The Monthly Playlist Revue: Jan 2020: Les Amazones d’Afrique, Ani Glass, Black Lips, Colin Stetson…
January 31, 2020
PLAYLIST
Dominic Valvona & Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
The behemoth Quarterly Playlist Revue is now more! With a massive increase in submissions month-on-month, we’ve decided to go monthly. The inaugural playlist carries on from where the popular quarterly left off; picking out the choice tracks that represent the Monolith Cocktail’s eclectic output. New releases and the best of reissues have been chosen by me, Dominic Valvona, and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
JANUARY’S TRACKS ARE:
Les Amazones d’Afrique ‘Love’
Hailu Mergia ‘Abichu Nega Nega’
Dijf Sanders ‘Santoshi Mata’
Penya Na Msafiri Zawose ‘Heyyeh (Guedra Guedra Remix)’
Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela ‘We’ve Landed’
Ani Glass ‘Mirores’
Brainstory ‘Beautyful Beauti’
Syd Nukukluk ft. Monika ‘Plasticene’
Lee Scott ft. Dream McClean, DJ Frost & Sumgii ‘Sainthood’
Leaf Dog ft. Smellington Piff ‘Under The Spell’
Verses Bang ‘The Eagle Has Landed’
O.G. Natal & Kool Keith ‘Crime Don’t Pay’
The Van Allen Belt ‘Let It Goddam Be’
Extradition Order ‘Manhattan’
The Epstein ‘Lay Me Down’
Hallelujah! ‘Your Duck’
Deutsche Ashram ‘Slackjaw’
Sunflowers ‘Oscillations’
Shadow Show ‘Charades’
Black Lips ‘Odelia’
Pintandwefall ‘Ah-Ah-Ah’
Floodlights ‘Backyard’
Seattle Stomp ‘January’
Colin Stetson ‘West Of Arkham’
Lina_Raul Refree ‘Destino’
Brona McVittie ‘The Green Man’
Jonah Parzen-Johnson ‘Stand Still’
Ippu Mitsui ‘Recovery’
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.
Kalporz X Monolith Cocktail: [Scoutcloud] Brainstory
January 13, 2020
NEW MUSIC DISCOVERY
Words: Monica Mazzoli
Continuing in 2020 with our collaboration with the leading Italian music publication Kalporz, the Monolith Cocktail will be cosying up and sharing reviews, interviews and other bits from our respective sites each month. Keep an eye out for future ‘synergy’ between our two great houses as we exchange posts.
The first Kalporz post of the year is taken from the site’s [Scoutcloud] column; searching out and discovering new bands.
Here’s a little reminder of the Kalporz background:
Kalporz writes about music, with his own musical vision, since 2000.
Kalporz is a careful observer of news, trends, emerging scenes, but without chasing the dominant taste: he is in search of “beautiful things”. He hopes to publish articles well written and carefully, in an original way, without filters and, of course, independently.
The editorial project is under the Creative Commons regime (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IT) and in 2018 it was voted as the best Italian music site by the Meeting of Independent Labels (MEI) and Musicletter (https://www.musicletter.it/index.php/2018/08/27/kalporz-e-reverendo-lys-vincono-la-targa-mei-musicletter-2018-premio-speciale-a-umbria-jazz-come-miglior-festival-musicale-italiano/).
The Kalporz family is composed of the founder Luca Vecchi, the editors Paolo Bardelli,Monica Mazzoli, Piero Merola, Enrico Stradi, Matteo Mannocci, Gianluigi Marsibilio, and about twenty other collaborators, as well as three photographers.
The collaborators are from all parts of Italy, even if the main base of Kalporz is between Reggio Emilia, a town near the “famous” Canossa, the Adriatic Sea and Florence.
Brainstory music has rhythm and heart. In a word: a groove.
Kevin Martin, Tony Martin and Eric Hagstrom – the three souls of the band – form a trio all soul, jazz and psychedelic. After two mini albums – Brainstory Presents: A Natural Phantasm (2015) and Brainstory (2017) – comes the band from Rialto’s (California) longplayer debut. Buck (2019), the band’s first release by Big Crown Records, the Californian line-up lays bare as never before, putting down its musical spirituality, naked and pure. “Buck naked”, on the other hand, means “naked as a worm” in English. The songs of Buck are all stripped of artificial frills; they are “pop”, directed to the point, to the soul of the melody and rhythm: Soul in spirit.
Monica Mazzoli
Monolith Cocktail Blog 