The End of the Month Playlist Revue for May 2026
May 29, 2026
Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music from the last month. Picked by Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver & Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
The Track list is as follows:
Sub Hop Collective ‘Hundred and One’
Konono No1 ‘Volta’
Sunk Giants ‘Radio Problems’
Party Dozen ‘Special Unit’
Occult Character ‘Anti-Human Hate Machine’
Spirit Level ‘Forest Lagoon’
Khalab & Baba Sissoko ‘Denifurla’
Dumama ‘No Abiding City’
Cocanha ‘Forabanda’
Stik Figa & Heather Grey ‘All Is Fair’
The Allergies ‘Dig It Up’
7X3=21 & Pruven Ft. Masai Bey & Fred Ones ‘Woven Fabric’
Black Milk ‘Crash Test Dummy’
Meiko Kaji ‘Tokyo Nagare Mono’
Farma G & Relense ‘The Circus’
Juga-Naut ‘Scratch The Surface’
Whait/More Eaze/Wendy Eisenberg ‘Suffer Less’
Yazz Ahmed ‘A Moment To Be Free’
J Scienide ‘Stay Tuned’
Von Pea ‘The Goof’
Termanology/Royal Flush/Dru Hoffa ‘Angel Whispers’
Vic Spencer/BlaQ Chidori/J Wade/Aakeem Eshu/Lil Kydd ‘The Becomers’
A-F-R-O ‘The Hangman’
The Bordellos ‘Hop To It Bunny Girl’
Thomas Dollbaum ‘Pulverize’
Kyivite ‘test cylinder’
Neuro…No Neuro ‘Doubting’
Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Opus Kink ‘The Sweet Goodbye’
Double Francoise ‘Allumer’
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘A Universe That Has No End’
Upupayama ‘Mystic Chords of Memory’
Lunar Bird ‘Sinderesi’
SUO ‘Lightening Strikes’
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BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Arab Strap Photo: Luke Bovill
Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Single (Rock Action Records)
If I was young and one of these influencer types you see popping up on YouTube and such, being all jolly and hip and now and current and suchlike, I would describe this as a bit of a banger and not mean old car or sausage but a bit of a toe tapper, one to cut some rug to; a record in the bygone age of when Morrissey had something to say; a record that would have dented the bottom half of the Hit Parade as indie crossover singles tended to do. Ahh…those were the days, of Gallup chart machines and record shops. And this song would have been good enough to visit your local record store and part with your penis. I meant to write pennies but I will stick with penis as it could even be good enough to part with your penis, unless you don’t have one which would mean having to borrow someone else’s to part with, and if you did, what compartment in the till would you put it? The notes or change compartment? The mind boggles.
Double Francois ‘La Poursuite’
EP (Freaksville) 15th May 2026
La Poursuite is a rather lovely thing indeed. 5 tracks of pure French pop from the synth pop of Allumeur to the lovely acoustic summery jazz Trop Ou Paz Assez and the blissfully sweet romance of the love duet Un apres- midi a Paris which features the wonderful Benjamin Schoos. Yes, five wonderful tracks that will soundtrack the oncoming summer; songs to lick ice cream and drink wine whilst trying to look cool in ill-fitting flannel trousers.
Filalete ‘Frequencies Of The Soul’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 16th June 2026
I will be completely honest, me writing about modern classical is like asking the incredible Hulk to successfully reenact the final meeting scene in Brief Encounter: it is not going to end well.
Modern classical is a musical genre I have only occasional dipped into, mostly when I have been sent some new music to review. But I am a human being for god sake! And have emotions and fallibilities like most others, so can appreciate beauty and soul and feeling. And those three things are in abundance with this rather lovely album and has me thinking there are far worse ways of me spending my Sunday afternoon than being totally moved by the outpourings of instrumental piano emotional grandeur.
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Sci Fi Hi Fi’
Album Released 7th May 2026
Well, what’s not to like about an Sci Fi themed album with songs concerning planets and space and aliens and ray guns. It’s all twanging guitars ala The Ventures and suchlike and whooshing sci fi synths and Monochrome Set like vocals. Sci Fi Hi Fi has a wonderful eccentricity and includes many rewrites of Incense and peppermints, which believe me can only be a great thing.
Occult Character ‘The Zodameta Working’
EP (Subvert)
This is rather wonderful, the new EP by Occult Character is a splendid three track EP of pure bonkers experimental pop/dance part Eurovision, part Welsh Male voice choir, part satanic black mass. The Occult Character never fails to astound and surprise with this quite hypnotic three track gem.
Opus Kink ft The New Eves ‘The Head Tree’
Single
I quite enjoy the madness of this track. Imagine if you will Sam and The Womp getting together with Nick Cave to perform a track about hanging a witch, the kind of thing one really does not hear much about these days on the radio: That’s if you still listen to the radio, nowadays it’s all curated playlists and suchlike. I know that makes me sound like I am old enough to remember the days when they used to burn and hang witches but maybe it’s because I am.
Schizo Fun Addict ‘Desolate Ecstasy’
Album (Fruits de Mer) 10th June 2026
The world needs a new album by Schizo Fun Addict, it honestly does. The tragic thing about this is that the world does not realise it yet as they are criminally undervalued. The perfect pop band, just like The Beatles and The Beach Boys (in the 60s and 70s) and the Velvet Underground are perfect like Orange Juice (another criminally undervalued band), The Smiths and first few albums by the B52s where perfect.
SFA have a wonderful sense of adventure and inner spirituality that all the finer artists and, indeed, people do. In fact, there really should be a Schizo Fun Addict cartoon (Hanna-Barber get on it please). The world is a mess, more of a mess than I have known in my near 60 years on this planet, so we need Schizo not just to soundtrack these times but also give us an escape route from life for the 35 minutes that this gem of an album plays. The radio and mags and blogs in an ideal world should be all over this album.
Desolate Ecstasy is a pop fantasy. It is the lighted up pave stones of Billie Jean. It is the mop top headshake. It is the aural image of Otis Redding falling to his knees and begging for a little tenderness. The band bring all the magic and danger and sexiness of the last 60 years or so of Rock ‘n’ Roll because they still believe in the magic.
The album kicks off with the single “Pasteline Dream”, a guitar jangling pop beauty that brings the sound of the early Stone Roses being fronted by the girls from The B52s. Jayne Gabriel and Ilona Virostek voices blend perfectly: they have that perfect blend of heavenly sass that all the best 60s girl groups have and again on “The Scent Of Heather” the sound of the BJM being fronted by the Shangri-La’s – perfect heavenly sass psych pop.
Desolate Ecstasy is one of those albums when it really is impossible to choose your favourite track as it constantly changes depending on your mood, and because all the tracks are quite special. “Coming To You” is a rather hypnotic and beautiful mellow gaze of a dance track that once again highlights both the spirituality and sensuality of the girls’ vocals, a song that takes me back to the days of the Manchester Acid scene when the Hacienda was many a peoples place of worship: “Coming To You” is an aural E of togetherness. “The Line Is Gone” is a somewhat darker beast of a track, one that highlights the genius of guitarist and producer Rex John Shelverton; a song drenched in fury and guitar twang in equal measure, the sound of the priest in the Exorcist driving the Demons out of Linda Blair by playing her The Ventures greatest hits. “Strange Theatres”, at the time of writing my current fave from the album, is a wonderful baggy like dirty pop gem of a track with sleazy bass and groove drums of Daniel Boivin and Jet Wintzer sounding like he has been possessed by the spirit of Sean Ryder chanting “let the people all die”: a truly dark and hypnotic listening experience I tell thee. So Desolate Ecstasy is quite wonderful and could be the best Schizo Fun Addict album yet and probably already my favourite album of the year. I have just realised I have not mentioned the track “Cathedral Sunshine”, a song so perfect that JAMC could have written it when they were very special…And that is very good indeed.
CHOICE TRACKS FORM THE LAST MONTH
CHOSEN BY DOMINIC VALVONA/MATT OLIVER/BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA
Representing the last 30 days’ worth of reviews and recommendations on the Monolith Cocktail, the Monthly Playlist is our chance to take stock and pause as we remind our readers and flowers of all the great music we’ve shared – with some choice tracks we didn’t get room or time to feature but added anyway.
Without delay, here’s that eclectic track list in full:::
Liraz ‘Haarf’
Lolo et L’Orchestre O.K. Jazz ‘Lolo Soulfire’
Benjamin Samuels ‘Crazy DNA’
Dirty Harry, Nat Lover & Shuteyes ‘Tons Of Drums’
Valentina Magaletti ‘Drum Jump’
The Alchemist, Oh No & Gangrene ‘Watch Out’
Junior Disprol, Roughneck Jihad & Stepchild ‘Doomsday Clock’ – this month’s cover art
Talib Kweli, Madlib, Wildchild, Q-Tip ‘One For Biz’
The Alchemist, Oh No, Gangrene ‘Oxnard Water Torture’
Sebastian Reynolds ‘Final Push (the darqwud remix)’
Distropical ‘Jagauarundi’
Cyril Cyril ‘Chat Gepetto’
HOUSE OF ALL ‘For This Be Glory’
The Bordellos ‘Poet Or Liar’
Picturebox ‘(The World Of) Autumn Feelings’
Nights Templer ‘Perversion’
Legless Trials ‘Huffin’
Leah Callahan ‘No One’
Sarah/Shaun ‘Dust Tears’
NAHreally & The Expert ‘Smarter Than I Am’
Vincent, The Owl, Nick Catchdubs ‘Bruv My Luv’
Midnight Sons, Midaz The Beast, Curly Castro ‘Marathon Man’
Sahra Halgan ‘Lamahuran’
Arab Strap ‘Strawberry Moon’
Nicolas Cueille ‘Grand Finale’
George Demure ‘One More Story’
Blu, Shafiq Husayn, Chuuwee, Born Allah ‘I’m G (OMG)’
DJ D Sharp, St Spittin ‘Profile Pics’
NxWorries, Anderson .Paak, Knowledge ‘86Sentra’
Marv Won, Fatt Father, Elzhi ‘Measuring Stick’
Room Of Wires, Station Zero ‘Sand Eater’
Herandu ‘The Ocher Red’
Violet Nox ‘Varda (J. Bagist Remix)’
Audio Obscura ‘Babyloniacid’
Morriarchi, AJ Sude ‘Rapid Eye Movement’
Apathy ‘Vaction’
Your Old Droog, Method Man, Denzel Curry, Madlib ‘DBZ’
Read Bad Man, Lukah ‘The Facilitator’
A Lily ‘Thallinx’
Micah Pick ‘Chiastic Crux’
Fran & Flora ‘Nudity’
Khora ‘Rigpa’
Rohingya Refugees ‘We Are Stuck Here In The Camps’
Kira McSpice ‘Get You Out’
Esbe ‘Little Echo’
Martha Skye Murphy, Roy Montgomery ‘Need’
Mike Gale ‘Unsteady’
Soop Dread, Morriarchi ‘Silver Surfer’
Sonnyjim, Statik Selektah ‘Chun King’
J-Live ‘Lose No Time’
Bless Picasso, Kool G Rap, Conway The Machine ‘Paper Spiders’
A ROUNDUP OF NEW MUSIC REVIEWS BY CULT INSTIGATOR OF THE NO-FI, AND SIBLING BAND MEMBER OF THE MIGHTY BORDELLOS, BRIAN SHEA.
Arab Strap ‘Strawberry Moon’
Arab Strap are back with a fairly funky poetic delight of dance beats and dour poetic yearnings of life. And watching the very enjoyable video of vampires and werewolves, this is indeed a song to get your teeth into.
Jesus And Mary Chain ‘Glasgow Eyes’
(Fuzz Club)
The New JAMC album, Glasgow Eyes, is upon us, and to be honest it is not a bad album: but it is not a good album either. Its quite beige in fact – maybe it shall go down in history as the Beige album. I am sure it will sell well and reach the top end of the album charts for a week, after all the Shed 7 album did ok, and that speaks volumes: that I am writing about the Mary Chain in the same sentence as “Shed 7”. Mary Chain fans will go out and buy the album the first day of release but how many will play it after the first week is open to debate.
On this album they have moved away from the guitar and have tried something new, concentrating more on keyboard and synths. And that works well in parts. I’m all for bands experimenting and trying something new, and at times this experiment reminds me of Suicide, which is indeed a good thing. But it is just lacking in good songs: the lyrics sound forced like they actually have nothing to write about or say, and the melodies are not strong enough to take the focus away from the quite bad lyrics – they reminded me at times of a sixty year old trying to dress like they did in their twenties and end up looking foolish. Maybe its not the JAMC’s fault that they cannot write the sublime pop songs they once did as we all have a sell by date, but I don’t think the JAMC have quite reached theirs yet: As a live act they are a band still worth seeing. But I feel on Glasgow Eyes they are struggling for inspiration; maybe they just haven’t got anything left to say and everyone has to make a living and this is what the album sounds like they are doing: a job putting on their work clothes that do not fit like they used to.
House Of All ‘Continuum’
The second album by the House Of All is quite a pleasing little thing. At times sounding like the Fall – which to be honest is no surprise as we all know that they were all one-time members of the legendary band -, and at other times not sounding like them at all. The first single ‘Murmuration’ is quite a moody alternative pop rock number with a melody not dissimilar to the Bongwater gem ‘I Need A New Tape’, and ‘Gaudy Pop Scramble’ an upbeat, I am sure, future radio BBC6 favourite, as will be the ‘Cuckoo In The Nest’ with its slight Mark E Smith vocal influence coming through.
There is a definably 80s indie rock feel to Continuum, which will no doubt be adored by all of us old 80s indie rock veterans looking for something not too taxing on our ears to soundtrack our middle aged lives.
Legless Trials ‘Get Yer Wah Wah’s Out’
(Metal Postcard Records)
The artful persuasion of the well executed guitar riff is alive and well, and is for all to see or hear even on this rather marvelous rock ‘n’ roll opus of magnificence; an album of Iggy and The Stooges meets the New York Dolls and Public Image, with a touch of the c86 guitar madness of ‘Someone Is Getting Paid’, which would no doubt be a alternative radio airplay hit if not for all the “motherfuckers” in the quite excellent lyrics, or the dark velvet like closer ‘If I Knew Your Name’. There is just something so life affirming brilliant about the Legless Trials that should be bottled and injected into the arses of the lesser guitar bands currently attempting to plough the same path of the one offs that are the Legless Trials.
The Bordellos ‘I Promise Not To Make Art Again’
(Metal Postcard Records)
What you have here is the reason The Bordellos – after being around and existing for over 20 years – still remain a cult underground band.
This compilation is made up of 15 tracks taken from our long and extensive catalogue; every song a diamond but an uncut rough diamond still hidden under layers of dirt and years of life in the underground. Songs that have such subject matters as dealing with the pain and anguish of being a Gary Glitter fan (“Gary Glitter”, the version included here was our radio mix – yes because we all know DJs are queuing up to play songs about Gary Glitter, a sure fire radio hit). Songs that deal with the ridiculous nature of the music business/industry and some of the people who live, work and thrive in that crazy mixed up industry – “Lloyd the Anti-Christ”, “The True Meaning Of Record Store Day”, and “For A Hit”. Songs of life in decaying run down northern towns – “Cuts” and “My Speeding Train” – alongside songs of love and depression.
We even have a song for nursery teachers to sing to their nursery children explaining the history and importance of the 1976 Punk Rock Revolution – “The Slits”. Yes indeed, fine songs all; not recorded in the luxury of Air conditioned studios and mastered in Abbey Road by someone who once farted in the same studio Paul McCartney whistled a merry tune but on old tape 4 tracks and hand held digital 8 tracks and ghetto blasters and mp3 players and clock radio cassette players, and Ant Bordello’s living room and bathroom. So hopefully you my dear friends will find something of interest to write about or play on your radio show or just enjoy, or annoy your significant other or children with.
Nights Templar ‘Half The Year’
(Paisley Shirt Records)
Anyone who has the penchant for early 80s sounding post-punk music should really enjoy Nights Templar‘s Half The Year album; a prime example of how bewitching DIY music can be. A steady simple drum machine beat, early Cure like bass and synths, single string guitar lines and Ian Curtis like echo drenched vocals. All very becoming, so much so that I might dig out my old long black coat and borrow somebody’s hair and style it in a Ian McCulloch type way: Or in fact, just borrow Ian McCulloch’s hair.
Rockin Horse’ ‘Yes It Is’
(Think Like A Key Music) 26th April 2024
I don’t usually write reviews of rereleased albums: there is Mojo, Uncut, Shindig and Record Collector about to do that. I usually like to draw attention to new releases, but there is always an acceptation to the rule. And this is mine, a rereleased ltd CD release of the underground classic power pop album from 1971, the wonderful Yes It Is album by Rockin Horse, a band formed by the legendary cult Liverpool Songwriter Jimmy Campbell and his friend Billy Kinsley (onetime member of the 60s hit makers the Merseybeats and The Merseys).
Yes It Is is the best mid 60s pop guitar album made in 1971: and I would say maybe the whole of the 70s. This album is up there, and in fact, could be superior to the much-lauded first two Big Star albums. It really needs to be heard by all lovers of the confusing genre that is called Power Pop or any lover of great guitar based pop. The magic of this album lies in the slight sadness and melancholy of the lyrics (which Jimmy Campbell was a master of) and the pure joy and downright catchiness of the melodies. There is something quite life affirming about this album it has the unique X factor – whatever that is. Sadly this is the only album Rockin Horse ever made; Billy Kinsley went on to have chart success later in the seventies with the excellent Liverpool Express whilst Jimmy Campbell released his third and final solo LP a year later, the beautifully sad Jimmy Campbell Album that sank without trace. Campbell vanished into the world of obscurity, and the 9 to 5 life. The man should have been a star.
I would advise anyone who has not got this album in their collection to treat themselves to this sadly ignored at the time classic and marvel at this example of songwriting artistry.
Filalete ‘For Family’
(Cruel Nature Records)
Fragility of the first touch, the silent escape of the flake of indifference that flows from the opening of the can of snow you keep for special occasions, the one that is a closely guarded secret closeted in the small pocket inside your heart, one that can only be awakened by the outpouring of both love and grief for you can only feel true grief if you have been fortunate to feel true love, for you cannot grief for something that you have not loved or still love. Which is why I am filled with grief when this beautiful album of short piano pieces reaches its conclusion. An album ideal for soundtracking both that love and grief; recommended listening for the quieter more reflective times in one’s life.
Picture Box ‘Mobile Disco’
(Gare Du Nord)
Picture Box‘s Mobile Disco is a very British sounding album, an album steeped in nostalgia lyrically – “a bag of 10p’s will get you nowhere” – and musically, drawing on the influences of Syd Barrett and The Television Personalities and early Blur, XTC and at times Luke Haines. There is a sad English melancholy and dark humour that runs throughout the album, the sort I always tend to find appealing. And I do find this album appealing. In fact, I think it’s a bit of a gem.
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