Idiot Savant’
clipping. ‘Polariods’
Macie Stewart, Lia Kohl ‘I Forgot How To Remember My Dreams’
Nickolas Mohanna ‘Past Light Cone’
Previous Industries ‘Adriana Furs’
Sporaterra ‘Unglued’
PremRock, Sebb Bash ‘Did You Enjoy Your Time Here…?’
Flying Tulpa ‘Signless’
Andrew Rumsey ‘The Memorial Service Orders of Friends’
Nick Frater ‘One Minute’
Honor Saint William ‘THE IDIOT’
Puce Moment ‘Bugaku’
Alberto Novello & Rob Mazurek ‘Ricochet Edge Verse’
El Leon Pardo ‘Viaje Sideral’
Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo ‘Juliette’

Hi, my name is Dominic Valvona and I’m the Founder of the music/culture blog monolithcocktail.com For the last ten years both me and the MC team have featured and supported music, musicians and labels we love across genres from around the world: ones that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored, and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love or interest in. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to say thanks or show support, than you can now buy us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail

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The Monthly Playlist: Choice Music From August 2023: GOAT, Ramson Badbonez, Jaimie Branch, Part Bat, Dave Meder ..

August 30, 2023

PLAYLIST/TEAM EFFORT
A summary of the last month on the Monolith Cocktail site

Each month Dominic Valvona curates an eclectic musical journey from all the choice releases featured on the Monolith Cocktail, with records selected from reviews by Dominic, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea and Andrew C. Kidd. Plus Matt Oliver’s essential hip-hop revue and a smattering of tracks we didn’t get the chance to write about for a lack of time and space.

_TRACKLIST_

Ramson Badbonez ‘Weight’
FRSHRZ X Tom Caruna Ft. Essa, Phill Most Chill, Clencha, Frisco Boogie, YU, Jehst, Homeboy Sandman, Willie Evans Jr., Dr Syntax, Doc Brown, Wizdom (Green Jade), Chill aka Greenzilla, Jaz Kahina, Mas Law, Koba Kane, Blade, Pavan, Seanie T, Michie One, Graziella, Watusi87, K9, Si Philli, Apex Zero, Genesis Elijah, Longusto, Nutty P, Tubby Boy, LeeN, Skillit, F-Dot-1, SKANDOUZ, Dray, Artcha, Georgious Lazakis, Dekay, Dee Lush, Briti$h, Anyway tha God, Quartz Crystallius, Lemzi, BREIS, Leo Coltrane, Jugg GTB, Slippy Skillz, Scorzayzee, Obi Joe, El Da Sensei, Whirlwind D, Dillon, Cuts From Jazz T ‘BARS 50MC – Remix’
Azalu ‘Fleshbite’
Lunch Money Life ‘Love Won’t Hide Your Fears (The Bishop And The Bunsen Burner)’
GOAT ‘Unemployment Office’
Flat Worms ‘Suburban Swans’
Part Bat ‘Okay’
Group O ‘The Answer Machine’
Black Milk ‘Downs Get Up’
Apollo Brown ‘Three Piece’
Open Mike Eagle ‘We Should Have Made Otherground A Thing’
Raw Poetic, Damu The Fudgemunk ‘The Speed Of Power’
Stik Figa, Blu ‘Uknowhut? (The Expert Remix)’
Jaimie Branch ‘Bolinko Bass’
Trademarc, Mopes, SUBSTANCE810 ‘No Huddle’
Joell Ortiz, L’ Orange ‘In My Feelings’
Kut One, Jamal Gasol ‘Stay Sucker Free’
Belbury Poly ‘The Path’
Hydroplane ‘Stars (Twilight Mix)’
Slow Pulp ‘Broadview’
Yann Tiersen ‘Nivlenn’
Rojin Sharafi ‘dbkkk’
Andrew Hung ‘Find Out’
Misya Sinista, ILL BILL, Vinnie Paz, DJ Eclipse ‘Verbal Assualt’
Verbz, Nelson Dialect, Mr. Slipz ‘Edge Of Oblivion’
Koralle, Kid Abstrakt ‘Mission’
Rhinoceros Funk, Rico James ‘Pump This’
Sa-Roc ‘Talk To Me Nice’
Elisapie ‘Isumagijunnaitaungituq (The Unforgiven)’
MacArthur Maze, DJ D Sharp, Blvck Achilles, Champ Green, D. Bledsoe ‘Switching Lanes’
Bixiga 70 ‘Malungu’
Gibralter Drakus ‘Exode Ritual’
Dave Meder ‘Modern Gothic’
Knoel Scott, Marshall Allen ‘Les Funambules’
Vitamin G, Illinformed ‘Big Spender’
NC Lives ‘Cycle’ Candid Faces ‘Coming Home’
The Legless Crabs ‘Unstoppable’
Neon Kittens ‘Sunburn On My Legs’
En Fer ‘Mon Travail, Mon Honneur Et Ma Perseverance’
Craig Fortnam ‘All Dogs Are Robots’
Liraz ‘Bia Bia – JM Version’
Galun ‘Mirror’
Exit Rituals ‘A Fluid Portrait’
Dot Allison ‘220Hz’

Hi, my name is Dominic Valvona and I’m the Founder of the music/culture blog monolithcocktail.com For the last ten years I’ve featured and supported music, musicians and labels we love across genres from around the world that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to buy us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail to say cheers for spreading the word, then that would be much appreciated.

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Filed in Uncategorized ·Tags: 50th anniversary hip-hop rap, Apollo Brown, August 2023, Azalu, Bixiga 70, Black Milk, Dave Meder, dominic valvona, Dot Allison, Electronica, En Fer, Exit Rituals, flat worms, Fleshbite, FRSHRZ X Tom Caruna, Galun, Goat, Group O, hip-hop, indie, Jaimie Branch, jazz, Knoel Scott, Kut One, Legless Crabs, Liraz, Lunch Money, Neon Kittens, Open Mike Eagle, Part Bat, Playlist, Ramson Badbonez, Raw Poetic, Sa-Roc, Stik Figa, The Monthly Playlist August 2023, world music

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Choice Albums of 2022: Part One A to L: Anthéne & Simon McCorry to Lyrics Born

December 12, 2022

A (near) 150 albums survey of the year, with choice eclectic albums chosen by the Monolith Cocktail Team.

Well was I wrong last year when I called 2021 the annus horribilis of all years. It has been soundly beaten by the shit-show that is 2022. The invasion of the Ukraine, cost of living crisis, another hideous wave of Covid – which even if the jabs are being rolled out, and the deaths rate, hospitalisations is nothing like the first wave back in 2020, is still causing major illness, absences and disruptions to a society already facing a heap of doomsday scenarios -, strikes, activism, fuel poverty, Iranian protests, and the continuing horror show of a zombie government being just some examples. Yes 2022 qualifies as one of the most incomprehensible years on record of any epoch; an ungovernable country in the grip of austerity point 2.0, and greater world untethered and at the mercy of the harridans on either side of the extreme political divide, the billionaire corporates and narcissist puritans.

And yet, it has been another great year for music. Despite the myriad of problems that face artists and bands in the industry, from a lack of general interest to the increasingly punitive costs of touring and playing live, and the ever encroaching problems of streaming against physical sales and exposure, people just can’t quit making music. And for that we, as critics – though most of us have either been musicians or still are – really appreciate what you guys do. In fact, as we have always tried to convey, we celebrate you all. And so, instead of those silly, factious and plain dumb numerical charts that our peers and rivals insist on continuing to print – how can you really suggest one album deserves their place above or below another (why does one entry get the 23^rd spot and another the 22^nd; unless it is a vote count) –, the Monolith Cocktail has always chosen a much more diplomatic, democratic alphabetical order – something we more or less started in the first place. We also throw every genre, nationality together in a serious of eclectic lists: no demarcation involved.

The lists include those albums we reviewed, featured on the site in some capacity, and those we just didn’t get the time to include. All entries are displayed thus: Artist in alphabetical order, then the album title, label, who chose it, a review link where applicable, and finally a link to the album itself.

Because of the sheer number of entries, we’ve split that list in to two parts: Part One (A – L) starts with Anthéne & Simon McCorry and finishes with Lyrics Born; Part Two (M-Z) begins with Machine Girl and finishes with The Zew.

This year’s picks have been chosen by (Dominic Valvona), Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Matt Oliver, Andrew C. Kidd and Graham Domain.

A.

Anthéne & Simon McCorry ‘Mind Of Winter’ (Hidden Vibes) Dominic Valvona
Review

Seigo Aoyama ‘Prelude For The Spring’ (Audiobulb) DV
Review

Armstrong ‘Happy Graffiti’ Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Review

Yara Asmar ‘Home Recordings 2018-2021’ (Hive Mind) DV
Review

Avalanche Kaito ‘S-T’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Avantdale Bowling Club ‘TREES’ Andrew C. Kidd

B.

Caterina Barbieri ‘Spirit Exit’ (Warp Records) ACK
Review

Jam Baxter ‘Fetch the Poison’ (Blah) Matt Oliver

Oliver Birch ‘Burning Daylight’ BBS
Review

ＢｌａｃｋＭｅｓａ ‘Research Facility’ (猫シ Corp. ‘Selected Works’) ACK

Brigitte Beraha ‘Blink’ DV
Review

Brian Bordello ‘Cardboard Box Beatles’ (Metal Postcard Records) DV
Review

The Bordellos ‘Ronco Revival Sound’ (Metal Postcard Records) Graham Domain
Review

Boycalledcrow ‘Wizards Castle’ (Waxing Crescent Records) BBS
Review

Broadcast ‘The Maida Vale Sessions’ (Warp Records) GD

Apollo Brown & Philmore Greene ‘Cost of Living’ (Mello Music Group) MO

Brown Calvin ‘dimension//perspective’ (AKP Recordings) DV
Review

C.

**Loyle Carner ‘Hugo’ (EMI) MO**

Tom Caruana ‘Strange Planet’ (Tea Sea Records) MO

Cities Aviv ‘Man Plays The Horn’ (D.O.T.) DV

Claude ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’ (American Dreams) DV
Review

Clouds in a Headlock ‘Breakfast in Phantasia’ (Offkiltr/Fat Beats) MO

Julian Cope ‘England Expectorates’ BBS
Link

D.

The Dark Jazz Project ‘S-T’ (Irregular Frequencies) DV
Review

Aftab Darvishi ‘A Thousand Butterflies’ ACK
Review

The Difference Machine ‘Unmasking the Spirit Fakers’ (Full Plate) MO
Review

Ferry Djimmy ‘Rhythm Revolution’ (Acid Jazz) DV

Matt Donovan ‘Habit Formation’ DV
Review

The Doomed Bird Of Providence ‘A Flight Across Arnham Land’ DV/BBS
Review

Dubbledge ‘Ten Toes Down’ (Potent Funk) MO
Review

E.

Eamon The Destroyer ‘A Small Blue Car – Re-made/Re-modelled’ (Bearsuit Records) BBS
Review

El Khat ‘Albat Alawi Op.99’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Kahil El’Zabar Quartet ‘A Time For Healing’ (Spiritmuse) DV

Roger Eno ‘The Turning Year’ (Deutsche Grammophon) GD
Review

Eerie Wanda ‘Internal Radio’ (Joyful Noise Recordings) DV

Exociety ‘Deception Falls’ (Exociety) MO

F.

Fera ‘Corpo Senza Carne’ (Maple Death Records) DV

Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita ‘Echo’ (bendigedig) DV
Review

Flat Worms ‘Live In Los Angeles’ (Frontier Records) DV
Review

Forest Robots ‘Supermoon Moonlight Part Two’ (Subexotic) DV
Review

Nick Frater ‘Aerodrome Motel’ (Big Stir Records) BBS
Review

Future Kult ‘S-T’ (Action Wolf/AWAL) DV
Review

G.

Mike Gale ‘Mañana Man’ DV
Premiere

Dana Gavanski ‘When it Comes’ (Full Time Hobby / Flemish Eye) GD
Review

Gold Panda ‘The Work’ (City Slang) ACK

The Good Ones ‘Rwanda…You See Ghosts I See Sky’ (Six Degrees) DV
Review

Goon ‘Hour of Green Evening’ (Demode Recordings) Graham Domain
Review

Guillotine Crowns ‘Hills to Die On’ (Uncommon Records) MO
Review

Gwenno ‘Tresor’ (Heavenly Recordings) GD

H.

Aldous Harding ‘Warm Chris’ (4AD) GD

Healing Force Project ‘Drifted Entities Vol. 1’ (Beat Machine Records) DV
Review

Sven Helbig ‘Skills’ (Modern Recordings) DV
Review

Bruno Hibombo ‘Parting Words’ DV

Houseplants ‘II’ (Win Big Records) DV
Review

John Howard ‘From The Far Side Of A Miss’ (Kool Kat) DV
Review

I.

IBERI ‘Supra’ (Naxos World Music) DV

J.

Juga-Naut ‘Time & Place’ (Juga-Naut) MO

JPEGMAFIA ‘OFFLINE!’ ACK

K.

Kamikaze Palm Tree ‘Mint Chip’ (Drag City) BBS
Review

Kick ‘Light Figures’ (Anomic Records/Dischi Sottoernnei/Sour Grapes) DV
Review

King Kashmere ‘Woof’ (High Focus) MO

Evan Kertman ‘Rancho Shalom’ (Perpetual Doom) BBS
Review

KMRU ‘Temporary Stored’ ACK

L.

Labelle ‘Éclat’ (Infiné) DV
Review

The Legless Crabs ‘Always Your Boy’ (Metal Postcard Records) BBS
Review

The Legless Trials ‘Cheese Sandwich’ (Metal Postcard Records) BBS

Kristine Leschper ‘The Opening Or Closing Of A Door’ (Anti-) DV
Review

Liraz ‘Roya’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Francesco Lurgo ‘Sleep Together Folded Like Origami’ (Bosco Records) DV
Review

Lyrics Born ‘Mobile Homies’ (Mobile Home Recordings) MO
Review

Keep an eye out later this week for Part Two.

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Filed in Uncategorized ·Tags: A to L, Aftab Darvishi, Aldous Harding, Andrew C. Kidd, Apollo Brown, Armstrong, Avalanche Ksito, Avantdale Bowling Club, best albums of 2022, Black Mesa, brian bordello, Broadcast, Brown Calvin, Bruno Hibombo, Caterina Barbieri, choice albums of 2022, choice albums of 2022 part one, cities aviv, Claude, Dana Gavanski, Dark Jazz project, dominic valvona, Dubbledge, Eamon The Destroyer, Eerie Wanda, El Khat, Evan Kertman, Exociety, flat worms, forest robots, Future Kult, Gold Panda, GOON, Graham Domain, guillotine crowns, Gwenno, Healing Force Project, Houseplants, IBERI, Jam Baxter, John Howard, Juga-Naut, Juilan Cope, Kahil El'Zabar, King Kashmere, Kristine Leschper, Labelle, Liraz, Loyle Carner, Lyrics Born, Matt Donovan, Matt Oliver, Mike Gale, Oliver Birch, Roger Eno, Simon McCorry, Sven Helbig, The Good Ones, The Legless Crabs, Yara Asmar

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Monthly Playlist: November 2022: Cities Aviv, Mui Zyu, Edrix Puzzle, Juga-Naut, Illogic, Arthur King…

November 30, 2022

CHOICE MUSIC FROM THE LAST MONTH
CURATED BY DOMINIC VALVONA

The very last monthly playlist of 2022 is a bumper edition of eclectic choice music from the last month, with a smattering of tracks from upcoming December releases too.

This month’s picks have been collected from Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver, Brian ‘Shea’ Bordello and Graham Domain. The full track list can be found below the Spotify link.

The monthly will be back in the New Year. Until then absorb this behemoth of a selection, and next month, ponder and peruse the blog’s 140 plus albums of 2022 features.

TRACK LIST IN FULL

Black Market Karma/Tess Parks ‘The Sky Was All Diseased’
Enter Laughing ‘Met Me When I landed’
Salem Trials ‘Man From Atlantis Is Dead’
Humour ‘Jeans’
Cities Aviv ‘Funktion’
Vlimmer ‘Mathematik’
Gabrielle Ornate ‘Phantasm’
Dead Horses ‘Can’t Talk, Can’t Sleep’
Lunar Bird ‘Driven By The Light’
Mui Zyu ‘Rotten Bun’
Thank You Lord For Satan ‘When We Dance’
Pozi ‘Slightly Shaking Cells’
My Friend Peter ‘When I Was’
U.S. Girls ‘Bless This Mess’
Sofie Royer ‘Feeling Bad Forsyth Street’
Surya Botofasina ‘Beloved California Temple’
Edrix Puzzle ‘Shadow of Phobe’
Let Spin ‘Waveform Guru’
Etceteral ‘Gologlavka’
Juga-Naut ‘Camel Walk’
The Pyramids ‘Queens Of The Spirits Part 1’
Illogic ‘Nowhere Fast’
Planet Asia/Snowgoons/Flash ‘Metabolism’
Dabbla/alone ‘Adept’
Karu ‘Spears Of Leaves’
Neon Kittens ‘Nil By Vein’
Renelle 893/King Kashmere ‘My Demons’
Mount Kimbie/Don Maker/Kai Campos Ft. Slowthai ‘Kissing’
Homeboy Sandman/Deca ‘Satellite’
Uusi Aika ‘S-T’
Gillian Stone ‘The Throne’
Raw Poetic/Damu The Fudgemunk ‘A Mile In My Head’
Boldy James/Futurewave ‘Mortemir Milestone’
Arthur King ‘Dig Precious Things’
Tom Skinner ‘Voices (Of The Past)’
Trans Zimmer & The DJs ‘Wind Quintet No. 3 In E Major, Second Movement’
George T ‘Dub On, King’s Cross’
The Dark Jazz Project ‘Great Skies’
Noémi Büchi ‘Measuring All Possibilities’
Russ Spence ‘Spectrum’
Seez Mics/Aupheus ‘Cancel The Guillotine’
Dezron Douglas ‘J Bird’
Fliptrix/Illinformed ‘Eden’
Apollo Brown/Philmore Greene ‘This Is Me’
Illogic ‘She Didn’t Write’
Milc/Televangel Ft. AJ Suede ‘Ronald Reagan’
Vincent/The Owl/Nick Catchdubs ‘Fade 2 Black’
Shirt/Jack Splash ‘Cancel Culture’
Clouds In A Headlock/ASM/Daylight Robbery ‘3D Maze’
The Strange Neighbour/Leolex/Bobby Slice Ft. DJ Sixkay ‘Keep Your Head Straight’
Kormac Ft. Loah & Jafaris ‘Bottom Of The Ocean’
A. O. Gerber ‘Walk In The Dark’
Ben Pagano ‘Hot Capital’
Hög Sjö ‘Love Is A Gamble’
Kinked ‘Introduzione Alla Fabula’
Årabrot ‘Going Up’
Old Fire Ft. Julia Holter ‘Window Without A World’
Meg Baird ‘Star Hill Song’
Susanna/Stina Stjern/Delphine Dora ‘Elevation’
Rita Braga ‘Nothing Came From Nowhere’
Orchid Mantis ‘Endless Life’
The Zew ‘Come On Down’
Ocelot ‘Santa Ana’
LINN ‘Okay, Sister’
Sanfeliu ‘Grassy Patch’
Young Ritual ‘Ages’
Yermot ‘Leaning To Lie’

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Filed in Uncategorized ·Tags: Apollo Brown, Arabrot, brian bordello, cities aviv, Clouds In A Headlock, Dezron Douglas, dominic valvona, Edrix Puzzle, Electronica, Enter Laughing, George T, hip hop, Illogic, jazz, Juga-Naut, Karu, Linn, Lunar Bird, Matt Oliver, Milc, Monthly Playlist November '22, Mui Zyu, My Friend Peter, Neon Kittens, new music, Noemi Buchi, Orchid Mantis, Playlist, Psych, Rita Braga, russ spence, Salem Trials, Sanfeliu, Sofie Royer, The Pyramids, The Zew

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Quarterly Playlist Revue 2018: Part Four: Deerhunter, Jimi Tenor, Open Mike Eagle, Marianne Faithfull…

December 11, 2018

Playlist: Selected by Dominic Valvona/ Matt Oliver

Priding ourselves on the diverse, pan-global playlists we collate for your aural pleasure and indulgence, the Monolith Cocktail Quarterly Revue series is the eclectic behemoth of them all. With no demarcation of any kind or rules we mix the harrowing and gothic with beckoning polyrhythmic dancefloor screamers, flights of panoramic fantasy with raging protestations, and the most sublime peregrinations with experimental cries from the wilderness.

Everything you find on this playlist has either featured on the site over the last three months or been in our general orbit (the sheer volume of music we get sent means there is inevitably issues of space and time, and so some great tracks just don’t make it; this is our chance to feature those lost tracks).

We’ve also included the previous three playlists. And only leaves me to say on behalf of the Monolith Cocktail, thank you for supporting us during 2018.

Tracks:

Deerhunter ‘Death in Midsummer’
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets ‘My Friend’s A Liquid’
Brace! Brace! ‘Whales’
Slift ‘Fearless Eye’
Stika Sun ‘Psychedelic Three’
Jimi Tenor ‘Walzeth’
Fofoulah ‘Kaddy’
Paula Rae Gibson & Kit Downes ‘If You Ask Me’
The Alchemist ‘Mac 10 Wounds (Instrumental)’
François de Roubaix ‘Amour Sur Les Rails’
Homeboy Sandman & Edan ‘The Gut’
Thom Yorke ‘Suspirium’
Open Mike Eagle ‘Single Ghosts’
Westside Gunn & Benny ‘B.I.G Luther Freestyle’
Apollo Brown & Joell Ortiz ‘That Place’
Lyrics Born & Aloe Blacc ‘Can’t Lose My Joy’
Chuck D ‘freedBLACK’
Beans with ZVK & Dan Wenniger ‘The Ugly, The Ugly, And The Ugly’
Unloved ‘Love’
Marianne Faithfull ‘They Come At Night’
Ex:Re ‘I Can’t Keep You’
Masta Ace & Marco Polo ft. Pearl Gates ‘Still Love Her’
Damu The Fudgemunk ‘Fire’
MysDiggi ‘Evil Within’
Bixiga 70 ‘Primeiramente’
The Scorpios ‘Mashena’
Moulay Ahmed El Hassani ‘Lklam Lakhar’
The Rebels Of Tijuana ‘Erotique’
Cappo & Cyrus Malachi ‘Aqua Lungi’
Annexe The Moon ‘Full Stop’
Paul Jacobs ‘Easy (Warm Weather)’
Gloria ‘Heavy’
Deanna Petcoff ‘Stress’
David Cronenberg’s Wife ‘Rules’
Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam ‘Running From My Ghost’
Insolito UniVerso ‘Vuelve’
François de Roubaix ‘Daughters Of Darkness Opening’
Vukovar & Michael Cashmore ‘Little Gods’
Cousin Silas & The Glove Of Bones ‘Saturn Incoming Dub’
Qluster ‘Lindow’
Refree ‘Tirania’
Society Of The Silver Cross ‘When You’re Gone’
Steve Gunn ‘New Moon’
Ben Osborn ‘Fast Awake’
Panda Bear ‘Dolphin’
Delicate Steve ‘O Little Town Of Bethlehem’

Part Three

Part Two

Part One

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Albums of 2018: Part One: Idris Ackamoor to The Moonwalks

December 3, 2018

Selected by Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver and Gianluigi Marsibilio.

The decision making process:

Being the exhaustive and eclectic set of features our (choice) albums of the year are, we know you probably don’t need to or want to dally about reading a long-winded prognosis of our judgement process. But here it is anyway.

Continuing to shy away from fatuous rating systems and ‘best of lists’, the Monolith Cocktail endeavors to offer a more visceral and personal spread of worthy ‘choice’ picks, with no album dominating or holding any particular numbered position – unlike most of our contemporaries lists, stuck with the ridiculous task, for example, of explaining why one album is more deserving of their fatuous numbered spot than another.

With no hierarchical order, we’ve lined our album choices up alphabetically; split into two features – A (Idris Ackamoor) to M (The Moonwalks), andN (Thomas Nation) to (Thom Yorke) Z.

All of our favourite new and reissued albums and EPs from 2018 are of course considered to be the most interesting, vibrant and dynamic of the year’s releases. But the best? Granted, to make this list you have to have made some sort of impact, but we’d never suggest these entries were categorically the best albums of 2018: even if that might be true. Instead our list is an indicator of our amorphous tastes, rounding up another year in the life of the Monolith Cocktail, and we hope, introducing you to titles and artists/bands that may have dropped below the radar or got lost in the noise of more commercial better promoted releases.

All selections have been made by me (Dominic Valvona), Matt Oliver and Gianluigi Marisibilio.

A.

Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids ‘An Angel Fell’ (Strut Records)

Serving a worthy musical apprenticeship from and imbued by the masters Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Cecil Taylor, the polymath musician, activist, director of The Pyramids ensemble and torchbearer of spiritual and Afrofuturist jazz, Idris Ackamoor once more makes holy communion with the cradle of civilisation on the lamentable An Angel Fell. Imploring a unified message, a connectivity, a reminder that we can all trace our ancestry back to the same place, Ackamoor follows up on ‘We All Be Africans’ with an epic sweeping album of Afro-jazz 2-Step ‘Warrior Dances’ and plaintive primal jazz catharsis.

Walking through the Valley of The Kings; sailing aboard Sun Ra’s Arkestra; conducting the empyrean; evoking Kuti’s Lagos Afrobeat jive; Ackamoor and his troupe traverse the mismia of a broken, corrupt world, delivering cries of anguish and auguers aplenty. Whether penning requiems to the gunned-down black victims of the US Justice system (‘Soliloquy For Michael Brown’), or in radiant prayer (‘Sunset’), they effortlessly and wondrously summon forth the leading lights of each musical genre they inhabit. Afrobeat, gospel, spiritual, funk, blues, future-past-present all come together in one of the year’s most important, enlightening and defining opuses.

(Dominic Valvona)

Ammar 808 ‘Maghreb United’ (Glitterbeat Records)

Throwing the traditional unwieldy Maghreb, before it was demarcated and split into colonial spheres of influence, back together again in the name of progress and unity, Sofyann Ben Youssef fuses the atavistic and contemporary. With past form as one half of the Bargou 08 partnership that gave a modern electric jolt to the isolated, capitulating Targ dialect ritual of the Bargou Valley on the northwestern Tunisia and Algeria border, Youssef under the moniker of Ammar 808 once again propels the region’s diverse etymology of languages, rhythms and ceremony into the present, or even future: hopefully a more optimistic one.

Jon Hassell’s ‘possible musics’ meets Major Lazer, the traversing adaptations from the Gnawa, Targ and Rai traditions and ritual are amorphously swirled or bounced around in a gauze of both identifiable and mystically unidentifiable landscapes. Mixing modern R&B, dub, electro effects with the dusky reedy sound of the evocative gasba and bagpipe like zorka, and a range of earthy venerable and yearning vocals from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria artists, Youssef distorts, amps up or intensifies a resonating aura of transformative geography and time.

Nothing short of visionary. Full review…

(DV)

Angels Die Hard ‘Sundowner’ (Jezus Factory Records)

Admittedly taking some time to grow on me, the Angels Die Hard combo’s Monsterism Island meets Les Baxter ethnographic phantasm of a remote Southeast Asian archipelago instrumental concept album, Sundowner, has finely unfurled its full magic: just in time to be included in the annual albums of the year features.

Imbued with a legacy of progressive, alt-rock, psych, exotica and post-punk influences plus Julian Cope’s Krautrock compendium, the Angels transduce and channel a cornucopia of styles once more as they soundscape the tropical island of Andaman. An environmental clarion call as much as a progressive rocking exotica, Sundowner is dedicated, at least partially, to the environmental tragedy of the plastic-strewn oceans.

Beachcombing a radioactive luminous landscape of musical opportunity, from bummer downers to mind-expanding space rock jams, these Angels expand their horizons (literally), on the band’s best album to date. Some ideas work better than others of course, but when they do get it right they produce some fantastic opuses of amorphous abandon. Full review…

(DV)

Any Other ‘Two, Geography’ (42 Records)

The story of Adele Nigro (Any Other) is made of beautiful songs originating from a desire to subvert a rather conservative musical culture, just like the Italian one.

2018 has given us many beautiful pieces, of the most varied atmospheres, but to find a compact and complete album in each of its parts, touch refuge in Two, Geography (42 Records).

The numerous collaborations that Any Other has collected, as a musician, in recent years, have been invaluable to develop, refine and embellish her poetics.

The sonorities of the album are very distinct, and at the same time loquaciously soaked by all the experiences brought on stage (or in the studio) during the year that is inexorably past.

With Two, Geography, however, there is more, Adele coming out with her head held high, they are not only beautiful pieces that stand out for their immediacy and vitality, but also the international character of the project.

Any Other’s work was immediately presented as something else, for depth and acuity, starting from that ‘Roger Roger, Commander’ or from the same singles who announced Two, Geography.

The simplicity in intertwining linear arpeggios, bright rhythmic lines and a voice, both delicate and particular, makes us immediately think of the disc in a different way, we immediately understand that such a sound must be appreciated with attention and in its various nuances.

Since the first bars of ‘Silently. Quietly. Going Away’ (the first work of Any Other) you could see her skill in shaping a song form as a real opportunity for musical and textual speculation.

The song ‘Capricorn No’ is a monument of modernity that comes on, not only for its immediate and deep style, but because it plays with the atmosphere that you can hardly expect from an Italian artist.

The work as a whole is a challenge, a part of a musical resistance, a progressive push in the sea magnum of ideas that too often settle down, even in brilliant artists.

Any Other is the 2018, the beautiful and fundamental face to make us remember that, all in all, this year went well.

(Gianluigi Marsibilio)

B.

Anton Barbeau ‘Natural Causes’ (Beehive/Gare du Nord)

Ian Hunter via Robyn Hitchcock via Luke Haines via Julian Cope, wrapped inside an enigma, the Sacramento born, Berlin-based, Anton Barbeau changes his style of delivery repeatedly yet always maintains an idiosyncratic ingenuity in whatever he does. The results of an aborted project under the Applewax banner, made in the run up to the 2016 US elections, Natural Causes is the reflective, more open antithesis to what would have been a far darker and mournful proposition. Richly melodious and halcyon, this most brilliant new collection finds Barbeau both transforming some of the back catalogue (for the better) and penning new glorious sounding maverick pop songs: The quality of which are cerebral, memorable, melodic but also adventurous and inventive.

Barbeau and a congruous cast of guests lend a touching caress to a songbook of contemporary surreal lyrical musings and love songs. Unrushed, even breezy in places but hardly lacking intensity, there’s an air of nostalgia in homages to the radio stations and DJs that first sparked interest in the young Barbeau on the Hunter fronts Tom Petty band finale Down Around The Radio. And with a nod to one of the music cannons greatest ever records, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper kaleidoscope, a stab at a popsike hit (a missing link from one of Strange Days magazines 80s halcyon compilations) is made with a song that was originally written to be recorded at the venerated Fab Fours’ inner sanctum of Abbey Road, with the quirky Disambiguation.

Fans of Barbeau will be once again charmed by his unique songwriting abilities, and those still unfamiliar with the inimitable generation X artist of renown will find much to love about his psychedelic pop genius. Full review…

(DV)

MC Paul Barman ‘Echo Chamber’ (Mello Music Group)

“Potent politics, funky lounge lizard off-the-tops and bizarre hypotheses, burrowing its way through the toughest of leather bound volumes to have you picking the bones out for weeks on end” RnV May 18

In many ways this is the consummate Paul Barman album, but it bears repeating straight off the bat, while trying super hard to not sound incredulous, that ‘Echo Chamber’ features production from ?uestlove, DOOM and Prince Paul (funky/sidekick status, from stoop to playground), with additional contributions from Mark Ronson (upping the ludicrousness with a tweak of The Ronettes’ ‘Sleigh Ride’), Masta Ace and Open Mike Eagle. That’s some serious string pulling from an explicitly cult concern only reinforcing his standards in lewdness and a smart Aleck riot act both downplaying and toadying a racing IQ (his relocation to Mello Music Group keeps him in his own lane as well). Ridiculous as ever with the dictionary and remaining a brilliant observer – see ‘Youngman Speaks on Race’, and ‘Commandments’ going one better by taking the Decalogue to Sesame Street and Biggie’s Bed-Stuy – Barman carries on making the longest of long shots with battle raps that’ll bamboozle and WTF one-liners that Jackanory or congress will sadly never benefit from. Bigger, better and geekier than ever.

Bixiga 70 ‘Quebra Cabeça’ (Glitterbeat Records)

Translating as the ‘puzzle’, Bixiga 70‘s latest album is a full 360-degree panoramic evocation (both joyful and lamentable) of their homeland’s African roots. Translating those roots, an ancestry that runs through many of the band members (some individuals descended from the Africa-Caribbean religion of ‘candomble’ for instance), Bixiga are also inspired on this journey by some of the highly talented artists they’ve shared various stages with over the years. Artists such as the Ghanaian highlife singer Pat Thomas, the Nigerian sublime traversing saxophonist legend Orlando Julius and Brazilian octogenarian star João Donato. Incorporating the lot they merge their brass-y signature carnival funk and shaking Afrobeat sass with cosmic voodoo, Afro-jazz and sloping funk.

The quality as always shines through on every track, with the visions and evocations of both Africa and Bixiga’s city home of Sao Paulo articulated by an energetic but also ruminating soundtrack of the tribal, funky, cosmic, tropical, gospel and ritual. The slave portal of Benin, further outlying deserts of the sub-Sahara and busy rhythmic bustles of Nigeria are channeled via the melting pot hubs of Brazil on the group’s most epic, ancestral and geographical straddling album. It only remains to see just how great it will sound live on stage. Full review…

(DV)

The Bordellos ‘Debt Sounds’

Brian Bordello ‘The Death Of Brian Bordello’ (Metal Postcard Records)

In a parallel universe the Jesus And Mary Chain never left East Kilbride; Julian Cope never formed the Teardrop Explodes; and Brian Wilson was in fact born in St. Helens in the late 1960s, and recorded all his opusus on a Tascam four-track, inspired by Mark E Smith. This alternative world is one the dysfunctional family circle The Bordellos inhabit. Probably the best lo fi rock’n’roll-meets-post-punk-meets-the-Spaceman 3 hapless band you’ve never heard of, the prolific group, headed by the patriarchal masthead Brian Bordello, have been luridly, sinisterly, laughably and pessimistically knocking-out their brand of disgruntled alternative yearnings for a decade or more with little attention from anyone other than us loyal fans – who probably need our heads examined in all honesty. You either get them or you don’t. And you could find some of their more confrontational dark humour (songs about the BBC killing John Peel, still loving the musical cannon of Gary Glitter, and on this album, Debt Sounds, some sinister predatory sexual allured shclock about Rolf Harris) too unsettling, even perverse.

Debts Sounds, in the manner of a Half Man Half Biscuit play-on-words, is The Bordellos low cost Pet Sounds. That may not be initially obvious. But stay with me on this one. Fashioned and realised by Brian from the band members and even affiliates, girlfriends and whatnots various outpourings and late night sessions into a most epic song book of unrequited love, sick love, obsessed love, compromised love, salacious love, and even some tender love – they excel themselves on the laid bare and touching ‘Spirograph’ and quasi-Beatles ‘My Life’ meets the hardened north romanticism of ‘I May Be Reborn’ (Take this for a line: “Every smoking chimney my Statue of Liberty”), Debt Sounds is full of great maverick performances and songwriting, made in a period of crisis, anxiety and manic depression. Ok…so more Don Van Vliet than Brian Wilson, but still a valid comparison.

Whereas will you hear odes, homages and eulogies to Jimmy Campbell and Faron’s Flamingos to a back track featuring vague indifferent shades of Thom Yorke, Cope, Velvet Underground, Red Crayola, Joy Division and the The Seeds? Nowhere that’s where. Brian Bordello’s Track-by-track breakdown…

Knocking out records on a whim, it seems inconceivable that the leader of the Bordellos has never actually released a solo effort until this year (and only a few weeks from the end of 2018). Paring down, enverated, Brian Bordello steps outside the family unit on his debut solo, The Death Of... Not expecting many flowers on that graveside elegy of a album title, Brian takes a sort of reflective pause and looks back on a litany of tropes that have come to encapsulate his resigned fatalism. With only a clipped, rough and unguarded acoustic guitar and his trusted Tascam for company, Brian pays tribute to rock’n’roll icons Eddie Cochran (again) and Mark E Smith (who Brain thinks should be canonised as a saint); wears his heart on his sleeve cooing songs about lingering memories of bunk-ups, unrequited wooing gone wrong and lost kitchen sink romances; and languishly but candidly weary sonnets on depression.

As lo fi as it can get, Brian’s most intimate, personal performances yet strip away all the caustic dissonance and fuzz to reveal his most brilliant songwriting. The Death Of is an often beautifully morose songbook that lays bare the talents of a true uncompromising outsider.

(DV)

Brace! Brace! ‘S/T’ (Howlin Banana)

Producing gorgeous hues of softened psychedelia, new wave, Britpop and slacker indie rock, this young but sophisticated band effortlessly melt the woozy and dreamy with more punchier dynamic urgency on their brilliant debut album.

Squirreled away in self-imposed seclusion, recording in the Jura Mountains, the isolation and concentration has proved more than fruitful. Offering a Sebastian Teller fronts Simian like twist on a cornucopia of North American and British influences, Brace! Brace! glorious debut features pastel shades of Blur, Gene, Dinosaur Jnr., Siouxsie And The Banshees (check the “I wrecked your childhood” refrain post-punk throb and phaser effect symmetry guitar of ‘Club Dorothée’ for proof) and the C86 generation. More contemporary wafts of Metronomy, Mew, Jacco Gardner, the Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Deerhunter (especially) permeate the band’s hazy filtered melodies and thoughtful prose too.

A near-perfect debut album, an introduction to one of the most exciting new fuzzy indie-pop bands of the moment. Full review…

(DV)

Apollo Brown & Joell Ortiz ‘Mona Lisa’ (Mello Music Group)

“Rugged but always smooth, reflective with a forked tongue…there’s a lot of comfort to be taken from the union of two opposing authority figures exercising supreme quality control” – RnV Nov 18

This duo’s mutual will to only work with the elite – Joell Ortiz as a member of Slaughterhouse, Apollo Brown extending his collaborative run after shared albums with Skyzoo, Ghostface Killah, Ras Kass, Planet Asia – is head start number one. Yes these are extremely experienced experts in their field who shouldn’t drop the ball, but 12 tracks, one emcee and one producer, two guests maximum, and everything absolutely finely tuned is still the best advantage to press home. A steadiness to both performances has BPMs instantly finding their sweet point so instrumental richness can build, settle, simmer and seduce, and vocals slip straight into the pocket housing an imperceptible line between recognition and vengeance. The introspection of ‘Mona Lisa’ pays respects with a feeling that it doesn’t pay to dwell, that while everything may be upbeat and secure – visuals of sauntering down a street and coloured in something like a high definition sepia – slippery slopes, with ‘Cocaine Fingertips’ the album’s most rotten apple and situations like the bittersweet resonance of ‘That Place’, are always around the corner. Another win for the seemingly indefatigable Mello Music Group as well.

(Matt Oliver)

C.

The Cold Spells ‘S/T’ (Gare du Nord)

Esoterically gentle and wistful, The Cold Spells debut long player is a gauze-y organic and ambiguous (to a point) affair of undulating ‘moss covered’ circuitry, folk, quintessential English psych, paisley patterned hallucinogens and Kosmische.

Communing with the ether, connecting with the psychogeography of their chosen environment – from the soft Wiccan with forebode travail of Thomswood Hill to the alluded-to abandoned mental hospital waste ground near Hainault -, a host of spirits tune in and out of the continuous, though (as we’re told) not in a linear order, flowing suite of laudanum imbued Victoriana lyricism and Beatles-esque melody.

A surprise package, quietly unassuming, the trio’s encapsulation of an age of ghostly memories – the ancestors inhabit the band’s present to address the here and now concerns of a troubled, unstable world – is magical and gently lamentable; a perfect evocation of aicd folk and pastoral esotericism, as beautifully plaintive as it is ominous. Full review…

(DV)

D.

Die Wilde Jagd ‘Uhrwald Orange’ (Bureau B)

Fashioning a mysterious ‘Clockwood Orange’ world of Gothic and ominous dreamscapes, inspired by and named, in part, after the studio it was produced in, and by both the 17^th century menagerie paintings of the Flemish artist Frans Snyder and the collected devotional Medieval period songs of the Llibre Vermell De Montserrat artifact, Die Wilde Jagd’s Sebastian Lee Philipp takes us on an eerie, cosmic and slinking travail through a throbbing sophisticated earthy electronic soundtrack. His musical partner on the group’s adroit debut self-titled experiment, producer Ralf Beck, is excused from the follow-up but lends out his extensive racks of vintage analogue synthesizers to Philipp, who transforms and obscures their banks of sounds into ghostly permutations, shadowy creatures and lurking, dancing and honking sonorous cries from a murky wilderness.

Uhrwald Orange is a classy imagined score, balancing cool, gleaming and aloof German electronica with menacing, nocturnal earthiness, yet also reaching for the celestial. One minute imbued with hints of Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Eno, Cluster, and Faust, the next slinking on to the Tresor club or Basic Channel dancefloor. In short: a most impressive album. Full review…

(DV)

Dur-Dur Band ‘Dur Dur Of Somalia: Volume 1, Volume 2 And Previously Unreleased Tracks’(Analog Africa)

A highlight in a catalogue of outstanding reissues from the Analog Africa label, intrepid crate digger Samy Ben Redjeb reprises the first two volumes of Somali fusion funk music from the legendary 1980s outfit, the Dur-Dur Band. Embodying a period in the decade when Mogadishu could boast of its cosmopolitan reputation – notably the European chic Via Roma stretch in the Hamar-Weyne district, a colonnade for café culture, cinema and of course music – the hybrid Dur-Dur Band moped up the polygenesis fever of their native city with effortless aplomb during their short heyday.

Saved from ‘tape-hiss’ and ‘wobbles’, remastered to sound the best they’ve ever sounded, these curious but above all loose-limbed nuggets successfully merged a myriad of Somalia traditions with a liberal smattering of disco, reggae (via the northern part of the country’s ‘Daantho’ rhythm style; an uncanny surrogate for Jamaica’s number one export), soul and funk. Mirroring a similar fusion thousands of miles away in New York, the Dur-Dur languidly produced an electrified no wave-new wave melting pot.

Split up across a triple LP and double CD formats the Dur-Dur Band’s first two albums proper, Volumes 1 and 2, and a couple of unreleased tunes feature on this, the first in a promised series of re-issues. Released originally in 1986, the first of these and the band’s debut album, Volume 1, has a rawer unpolished but snazzy sound that saunters, skips and grooves along with aloof coolness to sweltering laidback funk; opening with the wah-wah chops and a fuzzy organ stunner, ‘Ohiyee’ , which lays down a sophisticated but explosive spiritual dance floor thriller. Volume 2 by contrast seems a little brighter and tropical; beginning as it does with the dub echoed, Trenchtown pirate radio broadcast ‘Introduction’.

Going further than most to bring the sounds of Africa to a wider audience, the Dur-Dur Band release proved to be one of the label’s most difficult, as Redjeb tackled the geopolitical fall-out of a country devastated by civil war to bring us a most unique sounding and essential collection. Full review…

(DV)

E.

Elefant ‘Konark Und Bonark’ (9000 Records)

Emerging from the Belgium underground scene, with members from a myriad of bands, each one more obscure than the next, the Elefant in this room is a twisted agit-post-punk, boiler come forensic team suited troop of noise peddlers. Lurking around basement venues for a while now, the sludge metal and gallows Krautrock merchants have released a slurry of EPs but never a fully realized album until now.

For an album that grapples with Marilyn Manson, Swans, Killing Joke, Muse, industrial contortions and Germanic experimentation, Konark Und Bonark is a very considered, purposeful statement. Though things get very heavy, implosive and gloomy and the auger like ghosts in the vocals can sound deranged, there is a semblance of melody, a tune and hint of breaking through the confusing, often pummeling, miasma of artificial intelligence armageddon.

A seething rage is tightly controlled throughout, the sporadic flits and Math Rock entangled rhythms threatening to engulf but never quite reaching an overload, or for that matter, becoming a mess. Elefant’s prowling and throbbing sound of creeping menace and visions of an artificial intelligent domineering dystopia is an epic one. Arguably the band have produced their most ambitious slog yet and marked themselves out as one of Belgium’s most important exports of 2018. Full review…

(DV)

Bernard Estardy ‘Space Oddities: 1970-82’ (Born Bad)

‘Fragmented D’une Empreinte Magnétique: Rares 1966-2006’ (Gonzai Records)

Because sometimes you just can’t decide, I’ve chucked in two reappraisal celebrating compilations of the odd, curious, thrilling and kitsch flights of fantasy musical fragments/sketches/soundtracks/compositions from the late and most gifted venerated French composer Bernard Estardy. I can’t even claim that these are great collections, let alone the best albums of the year, but they’ve kept me smiling all year.

Nicknamed ‘The Baron’, the founder of the CBE recording studio (which he set up in 1966) collaborated with a host of famous French icons in his time (arranging, producing or sound engineering for Johnny Hallyday, Francoise Hardy, Nino Ferrer, Michel Sardou and Jean Guidoni amongst others), but found an unleashed creative freedom as the master of consoles on his own excursions and dream flights of curiosity. Enjoying a resurrection of a sort in 2018, in part down to his daughter Julie Estardy‘s biography ‘The Giant’, Bernard’s eclectic back catalogue, from the realised to cutting room floor, is being reissued or rediscovered by a new generation through a number of different labels, both in France and internationally.

Two such compilations swept me up in their bombast; the first an album that couldn’t be described any better than the title it comes with, Space Oddities, and the second, Fragmented D’une Empreinte Magnétique, a Gauloises hotbed of weepy venerated organ romanticism and salacious sleek soundtracks. The first takes library music to the stars and beyond on a sassy opulent voyage of esoteric cosmic discovery. Jazz meets deep space on a drum-heavy collection of mysterious thrillers, phantasms and exotic awe. Tracks such as the more romantic, flute-y glide in space blues ‘Slow Very Slow’ sound like they could have made it to the ears of Goldfrapp or Greg Foat. The second of the pairing frequents more Earthy realms, pitching gospel with Bacharach yearnings, sentimental laments (the torn love soliloquy ‘It’s A Lovely Day To Die’ sums it up perfectly) and the strangest of deep-chested sung French cowboy soundtracks (A very Parisian journey to buy your ciggies, ‘La Route Au Tabac’, is rerouted through a lonesome pine trail). Both are as brilliant as they are audacious; a refreshing escapism and proof of a unique talent.

(DV)

Evidence ‘Weather or Not’ (Rhymesayers)

“From the moment he draws first breath on ‘Weather or Not’, Evidence embarks on a masterclass” – RnV Feb 18

A meteorological masterpiece showing that it’s rarely sunny in LA, whenever it rains it pours, and that Evidence is always bringing the weather with him. Ever laconic but whose economy of words is always wisely directed and word association seems slight but cuts deep, Ev walks the streets with collar up and hands dug into pockets, seemingly always in search of a contentment whose elusiveness he’s fine with. This prolongs a character pairing the enigmatic with a spokesman calling it straight down the line (“things I never thought about, trying to be elusive in the process, get forgot about”), a wallowing wanderer with whiplash in the tale and forever in control of his destiny (feel the tempered triumph of the concluding ‘By My Side Too’). A spread of AM band forecasts, a splash of psychedelic epiphanies and head nodders that buck like a bronco from Premier, Nottz and Babu, plus some Step Brothers espionage from Alchemist, allow the Dilated Peoples man to find you: because ‘Weather or Not’, you can’t run, you can’t hide.

(MO)

F.

Flora Fishbach ‘À Ta Merci’ (Blue Wrasse)

The French music press we’re told have fallen hook, line and synth for the alluring contralto voice of Flora Fishbach, who’s 80s revisionist pop twist on chanson oozes with such sophistication that its difficult not to embrace. Fishbach picked up the album révélation award at the Le Prix des Indés for best independent debut LP, winning high praise and plaudits galore ever since. Looking to make a similar impact across the Channel, the ‘bohemian darling’ has just released a deluxe edition of her electro pop requiem À Ta Merci. That decision is more or less echoed in the album’s title, which translates as, “at your mercy”.

Featuring the original running order and a bonus septet of gorgeous live recordings, this aloofly chic, yet theatrical, and especially when performing, animated album recasts Françoise Hardy as a disco pop and electro swooned crooner. Effortlessly channeling the vaporous dreamy pining of Kazu Makino on the moon dust sprinkled fantasy title-track and ambient textured, synthesizer bass bubbling yearned lament ‘Un beau langage’, and a Gallic Alison Goldfrapp on the opening ice-y cool malady ‘Ma voie lactée’, Fishbach adds a French nuance and sensibility to the synthesized pop ascetic: a signature you could say that despite the revivalist backing of electronic drum pads, post-punk sass, Moroder arpeggiator, Rococo harpsichord and hi-energy is unmistakably contemporary and French.

With the momentum already building in France and with the recent runaway success of music press darling Christine And The Queens (who I personally find utterly dull) I’m sure the UK will embrace this sophisticated chanteuse. This is overwhelmingly a better, more fun record than Christine’s (or the name she’s now adopted, Chris). Fishbach has certainly impressed me enough – what’s not impressive about referencing the philosophical aloof quandary that is Rimbaud’s “Je est un autre” (“I am another”) on a tropical slinking crystalline pop song, Un Autre Que Moi (“Another Me”) – to recommend her as one to watch in 2019. Full review…

(DV)

Fliptrix ‘Inexhale’ (High Focus)

“‘Inexhale’ masters the art of knocking you down with a feather: the pugilistic psychoanalysis is untouchable” – RnV Sept 18

It’s a little disingenuous to say Fliptrix became the High Focus main man this year, given he’s the driving force behind the label and already has a back catalogue of textbook pen and pad amplification. What with the label’s ever bubbling pool of talent seeing Ocean Wisdom blazing all and sundry, Jam Baxter expanding his cult appeal and two late night smokers from Coops, ‘Inexhale’ could’ve played the holding role and sat in the pack. But with breath control putting a copyright on the title and not a single word wasted, it’s an album that will leave you levitating. Be that from his street level strain of spirituality – letting the sharp end of something herbal work him over, or thoroughly aware of the rights and wrongs of his surroundings – or from the velocity of what’s spat (‘Inside the Ride’ doesn’t and won’t ever flop). Then flipping what the surroundings suggest, and never getting lost in the haze even with eyes at the reddest, Fliptrix finds the perfect medium between headphone moments and smacks to the head.

(MO)

Fofoulah ‘Daega Rek’ (Glitterbeat Records)

Bustling onto the transglobal London and Bristol scenes in 2014 with their earthy and urban bombastic fusion of Wolof African culture and dub electronica rich debut LP, the Fofoulah ensemble laid down the template for the a unique adventurous sound. Though taking its time to materialize, four years on, the follow-up album hasn’t just moved on but supersonically zoomed into the experimental void; even an esoteric, spiritual one at times.

Daega Rek, ‘the truth’ when translated from the Wolof language of coastal West Africa, sees Fofoulah’s saxophonist, keyboardist and producer Tom Challenger transmogrify the original Gambian talking drum of the group’s shamanistic rapping lead Kaw Secka and the accompanying percussion and propulsive drumming rhythms of his band members. (All of which were laid down at the Real World studios). Secka would then reappear in post-production to record his half spoken/half-rapped protestations and observations; the results all re-shaped into a ricocheting lunar-tropical bounding dub cosmology.

Skipping and skittish in motion; pushing the envelope as they pay tribute to lost brothers (‘Kaddy’ pays 2-Step rhythmic eulogy to the late photographer Khadija Saye who died in the Grenfell Tower disaster), the visceral taste of home (‘Chebou Jaine’ dedicated to Secka’s cousin, who cooked the best national Gambian dish) and search for the truth, Fofoulah lunge into the electrified dub ether of sonic adventure. Full review…

(DV)

G.

Goatman ‘Rhythms’ (Rocket Recordings)

An amorphous exploration of world ‘rhythms’ as transduced by one the mysterious Scandinavian GOAT band members through a an arsenal of filters, modulators and oscillations, the debut Goatman suite blends its polygenesis inspirations perfectly.

Offering up magical and scintillating rhythms galore, from Kuti’s compound Afrobeat to a tremolo and laser bouncing variant of RAM’s Haiti vibe, you can expect to hear the venerable tones of gospel, jazz, reggae, psych and pure ethereal acoustic Kosmische on this sonic flight of fantasy. Earthy yet light enough to soar, this impressive experiment side-project channels its influences perfectly to conjure up new musical ideas. Echoes of GOAT are never far away of course, yet this imaginative take feels more natural, more organic, and above all, more soulful. A fantastic debut.

(DV)

H.

Jack Hayter ‘Abbey Wood’ (Gare du Nord)

Bringing light, or at least opening up a psycho-geographical narrative dedicated to the very edges of a largely ignored London postcode – so far out on the South Eastern outskirts as to be part of Kent –, an earnest Jack Hayter composes a yearning lament to Abbey Wood on what is his first solo album in fifteen years.

Hayter’s deftly played, with twangs of bucolic and Baroque folk, blues, synthesized atmospherics, Americana and reverent chamber music, multilayered songbook connects with the psychogeography of his chosen location. From songs about the Abbey Wood diaspora and its position as a gateway to the world to laying cooing elegiac wreaths to those unfortunate victims of the WWII Arandora Star passenger ship tragedy, Hayter produces a lived-in musical novel, rich with references, landmarks and peopled by those who left an indelible, if at times fleeting, mark upon this much forgotten or passed over postcode: their ghosts, no matter how small the part they played in its story, never inconsequential; remembered and written about with a certain gravitas by the erstwhile troubadour, who performs the most accomplished and brilliant of testaments. Full review…

(DV)

Homeboy Sandman & Edan ‘Humble Pi’ (Stones Throw)

“A banquet of slaps that will become one of your five a day, and ultimately year” – RnV Oct 18

If seven or so tracks are good enough for Pusha T, Kanye etc, then they’re an ample fit for this elite underground swashbuckler of a showdown brought to us by the matchmaking Gods. Having flitted around the periphery for what seems forever, Edan returns with some of his best, ear-piercing archaeology to date as he shifts the B-boy-psych continuum once more; and Homeboy Sandman, both revelling in getting in the thick of it and firing off missives as he’s swept along for the ride, gets off the wall (“see me looking photogenic in the Book of Genesis, waving off medicines”), yet reels off some of the realest in recent times (it’s still, and shall remain, all about ‘Never Use the Internet Again’, which stylistically is actually a bit of a left-turn). The feeling pervades that the pair are proudly gladiatorial, indulging in friendly, unspoken competition as much as fighting the good fight as anointed hip-hop saviours. Let’s hope the sub 30-minute running time means the door is open for a second bout some time soon.

(MO)

J. Juga-Naut & Sonnyjim ‘The Purple Door’ (Eat Good Records)

“Their usual, indomitable personas on the mic never skimp on Michelin-starred quality, and they still aren’t the ones to test if you think they’re pushing their luck” – RnV Aug 18

It’s an album largely based on elitist boasts, expensive trinkets and accessories and some pretty outlandish claims, but hey, these boys done good. Larger than life and living the playboy lifestyle making the ludicrous seem obtainable – you too can be a ‘Purple Door’ gold card holder – Juga-Naut and Sonnyjim transform the Midlands into St Tropez with a load of gala funk to make a red carpet entrance to, with just a hint of a twinkle in its eye like a felonious exile that has everyone’s backing. That said, you can’t live the life of a Rat Packer if you ain’t got the gab, and these two are no novices: the great suitability of their top table rhyme personas – Juga-Naut will have you believing every word he spits, Sonnyjim coming in dry and stonefaced yet smelling (and producing) like a million bucks – shares a love of all things gastronomic on the likes of ‘Duck Season’ that comes sweeping down a spiral staircase, while ‘Look Around’ takes a moment to act more tactfully, pledging family honour like a good fella. It might not be dining etiquette, but these two are pulling chairs from under the competition.

(MO)

Park Jiha ‘Communion’ (Glitterbeat Records)

Circumnavigating the globe to bring much-needed exposure to new sounds, Glitterbeat Records imprint tak:til gives a second wind to a suite of acuity serialism from Southeast Asia. Released originally in South Korea in 2016, the neo-classical musician/composer Park Jiha’s debut solo album Communion is given an international release by the label.

Inspiring what we’re told is a burgeoning Korean music scene (well, an alternative to the K-Pop craze), a chief progenitor of the movement Jiha alongside collaborative partner Jungmin Seo originally melded the country’s musical heritage with an eclectic range of contemporary sounds as the 숨[suːm] duo in 2007. Releasing the highly influential regional albums Rhythmic Space: A Pause For Breath (2010) and 2^nd (2014), Park and Seo crossed the time zones to perform at both WOMAD and SXSW. Congruously putting the duo on hold to explore a more ‘personal’ and minimalistic ‘musical vocabulary’ as a solo artist, Jiha dexterously balances the air-y abstract breathes of the ‘piri’ double reed bamboo flute, the searing twang of the ‘saenghwang’ mouth organ and the softly paddled patter of the ‘yanggeum’ hammered dulcimer in what is a dialogue between a dulcet calm, the meditative and an entangled dissonance.

Transforming Korean traditions into a more experimental language that evokes the avant-garde, neo-classical and jazz yet something quite different, Park Jiha’s tranquil to entangled discourse evocations reach beyond their Southeast Asian borders both musically and metaphysically into something approaching the unique and amorphous. Full review…

(DV)

John Johanna ‘I’ll Be Ready When The Great Day Comes’ (Faith And Industry)

More a mini-album, even 12″ to be contrary, the beautifully cooed, warbled and ached venerable I’ll Be Ready When The Great Day Comes is nothing less than an afflatus anointed paean to a higher purpose. Informed by the mystical cosmology of the Eastern Orthodox Church, John Johanna‘s spiritual blues-y and gospel rock’n’rock hymns are both diaphanous and mesmerizing, even hypnotic; recalling visages of Morricone, Fleetwood Mac, Terakaft, Dirtmusic and Wovenhand as it wanders a picturesque but troubled soundscape.

On the devotional pilgrimage, the troubadour of the most evocative, stirring country burr, switches between aching falsetto yearning to lovelorn cowboy on the Andes romanticised cooing, and from the ethereal to fraught, as he makes communion.

No two songs are quite the same, as the wooing rustic sits next to (what can only be described as) the holy desert rock fusion of Native Indian and Afro-beat title track, and Bossa shuffle meets Yonatan Gat raindance. It all congruously comes together in one most divine service. A minor masterpiece.

(DV)

M.

Marlowe (L’Orange & Solemn Brigham) ‘Marlowe’ (Mello Music Group)

“Both excel in never revealing what’s steaming around the next corner, even when you’ve grabbed your toothcomb for the umpteenth time” – RnV July 18

Another yearly round up, another L’Orange inclusion. North Carolina stands up as latest collaborator Solemn Brigham rhymes his ass off: weirdly, without necessarily feeding off what the producer is trawling, and helping create something of an odd couple match made in heaven. L’Orange sets the scene, usually a funky hoedown, a sample-heavy brouhaha anticipating a stand-off or a psychedelic neck-snap. As is his wont, there’s a narrative to be spun, or some simple time-travelling to be done where no two bops are the same. Brigham on the other hand, blurbed as “summoning the holy spirit of Big L” without getting sucked into the danger zone, just jumps in with a garrulous B-boy stance and goes for it. Without L’Orange surrounding him in a world of imagination, give Brigham a park bench and a ghettoblaster and the results would be the same. What he does guarantee is that you’ll be going back to what he has to say, and whatever the variables, the energy and entertainment (grounded surrealism?) never dips. L’Orange may have found himself an emcee to keep on retainer.

(MO)

Hugh Masekela ’66-‘76’ (Wrasse Records)

A most poignant and timely reminder of one of the true greats, the mammoth 66-’76 collection shows a multifaceted Hugh Masekela: The exile. The trumpet maestro. The bandleader. The activist. The colonial revisionist. The angry young man. But also the conciliatory. These are just some of the many faces of the South African titan of jazz and African musical fusions that can be found inside the latest essential collection of the late great polymaths’ back durable catalogue.

Put together especially by Masekela and his good friend, producer and collaborator on a number of projects together, Stewart Levine, just before he passed away at the beginning of this year, the three disc spanning collection features key tracks from many of his most iconic and experimental albums (two of which are included in their entirety). But what makes this especially appealing to collectors and fans alike, is that many of these albums were never officially released in the UK and Europe before. Progressing in the chronological order they were recorded, we follow Masekela’s journey not just musically but politically across his most formative decade and his partnership with Levine and collaborations with such legendary ensembles as the Hedzoleh Soundz combo. From the combined jazz and Township fusions of The Emancipation Of Hugh Masekela all the way to criss-crossing the transatlantic slave routes on Colonial Man, this collection is a sheer joy. Full review…

(DV)

(MO)

Brona McVittie ‘We Are The Wildlife’

With the lightest, most deft of touches, Irish songstress and harpist Brona McVittie embarks on a voyage of ‘psycho-geographic’ inspired encapsulations of a mysterious, magical landscape and history on her debut album, We Are The Wildlife.

Tracing the sonic contours of London’s urban fringes and the rural landscapes of Mourne, McVittie pitches her fluttery diaphanous harp-led songbook somewhere between post-folk and the cinematic – helped along in part by the drifting trumpet evocations of film composer Hutch Demouilpied, who’s contributions sound at times like Miles Davis Dingo transported to an Irish peat bog.

Her ephemeral harp melodies and phrases often feel like a breath or just the merest hazy lingering presence of the instrument, which might in some ways be down to McVittie’s technique of playing them all on the guitar first before transcribing over. It certainly offers a different perspective and technique. And it certainly takes this heavenly traditional instrument into even more mystical, accentuate abstract realms, helped of course by an accompaniment of meadow flute (Keiron Phelan), sad bowed delicate strings (Richard Curran), searching fleeting slide-guitar and shuffling to full-on breakbeat drums (Myles Cochran). All of which amorphously pushes the often-ancient feelings and geography towards John Martyn and Bert Jansch one minute, towards the Incredible String Band or trip-hop the next.

Played with the lightest of touches, McVittie’s wildlife and Celtic inspired filmscape subtly crafts tradition into a cerebral suite of neo-classical and ambient folk. We Are The Wildlife is the most inviting and unique of debuts. Full review…

(DV)

Minyeshu ‘Daa Dee’ (ARC Music)

From the tentative first steps of childhood to the sagacious reflections of middle age, the sublime Ethiopian songstress Minyeshu Kifle Tedla soothingly, yearningly and diaphanously articulates the intergenerational longings and needs of belonging on her epic LP, Daa Dee.

Minyeshu left her native Ethiopia in 1996, but not before discovering and then learning from such acolytes as the doyen of the country’s famous Ethio-Jazz scene, Mulatu Astatke, and the choreographer Tadesse Worku and singers Mahmoud Ahmed, Tilahun Gessesse and Bizunesh Bekele. First moving to Belgium and then later to the Netherlands, the burgeoning star of the Ethiopian People To People music and dance production has after decades of coming to terms with her departure finally found a home: a self-realization that home wasn’t a geographical location after all but wherever she felt most comfortable and belonged:“Home is me!”

Evoking that sense of belonging and the theme of roots, but also paying a tribute and lament to the sisterhood, Minyeshu conveys with a sauntering but sorrowful jazzy blues vibe not only the burden and grind of daily life for many of her compatriots back home in the tumultuous climate of a fragmented and often chaotic Ethiopia, but also the joy of song and togetherness.

Not only merging geography but musical styles too, the Daa Dee LP effortlessly weaves jazz (both Western and Ethiopian) R&B, pop, dub, the theatrical, and on the cantering to lolloping skippy ‘Anteneh (It Is You?)’, reggae. Piano, strings and brass mix with the Ethiopian wooden washint flute and masenqo bowed lute to create an exotic but familiar pan-global sound. Minyeshu produces a masterful heartwarming, sometimes giddy, swirling testament that is exciting, diverse and above all else, dynamic. Her voice is flawless, channeling various journeys and travails but always placing a special connection to and emphasis on those special roots. Full review…

(DV)

Moonwalks ‘In Light (The Scales In The Frame)’ (Stolen Body Records)

At least geographically close to the spirit of the Motor City, if generations apart, Detroit’s Moonwalks brood in the shadows of the counterculture doyens that made it such an infamous breeding ground for snarling attitude garage, psych and acid rock in the 60s and early 70s.

Transitioning, so we’re told, from ad hoc abandon warehouse performances as a diy glam psych rock troupe to experimental space rock stoners, spiraling in a vaporous gauzy vortex of 80s British Gothic and acid shoegaze influences, the Moonwalks make a certain dynamic progression on their second full length album, In Light.

Sometimes they sound like a black magic rites Byrds and at others like a doomed The Glass Family on a bum ride. Their curtain call, The Joy Of Geraniums, is the most odd song of all; taking the Moonwalks into a whistling led peyote-induced trip to the Mojave Desert.

Vocally malaise the voices waft between Siouxsie Sioux, Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. Of course it fits the nebulous cosmic doom and dreamy psych style of the group perfectly; ambiguously drifting through magical rites and sulky pretensions aplenty. Full review…

(DV)

Posted by domv

Filed in Uncategorized ·Tags: 2018, Afrobeat, albums of 2018, Albums of the year, ammar 808, An Angel Fell, analog africa, Angels Die Hard, Anton Barbeau, Any Other, Apollo Brown, Bernard Estardy, best albums, best music, Bixiga 70, Blues, Brace! Brace!, Brona McVittie, bureau b, debt sounds, Die Wilde Jagd, dominic valvona, dub, Electronica, Elefant, Evidence, Fofoulah, Folk, French pop, funk, Gambia, garage, Gare du Nord, Gianluigi Marisibilio, Glitterbeat Records, Goatman, gospel, harp, Homeboy Sandman and Edan, Hugh Masekela, Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids, indie, Jack Hayter, jazz, Jezus Factory, Joell Ortiz, John Johanna, Juga-Naut, Julian Cope, Konark Und Bonark, kosmische, lo fi, Matt Oliver, Monolith Cocktail, Moonwalks, Natural Causes, no wave, Park Jiha, paul barman, pop, psychedelic, punk, Somalia, Sonnyjim, spiritual, Spiritual Jazz, Stolen Body Records, Strut Records, Sun Ra, sundowner, the bordellos, The Cold Spells, the dur-dur band, Uhrwald Orange

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Rapture & Verse: November 2018: Lee Reed, Open Mike Eagle, Jam Baxter, Big Twins…

November 21, 2018

Hip-Hop Roundup/Matt Oliver

Singles

A miniature singles round-up this month – blame it on the boogie – but a good pair of twofers all the same to kick off the latest referendum-ready Rapture & Verse. Ken Masters articulating like the clappers over a glitzy gala of a bossa nova loop is a very good thing indeed: hear now the sweet sound of ‘Fresh Air’. As part of the Badroaches team with Torb the Roach, he also sets sail on a mystic river as an ambassador of ‘Cosmic Viking Wizard Funk’, capable of administering bad juju. Open Mike Eagle continues to go from strength to strength, ‘What Happens When I Try to Relax’ a half dozen cracking open of his brick bodied skull that blasts arena-sized synths and shrunken beats equally projecting unique visions made gospel truth. Entertaining wordplay that’s as much about satisfying his own high standards in syllable practice. He then teams with Pan Amsterdam on the calmingly engrossing ‘No Snare’, a sharing and airing of respective kooks over a jazzy groove to be welcomed like a summer flashback.

Albums

Beneath the floorboards of ‘Mansion 38’, Jam Baxter orchestrates ‘Touching Scenes’, lo-fi gloom and scarred wit capable of exploding off the page. Appearances from Rag n Bone Man and Kate Tempest show the strength of Baxter’s blurred mind racing into HD – still no slouch when everything says otherwise – as he and Chemo on production ooze into every nook and cranny, handing you a surgeon’s blade to dissect the depth of their dark circles. A tightrope walk slumping against a pressure cooker.

Back in no time at all, Lee Scott continues to skewer the world, this time bringing the lung butter to the soiled surveillance camera sounds of Reklews as Hock Tu Down. Both exhibit punch-drunkardness on ‘Hock Tu 3’, like looking at the world through a spoon, yet are unputdownable: mind control by and for misfits and malevolent spirits – after all, “reality is what you make it, even if there’s no-one to corroborate it”. No need to read between the lines when CNT come to town, the Code Name Theory of Manage and Blitz insisting you cup an ear on ‘Sounds About Right!’ Beats and rhymes are soaked in honest Brit bitterness, mind’s eye doing double shifts on the beguiling ‘Need Guidance’, and the care with which they take their craft means their messages always carry in the right way.

‘The Post Apocalyptic Story Teller’ is a role where Chester P earns his golden handcuffs, casting end day tales and folk-angled parables fit for today’s diminishing civilisation. Long a master of vividly narrating from the no man’s land beyond the street corner, the mediaeval and the evil that men do will have you huddling round, but in full blast of a frosty Task Force reception. No slip-ups on D Tail’s ‘Happy Accident’, slick and swift grime-trained rhymes taking to hip-hop funk with impudence and asking some searching questions along the way. Toss a mic in his direction and he’ll always be ready to respond en masse: a final posse cut involving Ras Kass and Leaf Dog shows he’s got the goods. A compact cross section of instrumental despair and beats seeking emcees to bruise knuckles with, Nick Roberts dips into ‘False Consciousness’, with Dizzy Dustin, Pudgee tha Phat Bastard, Ash the Author and Cyrus Malachi taking advantage of when the producer isn’t longingly working the MPC with a wistful glint. No false moves made by anyone here.

Rugged but always smooth, Apollo Brown painting pictures with Joell Ortiz on ‘Mona Lisa’ is a great, late end of year candidate that’s reflective with a forked tongue and makes the stoop sofa-soft. Able to turn nasty on a sixpence (‘Cocaine Fingertips’ is as sharp as a Kruger manicure), there’s a lot of comfort to be taken from the union of two opposing authority figures exercising supreme quality control, transfixing you like you’re intimately eyeballing the pair’s much ogled muse.

Many parallels can be drawn from Masta Ace and Marco Polo’s ‘A Breukelen Story’, which save for tired skits piping up, is a similar exertion of concentrated strength. An immovable flow that has never let the former down, inimitably representin’, knowing the ‘ledge or reeling off what might have been, takes over production capitalising on a previous hook-up and taking in plenty of fresh, buzzing for autumn air, content on letting the words take the spotlight (even if Pharoahe Monch threatens to upstage everyone on final track ‘The Fight Song’).

The moreish ‘Pieces of a Man’ is Mick Jenkins knowing how to work a crowd. Powered by the woozy, a retreat nudging over into the club with keys constantly paddling, just when you think he’s coasting with the heat off, the Chicagoan plucks it out of the fire with a turn of phrase, concept, or one-liner more damaging than the casual ear can locate. “I be on my show and prove, not my show and tell” – persevere with it and the layers will reveal themselves. A mix of reluctant popstar, drifter hip-hop and traditional Midwest spin, deM atlaS tells the crowd to get lighters up in anticipation of jumping into them. Produced by Ant of Atmosphere, ‘Bad Actress’ is all showman, taming himself after exuberant opening exchanges. The wearing of multiple hats won’t be for everyone: the vulnerability, rap/rockstar/R&B whims, heart-to-hearts, including a remake of Mobb Deep’s ‘Where Your Heart At’, and development of a spectacle, could unlock a lot of new ears.

This month’s Ronseal album: ‘Grimey Life’ by Big Twins, a 15 track upkeep of realness delivered in shredded ghetto baritone. All the street consumption you could possibly ask for, flooded with blood, sweat and tears. Meanwhile in mid-apocalypse Ontario, Lee Reed’s ‘Before & Aftermath’ announces itself as a timebomb, an anti-establishment front row provocateur refusing to accept easy answers. Drums and funk kick down doors like the crooked figures in Reed’s crosshairs, with a twang dragging Your Old Droog and Vast Aire into the fire. Cherried by the all inclusive ‘Fuck Em’, you can’t spell renegade without the name Reed: burn speakers burn.

‘The Beat Tape Co-Op’ 10^th anniversary compilation from 77 Rise rounds up 30 instrumental cameos and bite-sized boom bap bops, laced with soul slipping down the hourglass. The likes of Kuartz, Dr Drumah, Ben Boogz, Klim Beats and Profound79 put in the neck work and make their presence felt on a selection where it’s okay to touch that dial. ‘Dressed for CCTV’ by Aver avoids being a Hard-Fi tribute and gets knee-deep in instrumental murk glistening with a sharp film, dredging for drums and coming up with intriguing droplets of gold to create an atmosphere where emcees fear to tread, save for Cappo manning up on ‘Something from Nothing’. A classy retread of trip hop’s noir-ish particulars.

The spectre of the late Alias looms large on ‘Less is Orchestra’, enabling the supervillain flow of Doseone’s effusive battery acid gargles – scarier when he reaches dog whistle levels – with a cavernous, chrome-finished bunker of wires, pulses and logical mechanoid scurries. A game of good cap bad cop launching the Anticon equivalent of the bat signal.

Taking the street into the club and vice versa, Swizz Beatz’ strong ‘Poison’ brings the fuel, Lil Wayne, Giggs, Kendrick Lamar, 2 Chainz and Young Thug add the fire. It was never gonna be an album of modest contemplation (though quieter storms reserved for Nas and Pusha T don’t disrupt the sequence), but it’s still a pretty good, well condensed elbow sharpener with everyone on their game.

Look out for the Monolith Cocktail end of year album roundup coming soon, chock full of Rapture & Verse’s favourites from over the last 12 months.

Posted by domv

Filed in Uncategorized ·Tags: 77 Rise, Alias, anticon, Apollo Brown, Badroaches, Big Twins, Chester P, CNT, hip hop, hip-hop revue, Jam Baxter, Ken Masters, Lee Reed, Lee Scott, Manage and Blitz, Masta Ace and Marco Polo, Matt Oliver, Mick Jenkins, Nick Roberts, Pan Amsterdam, rap music, Ras Kass, Reklews

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Rapture & Verse: June 2018: Tom Caruana, Career Crooks, Black Thought, Dead Residents, Aesop Rock…

June 21, 2018

ESSENTIAL HIP-HOP REVIEW: WORDS: MATT OLIVER

What a blockbuster month in hip-hop it’s been… Snoop setting the world’s biggest gin and juice record. Eminem and Nicki Minaj reportedly going steady. 50 Cent against Ja Rule, episode #89. Seven tracks being the new 18 tracks plus intro, outro and skits, plus bonus disc.

And there’s also been Pusha T versus Drake: ‘Daytona’ is a significant, title belt-claiming blow that’ll take some recovering from – the latter’s ‘Scorpion’ is imminent, with the additional angle of Martin Shkreli weighing in. Kanye’s ‘Ye’ poses more questions than answers, which is precisely what makes the man, while Nas & Kanye’s ‘Nasir’ has its moments, but falls short of what the dream team billing promises and certainly needs more room than the running length du jour. This is before we’ve even had time to take on Kid Cudi & Kanye’s ‘Kids See Ghosts’, or attempted to try and keep up with The Carters.

Singles/EPs

Dead Residents’ ‘Style Terrorist #1’ weighs an absolute ton, a clunky renegade barking like a sergeant major wearing influences as badges of honour. Heist vibes in full effect when Mr Brown sets a tripwire and infra red assault course and Confucius MC and Jehst come abseiling in through windows, all in the name of protecting ‘The Art-form part 2’, warning that “the ultimate high is the overdose”. One man’s lazy day on the river is another’s circled by sharks – Benofficial’s ‘Machine Gun Benny’ perfects the casual-smarting look. On the edge of grime and trap, VersesBang is sonically and sartorially sharp with seven tracker ‘Dressed to Kill…Myself’, well-paced so as to let listeners take a peek behind the big time persona (“I need to take control, like playing FIFA when it ain’t my go”).

After destroying airwaves with one of the freestyles of recent times, Black Thought rises above all of the aforementioned hullaballoo with the six track ‘Streams of Thought’. Augmented by 9^th Wonder’s telepathy, soulfully shaded but a no-go zone for suckers, it’s an absolute lesson in politics, autobiography and pure battle-hardened craftsmanship that number one spots are reserved for. Parading the glamour life before denting it hard, Conway the Machine and Sonnyjim, with business-like savagery, cause ‘Death by Misadventure’, professional professors in the science of not flinching when stakes get high. To pianos that go left where ‘Still DRE’ went right, Blank Face and Tools Beastly ride the streets on ‘Gunslinger’, advising against feeling lucky. Trademark street cinema from Endemic Emerald joins with French generals 87 Escadron for the war report ‘Mercenaires’, army fatigue gruffness driving through the eye of the storm with Ruste Juxx and Tragedy resuming support. Add Apollo Brown carefully stirring emotions with boom bap going deep in thought, to Locksmith laying bare introspection, ideas and education, and the answer of ‘No Question’ is empathetic and quietly emphatic.

Albums

This year, Ramson Badbonez is ‘Jason Bonez’. That’s not Jason of the Bourne Identity, nor the Argonaut organiser or even the one-time Scott Robinson, but the mask-wearing blood and guts specialist who as with everything he does, doesn’t take his foot off the gas from the first unsheathing. Here to carve open nine swashbuckling tracks, wringing the house of horror hitman spiel out hard, there’s a new patron saint for whenever the 13^th Friday of the month rolls around.

The restless sound of Rye Shabby is to ‘Die Shabby’. Worldly pressures that build up around him are absorbed by the protection of a dark, eerie glow, lyrically economical with energy but never the truth. With Verb T writing out prescriptions that enhance the dilapidated, empty experience, sling it on during the dead of night and find it how it envelopes the room, bringing silhouettes to life and an unspoken feel for consolation.

We may be a bit late on this one, but with new special editions launched and then swiped off shelves, Crimeapple and Big Ghost are the crime family with ‘nuff shots to share. ‘Aguardiente’ is a 100% proof of ferocious rhymes and slick stories making you believe everything spoken about every goon, scam and threat (the hook to ‘Five Chechnyans’ will make you laugh when it probably shouldn’t), to the tune of soul-infused onlookers and accomplices that either look the other way or are in too deep. Music to stash goods and tint windows by.

Neat and tidy true school enthusiasts who have the golden age running through them like a stick of rock, New York’s Penpals crew keep the underground on the level when penning ‘To Whom It May Concern’. Their zeal for technical perfection/pseudo-nerdery means rocking the boat extends to shouting out John Cleese, but the likes of ‘On the Roof’ are just what your garden party and fly school reunion needs. A few listens in and thou shalt not return to sender.

Time for some hip-hop corporal punishment to keep the next generation in line: Bumpy Knuckles is the elected elder statesman who won’t bend to socially mediated conventions. ‘Pop Duke’ is produced by Nottz knocking heads together, and has Chuck D, Kool G Rap and Biz Markie showing there’s no substitute for experience and a carefully sharpened stick in the mud that creditably, doesn’t ramble on.

In it to win it. Fake it til you make it. ‘Thieving as Long as I’m Breathing’. The world according to blasé boosters and old skool aestheticians Career Crooks, savvy Philly pair Zilla Rocca and Small Professor emptying a swag bag of doting remixes plus their own version of how to hold the hip-hop underground to ransom like gentlemen bandits. Do not be scared to check or scared to look. ‘Paranoid City’ by Isaac Roberts, previously known as Sleaze da Don, and Sonnyjim, is another to get repackaged by respectful well-wishers. Remixing new life into the pair’s doyens at the top table diary, Illinformed, Kelakovski, Smugii, Kosyne and the headliners themselves put up a very fine set of variations still keeping it tight knit.

Tom Caruana unveils volume six of his always exceptional ‘Rough Versions’ remix series with a collection of super funky Biggie revisions that elevate classics to new levels, made like the Son of Sam man was the real brains behind Bad Boy all along. The equally notorious David Begun is also at it again with a slice and dice job of Mobb Deep and Dr Octagon. Even if you think the format is tired (and there’s not much wrong when linking core QBC epitaphs to the ghoulish underground), the artwork alone to ‘Dr OctoMobb’ deserves a bony-fingered round of applause.

Bored of the World Cup? To finish, here’s the one man army that is Aesop Rock.

Matt Oliver

Posted by domv

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December 17, 2025

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November 28, 2025

November’s Choice Albums (in alphabetical order):

Babau ‘The Sludge of the Land’(Artetetra) Review

Bad Trips ‘Nothing But Trouble’Review

The Cindys ‘S-T’(Breakfast Records/Ruination Records) Review

The Flower Press ‘Slowdance’Review

Imperial Motors ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’Review

Neon Kittens ‘21 Minutes of Adventure’(Metal Postcard Records) Review

The Noisy ‘The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat’(Audio Antihero) Review

Plants Heal ‘Forest Dwellers’(Quindi) Review

Shoko Nagai ‘Forbidden Flowers’(Infrequent Seams) Review

SML ‘How You Been’(International Anthem) Review

Super Grupa Bez Fałszywej Skromności ‘The Book Of Job’(Huveshta Rituals) Review

Suntou Susso ‘Jaliya Silokang: The Path Of A Griot’Review

The Playlist:

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March 28, 2025

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August 30, 2023

_____TRACKLIST_____

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December 12, 2022

A.

Anthéne & Simon McCorry ‘Mind Of Winter’ (Hidden Vibes) Dominic ValvonaReview

Seigo Aoyama ‘Prelude For The Spring’ (Audiobulb) DVReview

Armstrong ‘Happy Graffiti’ Brian ‘Bordello’ SheaReview

Yara Asmar ‘Home Recordings 2018-2021’ (Hive Mind) DVReview

Avalanche Kaito ‘S-T’ (Glitterbeat) DVReview

Avantdale Bowling Club ‘TREES’ Andrew C. Kidd

B.

Caterina Barbieri ‘Spirit Exit’ (Warp Records) ACKReview

Jam Baxter ‘Fetch the Poison’ (Blah) Matt Oliver

Oliver Birch ‘Burning Daylight’ BBSReview

Ｂｌａｃｋ Ｍｅｓａ ‘Research Facility’ (猫 シ Corp. ‘Selected Works’) ACK

Brigitte Beraha ‘Blink’ DVReview

Brian Bordello ‘Cardboard Box Beatles’ (Metal Postcard Records) DVReview

The Bordellos ‘Ronco Revival Sound’ (Metal Postcard Records) Graham DomainReview

Boycalledcrow ‘Wizards Castle’ (Waxing Crescent Records) BBSReview

Broadcast ‘The Maida Vale Sessions’ (Warp Records) GD

Apollo Brown & Philmore Greene ‘Cost of Living’ (Mello Music Group) MO

Brown Calvin ‘dimension//perspective’ (AKP Recordings) DVReview

C.

Loyle Carner ‘Hugo’ (EMI) MO

Tom Caruana ‘Strange Planet’ (Tea Sea Records) MO

Cities Aviv ‘Man Plays The Horn’ (D.O.T.) DV

Claude ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’ (American Dreams) DVReview

Clouds in a Headlock ‘Breakfast in Phantasia’ (Offkiltr/Fat Beats) MO

Julian Cope ‘England Expectorates’ BBSLink

D.

The Dark Jazz Project ‘S-T’ (Irregular Frequencies) DVReview

Aftab Darvishi ‘A Thousand Butterflies’ ACKReview

The Difference Machine ‘Unmasking the Spirit Fakers’ (Full Plate) MOReview

Ferry Djimmy ‘Rhythm Revolution’ (Acid Jazz) DV

Matt Donovan ‘Habit Formation’ DVReview

The Doomed Bird Of Providence ‘A Flight Across Arnham Land’ DV/BBSReview

Dubbledge ‘Ten Toes Down’ (Potent Funk) MOReview

E.

Eamon The Destroyer ‘A Small Blue Car – Re-made/Re-modelled’ (Bearsuit Records) BBSReview

El Khat ‘Albat Alawi Op​.​99’ (Glitterbeat) DVReview

Kahil El’Zabar Quartet ‘A Time For Healing’ (Spiritmuse) DV

Roger Eno ‘The Turning Year’ (Deutsche Grammophon) GDReview

Eerie Wanda ‘Internal Radio’ (Joyful Noise Recordings) DV

Exociety ‘Deception Falls’ (Exociety) MO

F.

Fera ‘Corpo Senza Carne’ (Maple Death Records) DV

Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita ‘Echo’ (bendigedig) DVReview

Flat Worms ‘Live In Los Angeles’ (Frontier Records) DVReview

Forest Robots ‘Supermoon Moonlight Part Two’ (Subexotic) DVReview

Nick Frater ‘Aerodrome Motel’ (Big Stir Records) BBSReview

Future Kult ‘S-T’ (Action Wolf/AWAL) DVReview

G.

Mike Gale ‘Mañana Man’ DVPremiere

Dana Gavanski ‘When it Comes’ (Full Time Hobby / Flemish Eye) GDReview

Gold Panda ‘The Work’ (City Slang) ACK

The Good Ones ‘Rwanda…You See Ghosts I See Sky’ (Six Degrees) DVReview

Goon ‘Hour of Green Evening’ (Demode Recordings) Graham DomainReview

Guillotine Crowns ‘Hills to Die On’ (Uncommon Records) MOReview

Gwenno ‘Tresor’ (Heavenly Recordings) GD

Babau ‘The Sludge of the Land’
(Artetetra) Review

Bad Trips ‘Nothing But Trouble’
Review

The Cindys ‘S-T’
(Breakfast Records/Ruination Records) Review

The Flower Press ‘Slowdance’
Review

Imperial Motors ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’
Review

Neon Kittens ‘21 Minutes of Adventure’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review

The Noisy ‘The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat’
(Audio Antihero) Review

Plants Heal ‘Forest Dwellers’
(Quindi) Review

Shoko Nagai ‘Forbidden Flowers’
(Infrequent Seams) Review

SML ‘How You Been’
(International Anthem) Review

Super Grupa Bez Fałszywej Skromności ‘The Book Of Job’
(Huveshta Rituals) Review

Suntou Susso ‘Jaliya Silokang: The Path Of A Griot’
Review

_TRACKLIST_

Anthéne & Simon McCorry ‘Mind Of Winter’ (Hidden Vibes) Dominic Valvona
Review

Seigo Aoyama ‘Prelude For The Spring’ (Audiobulb) DV
Review

Armstrong ‘Happy Graffiti’ Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Review

Yara Asmar ‘Home Recordings 2018-2021’ (Hive Mind) DV
Review

Avalanche Kaito ‘S-T’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Caterina Barbieri ‘Spirit Exit’ (Warp Records) ACK
Review

Oliver Birch ‘Burning Daylight’ BBS
Review

ＢｌａｃｋＭｅｓａ ‘Research Facility’ (猫シ Corp. ‘Selected Works’) ACK

Brigitte Beraha ‘Blink’ DV
Review

Brian Bordello ‘Cardboard Box Beatles’ (Metal Postcard Records) DV
Review

The Bordellos ‘Ronco Revival Sound’ (Metal Postcard Records) Graham Domain
Review

Boycalledcrow ‘Wizards Castle’ (Waxing Crescent Records) BBS
Review

Brown Calvin ‘dimension//perspective’ (AKP Recordings) DV
Review

**Loyle Carner ‘Hugo’ (EMI) MO**

Claude ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’ (American Dreams) DV
Review

Julian Cope ‘England Expectorates’ BBS
Link

The Dark Jazz Project ‘S-T’ (Irregular Frequencies) DV
Review

Aftab Darvishi ‘A Thousand Butterflies’ ACK
Review

The Difference Machine ‘Unmasking the Spirit Fakers’ (Full Plate) MO
Review

Matt Donovan ‘Habit Formation’ DV
Review

The Doomed Bird Of Providence ‘A Flight Across Arnham Land’ DV/BBS
Review

Dubbledge ‘Ten Toes Down’ (Potent Funk) MO
Review

Eamon The Destroyer ‘A Small Blue Car – Re-made/Re-modelled’ (Bearsuit Records) BBS
Review

El Khat ‘Albat Alawi Op.99’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Roger Eno ‘The Turning Year’ (Deutsche Grammophon) GD
Review

Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita ‘Echo’ (bendigedig) DV
Review

Flat Worms ‘Live In Los Angeles’ (Frontier Records) DV
Review

Forest Robots ‘Supermoon Moonlight Part Two’ (Subexotic) DV
Review

Nick Frater ‘Aerodrome Motel’ (Big Stir Records) BBS
Review

Future Kult ‘S-T’ (Action Wolf/AWAL) DV
Review

Mike Gale ‘Mañana Man’ DV
Premiere

Dana Gavanski ‘When it Comes’ (Full Time Hobby / Flemish Eye) GD
Review

The Good Ones ‘Rwanda…You See Ghosts I See Sky’ (Six Degrees) DV
Review

Goon ‘Hour of Green Evening’ (Demode Recordings) Graham Domain
Review

Guillotine Crowns ‘Hills to Die On’ (Uncommon Records) MO
Review

Healing Force Project ‘Drifted Entities Vol. 1’ (Beat Machine Records) DV
Review

Sven Helbig ‘Skills’ (Modern Recordings) DV
Review

Houseplants ‘II’ (Win Big Records) DV
Review

John Howard ‘From The Far Side Of A Miss’ (Kool Kat) DV
Review

Kamikaze Palm Tree ‘Mint Chip’ (Drag City) BBS
Review

Kick ‘Light Figures’ (Anomic Records/Dischi Sottoernnei/Sour Grapes) DV
Review

Evan Kertman ‘Rancho Shalom’ (Perpetual Doom) BBS
Review

Labelle ‘Éclat’ (Infiné) DV
Review

The Legless Crabs ‘Always Your Boy’ (Metal Postcard Records) BBS
Review

Kristine Leschper ‘The Opening Or Closing Of A Door’ (Anti-) DV
Review

Liraz ‘Roya’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review

Francesco Lurgo ‘Sleep Together Folded Like Origami’ (Bosco Records) DV
Review

Lyrics Born ‘Mobile Homies’ (Mobile Home Recordings) MO
Review

Bernard Estardy ‘Space Oddities: 1970-82’ (Born Bad)

‘Fragmented D’une Empreinte Magnétique: Rares 1966-2006’ (Gonzai Records)