Brian Bordello Shea’s Final Roundup of 2022

SINGLES/EPs
John Howard ‘Christmas Was Made For The Children’
‘Christmas Was Made For The Children’ is pure schmaltz, pure Christmas Schmaltz as all great Christmas songs are. John Howard succeeds where so many seem to fail as he wraps the Schmaltz in a melody so beautiful and timeless it takes one back to the golden days of 70s Christmas TV, when the Val Doonican or Bing Crosby Christmas special would be aired mid evening on Christmas Eve and we’d be entertained by there special guest who would perform a song just like ‘Christmas Was Made For The Children’ as the host looked on resplendent in their Christmas jumper.
This song is filled with magic and nostalgia and I almost feel like I’m that young kid trudging through the cold to attend midnight mass, at least comforted by the thought that my Christmas morning would not have to be interrupted by an hour or so of God bothering. If you are going to buy one Christmas song this year I suggest you choose this gem.
LINN ‘Okay, Sister’
This is a slow dance with your own shadow; a mixed delight of a lone shard of glass reflecting the crescent of the moon; a night time bathe in melancholia; a song to sing to your loved one as they leave you wanting alone with only memories for company; a bewitching jewel of longing and regret. A fine and beautiful song.
Humour ‘Jeans’
(So Young Records)
I really like this, it has a wonderful wonky post-punk Captain Beefheart, Zappa feel to it; a song that sent me spiralling back to my youth of energetic nights out drinking in the local alternative pub soaking up the pleasures of too many bottles of newkie Brown and soaking up the sounds of Wigan’s finest, The Volunteers [whose Bladdder Of Life mini album is a must own for all lovers of wonky guitar thrills]. Yes indeed, I enjoyed this track a great deal. You could say I enjoy the cut of their Jeans, which I imagine to be quite flair-y but darn sexy at the same time.
Dead Patrons ‘Nothing’
There is nothing like a good Christmas song and video to bring the oncoming tide of nostalgia rushing towards you like the onslaught of a swarm of meat hungry giant turkeys all ready to weave a wave of mass destruction on the waiting children all ready for Santa to bring them their ideal Christmas gift, but instead are pecked to death in their beds, their last thought being it did not look like this in the Argos catalogue. But luckily for us this is not a wholesome Christmas ditty but instead a slow and dirty as death hardcore slow romp of mental cold metal anguish and depravity that we all really need this time of the year: believe me we really do.
Kevin Robertson ‘Why/D.C.B.A 25’
(Fruits Der Mer)
The new single from the infamous Fruits der Mer label, the label of course that released vinyl releases when vinyl releases where not the thing to release but did it anyway and over the years have released a whole slew of collectable vinyl, mostly psych shenanigans of the first degree, is a double-sided joy of 60s cover jangle by Kevin Robertson. The A-side ‘Why’ is a colourful and calmly laid-back reworking of The Byrds gem that explodes in the middle with a guitar solo and a half of acid induced seagull frenzy [which believe me is such a thing]. The B-side is a cover of Jefferson Airplanes ‘D.C.B.A 25’, which actually sounds like The Byrds strangely enough and is wrapped in a blanket of chiming almost Christmassy 12 string guitars, which I suppose this time of the year is very apt and no doubt the radio will soon be blessed with the sound of Chrissie Hynde telling us that 2000 Miles is very far.
ALBUMS
Sanfeliu ‘To Absent Friends’
(4000 Records)

This is a rather lovely relaxing wonky album of synth pop; an album full of bleeps and whooshes and wizzes and soft vocals that at times reminded me of The Frazier Chorus and at others, the Magnetic Fields, and on the excellent ‘El Rey Y La Reina De Los Descastados’ Sanfeliu seems to evoke the spirit of the wonderful Wilder album by The Teardrop Explodes: all hushed tones of angelic beauty, a really lovely track on an album filled with them. To Absent Friends is a must hear for all those with a love of synth pop and smooth relaxing warm slightly wonky music.
Richard Öhrn ‘Sounds In English’
(Big Stir Records)

Sounds In English starts with a beautiful chiming jangle of the 12-string guitar, which should come as no surprise as of course this album is released on the excellent Big Stir record label. As anyone who reads my reviews will probably realise I normally review at least one album most months from the label. So, you will know what to expect as Big Stir specialise in releasing albums of well written and performed slices of guitar magic, and Sounds In English is yet another lovely gem of that ilk but with a much calmer and pastoral edge and with a baroque pop quality; ‘The Coolest Manners’ could easily fit on Costello’s Imperial Bedroom and ‘5th Month Announcement’ and ‘Love And Friendship’ recalling the sound of Simon And Garfunkel. ‘Every Shade’ has a fine seventies singer-songwriter feel – I think Big Stir might have found their own John Howard.
Richard Öhrn has crafted a fine and enriching grower of an album, the more you listen the more the melodies seep in and soundtrack your days.
Eamon The Destroyer ‘A Small Blue Car -Re-made/Re-modelled’
(Bearsuit Records)

‘A Small Blue Car -Re-made/Re-modelled’ is a remix album of sorts of the excellent Eamon The Destroyer album, and this is a rare thing as I actually prefer it to the original, and I enjoyed the original a great deal.
This album has a spooky warm quality to it and the opening track ‘Nothing Like Anything’ has a feel of The Beach Boys ‘Cabinessence’ and sounds like it is having its thigh stroked in a sensual way by a slightly out of it Momus. And track nine, ‘Uledaru’, is taken over and consumed by the brilliance of the Schizo Fun Addict taking the track on a short detour to heaven.
A Small Blue Car… is another overwhelming success of a release taking the experimental and layering it with blankets of alternative pop electronica warmth.
Scott Robertson ‘Footprints In The Butter’
(Subjangle)

Scott Robinson is a young man from Scotland and member of the excellent Jangly 60s inspired Vapour Trails [who I have written about in the past] and another band whose name escapes me [let’s call it a senior moment shall we], who are a little more prog and 90s alternative psych sounding and also excellent, but I have for some reason never written about [let’s call it another senior moment and be done with it].
Anyway, young Scott is a talented chap and this, his debut, album lies somewhere between his two bands. Opening track ‘Lost My Curtains’ is a lovely soft psych-tinged ballad recalling Teenage Fanclub when they where worth a damn, and ‘The Death Of Daylight Saving’ again psych’s it up with Cinnamon Girl guitar riffs and a Byrds like adventure that has not been heard since the long-lost adventure filled days of the early 90s when the much-underrated Spirea X looked like they where about to rule the roost.
Footprints In The Butter is a lovely album filled with a mature songwriting but with a veal and adventure that can only be performed by a young soul not yet fully tarnished by life. And an album I like so much it has had me dipping into my paypal: heating bills be damned, I will just keep myself warm frigging vigorously to this excellent debut.
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’
Monthly Playlist Revue: October ’22: Muramuke, Marlowe, Voice Actor, Lira, Underground Canopy, Keep Shelly In Athens…
October 31, 2022
PLAYLIST SPECIAL
TEAM EFOORT/COMPILED BY DOMINIC VALVONA

Each month the Monolith Cocktail pool of collaborators search long and hard for the choicest of choice tracks; mixing genres and geography into an encapsulation of the last month on the blog.
That team includes me (Dominic Valvona), Matt ‘rap control’ Oliver, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Andrew C. Kidd and Graham Domain.
You may have noticed since the summer that we’ve started compiling a Youtube playlist version, which includes extra bonuses from the No Base Trio and a seasonal treat from Escupemetralla plus some alternative tunes from the same artists on the Spotify list.
So without further ado, here is the October Revue:
And the Youtube version:
Full Track List:-
Montparnasse Musique Ft. Muambuyi and Mopero Mupemba ‘Panter’
Muramuke ‘Just One More’
Balaklava Blues ‘BEAT UP’
Marlowe/L’Orange/Solemn Brigham Ft. Deniro Farrar ‘Godfist’
Rockness Monsta/Method Man/Ron Browz ‘Beastie Boyz’
BeTheGun ‘Metropolis’
Lee Tracy/Isaac Manning ‘Love Is Everything’
Lee Scott Ft. Sly Moon ‘THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, THE LESS I CARE’
Voice Actor ‘Battling Dust’
Juga-Naut ‘To The Table’
Ernesto Djédjé ‘Nini’
Liraz ‘Mimiram’
Mehmet Aslan/Niño de Elche ‘Tangerine’
Underground Canopy ‘Space Gems’
Valentina Magaletti ‘Low Delights’
Carl Stone ‘Sasagin’
Tau & The Drones Of Praise ‘Bandia’
Keep Shelly In London Ft. Sugar For The Pill ‘Don’t Want Your Romance’
Librarians With Hickeys ‘I Better Get Home’
Una Rose ‘Partly’
Carla dal Formo ‘Side By Side’
Derrero ‘Long Are The Days’
Super Hit ‘Donde’
Rahill ‘Haenim’
David Westlake ‘English Parish Churches’
Cormac o Caoimh ‘Didn’t We’
VRï ‘Aberhonddu’
Tuomo & Markus ‘Highest Mountain’
Pitou ‘Dancer’ Dana Gavanski ‘Strangers’
The Zew ‘Come On Down’
Brona McVittie ‘Living Without You’
Brian Eno ‘These Small Noises’
Edouard Ferlet ‘REFLEX’
Rich Aucoin ‘Esc’
Puppies In The Sun ‘Light Became Light’
Short Fuze Ft. Dr. Khil ‘Love Letters To The Lost’
Loyle Camer ‘Speed Of Flight’
Ill Move Sporadic/Tenchoo ‘Amulet Chamber’
Atmosphere ‘Sculpting With Fire’
Ghoster ‘CRAME 4’
Clark ‘Frau Wav (Brief Fling)’
Verbz/Mr Slipz ‘Music Banging Like’
Jester Jacobs/Jack Danz ‘Opportune’
Darko The Super/Yuri Beats ‘Don’t Stay’
Open Mike Eagle ‘I’ll Fight You’ A.G. ‘The Sphinx’
El Gant Ft. DJ Premier ‘Leave It Alone’
Heavy Links/Luca Brazi ‘Complicated Theory’
Fliptrix, King Kashmere/Pitch 92 ‘Primordial Soup’
Shirt/Jack Splash ‘Death To Wall Art’
Smellington Piff/Ill Informed ‘Hard Times’
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.
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Spread

SINGLES
Blue Violet ‘Favourite Jeans’
(Me & My Records)
Blue Violet’s ‘Blue Jeans’ is nothing more or nothing less than a beautiful pop song. And that is all I really need to say about this lovelorn little simple fragile ballad of tender regret: “if we were made of Glass we’d have shattered by now”. Pure pop poetry.
Psychotic Monks ‘Post-Post-’
(Fatcat Records / Vicious Circle)
The Psychotic Monks, I saw the band name and thought straight back to the hellish days of senior school when the strict catholic school I attended was run by psychotic monks. But I’m happy to say these psychotic Monks beat you into submission with fuzzy distorted bass and clattering guitars not cane and straps.
‘Post-Post’ is an 8-minute gem of distorted aggression that takes me back to the wonderful live performances of John Peel favourites the Levellers 5. And is a rare thing at just being over 8 minutes long it doesn’t outstay its welcome. A pure 8 minutes of feverish disgust.
Una Rose ‘Resolutions’
‘Resolutions’ is a faded gem of a song. A blink of an angel’s kiss. A summer that never passes just turns to Autumn, and more awkwardly beautiful. A song about the strange and rewarding bond there is between father and daughter or between two soul mates. A song that captures the love that lies between two people who no longer see each other as often as they like but are only a thought away. This song flutters and sways you gently until you feel the loveliest of warm hugs; a magic Autumn pop kiss of a song.
Carla Dal Forno ‘Side By Side’
(Kallista Records)
Oh my dearie lord, what we have here is a sensuous seduction of a track; a song of lovelorn glamour a stroked bedside nightshade crawl of yesterday’s wanton lust. A song of yearning that reminds you that it was best to fall in love when you were both young and attractive and life was one long ride of not caring and laughter and lust. A song to remind you of how you used to be and that makes you beautifully knotted inside. Listening and remembering is one and maybe the most powerful spells the magic of music casts.
ALBUMS
Super Hit ‘Get It Together’
(Metal Postcard Records)

This album by Super Hit is mostly a gentle and swaying affair of short guitar jangle tunes, half instrumental with a smattering of quite charming songs, and is a very relaxing way to spend a half hour or so contemplating having an afternoon nap. This could well be the album to tempt you into a dream like state. At times reminding me of Felt – especially on the rather excellent ‘King Of Suffering’ -, but the stand out track is the 18 minute closer ‘Get It Together’ which is like a unusual compilation of the best of the tracks that came before it, a jarring piece of lo-fi jangle art.
Derrero ‘Curvy Lines’
(Recordiau Prin)

Curvy Lines is an album of prog, pop and psych guitar mastery; an album to put on your CD player and lie back and let the melodies float over you and pull you into the magical world, where such things matter.
It is an album of sunshine ray beams and stardust, an album to enjoy with your morning coffee or a glass or bottle of wine before bed. The Beach Boys, Mercury Rev and 70s pop radio collide into a headlong collision of joy and muse – not the band Muse as they are terrible, but the kind of muse talented Welsh artistic types emit with a longingly frequency.
Curvy Lines is an album of buttercup beauty with the occasional kick in the crotch discordancy. “Numbah Wahn” and Numbah Wahn is were this beauty will be in my personal jukebox in the coming weeks.
Tuomo & Markus ‘Game Changing’
(Grand Pop Records) 14th October 2022

This is a wide cinemascope of an album, a record that takes one on a ride of nostalgic wonder drawing in psych-tinged soft rock and the MOR country rock of the seventies and leaves one in a blanket glow of warmth and peace. It’s a road trip being soundtracked by mix tape of Crosby, Stills and Nash, Steely Dan, America, Nick Drake and the Flaming Lips.
The opening track ‘Game Changing’ is jaw droppingly magnificent, a beautiful beguiling ballad worthy of Mercury Rev at their magical best. And truly is a wonder of a song. ‘Highest Mountain’ is worthy of Gene Clark’s No Other, and No Other is a fine album to mention as they both have the same all-consuming gorgeous vastness.
This is one of those albums that should be played to the narrow-minded morons who say they don’t make records like they used to do, as this proves they do. And in this case better than they used to do. An album that should grace the record shelves of all music lovers.
David Westlake ‘My Beautiful England’
(Tiny Global Productions) 14th October 2022

My Beautiful England is an album of pure sadness and nostalgia; an album of songs that bemoans the effects that modern life is having on our once great and beautiful country; an album that takes us back to the time when every day was Autumnal and students used to have a certain charity shop chic and music still mattered: and music does still matter.
Music can lift you when you are down, can soundtrack all those wonderful and not so wonderful times in your life, and My Beautiful England indeed is an album that matters. And as much as I do not like to mention my own music, but I will anyway, it travels the same path as The Bordellos Ronco Revival Sound album, both drawing on music of the past and painting pictures of a country long gone.
David Westlake‘s beautiful songs has one drawn back to the halcyon days of late 60s Kinks or early 90s Edwyn. And the wonderful ‘Mallory Kept Climbing The Mountain’ has one thinking back to the wonderful Go Betweens or Monochrome Set of the 80s.
My Beautiful England is a beautiful album of well written, lyrically captivating and melodious pop songs.
Jd Meatyard ‘Live The Life’

Jd Meatyard is a man who loves music; a man who is soaked in the spirit and the history of rock ‘n’ roll. His alternative folk songs are charged with a natural melodeon charm and this, his 6th album [I think?], is probably his most musically commercial yet.
His love of the Velvet Underground – ‘Story Of My Life’ being lyrically almost made up of Lou Reed/Velvets song titles – and his love of Woody Guthrie folk is combined with the attack of the Pixies and the Fall and the humour and charm of The Modern Lovers. Live The Life to me sounds like the sound of a rock ‘n’ roll poet looking back and celebrating his life taking in the places he has been/lived and the many characters he has met over the years. And it’s a quite bewitching and indeed a hugely enjoyable listen.
Librarians With Hickeys ‘Handclaps And Tambourines’
(Big Stir Records)

Another jump into the sunshine from Big Stir Records – do they specialize in releasing the happiest sounding music possible? Once again we are offered the jangling clap happy sixties sound, this time by Librarians with Hickeys. From the opening track, the organ led ‘I Better Get Home’, it’s all handclaps and shouted hey backing vocals, through the Byrds-like ‘Ghost Singer’ and ‘Can’t Wait Till Summer, and nearly every other track actually. Yes indeed, the Byrds do seem like a big influence on the Librarians With Hickeys Sound, and to be honest they do the Byrds very well, mixing it with an early 80s power pop feel. And there is no doubting their skill and craft in producing an album of enjoyable melodious songs.
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP

SINGLES/TRACKS
Alexander Stordiau ‘Nothings Ever Required’
(Timeless Music Records)
‘Nothings Ever Required’ is a gem of a aural discovery; a moody piece of John Carpenter-esque solitude over five minutes of pure instrumental poetry. The kind of mood piece to soundtrack the passing daylight by watching passing strangers walk past the old coffee house window trying to read the faces, read their thoughts, lost in your memories, and hopes slowly making the coffee last, cusping it in your warms to keep in the warmth, with Alexander Stordiau gently caressing the shifting time of loneliness.
It’s Karma It’s Cool ‘A Gentle Reminder’
‘Gentle Reminder’ is a in fact a gentle reminder that pop music is a wonderful thing, as this tuneful little ditty shows three and a half minuets of perfectly formed guitar pop rock, with a Peter Holsapple guesting on keyboards – that is in fact one of the highlights of the track – giving this perfectly formed pop rock of a song a slight new wave sense of danger.
Anxiolytics ‘S{R}[C]O[{T}[R]CHED EARTH’
Anxiolytics are an experimental synth duo from North Wales and have an evil but lovingly portrayed glint in their eye I bet, this single being a strange and haunting affair that takes me back to the post punk early 80s of the Passage and Soft Cell and offers something both original and different; a song that has a cold warmness that will smother and intoxicate you with a germ ridden freshness that has not been inhaled since the passing of the great David R Edwards and the wonder that was Datblygu. Once again I am left awaiting the debut album.
Floorbrothers ‘Drive’
(Ikarus Records)
Ahh Mr Floorbrothers, ‘Fade Into You’ by Mazzy Star is one of my favourite tracks as well. So slowing it down and making it into a drug induced waltz, adding new lyrics and making it sound like Mott The Hoople needing a good night’s sleep is a pretty nifty idea and one I stand and applaud. A good single then.
Bigflower ‘Tried To Care’
The first new track from the mighty bigflower in a few months I think, and yes, they have once again supplied a dark piece of dense guitar magic; a track to help soundtrack these dark, dark frightening days and months that lie ahead in the UK; the kind of track we need to be blasted from car radios as we head to work knowing after a week of hard slog we will still not be able to afford to pay our bills and put food on the table. Although this is not an out and out political lambasting of our uncaring and failing government it is a song to capture the intensity and hopelessness of these worrying times.
EP
Rob Clarke And The Woolltones ‘Rubber Chicken B-Sides’
(Aldora Britain Records)
This is an enjoyable little forage into the dim and distant past. Four songs that take the hip swinging beatitude of the sixties, all beat chords and “What’d I Say” riffage songs your nan would have curled her hair to in her youth before going down the ballroom to watch the local beat band. Four songs that are all enjoyable and warm sounding and with the final track, ‘Love And Haught’, being especially splendid, a track worthy of the final days of the wonderful Escorts: close your eyes and you are back in 1966 heaven. A beautiful release and only 50p to download: that is 12 and a half pence a track. Yes this EP does take you back when half a pence was such a thing.
ALBUMS
The Pixies ‘Doggeral’
(BMG) 30th September 2022

I used to love The Pixies back in the day when they first appeared, and to be honest I’ve not really listened to them much since they got back together. I’ve not really listened to them since Indie Cindy, and I think I might have been missing out if this album is anything to go by; although they are obviously missing the divine Kim Deal. But that is all they seem to be missing. They still have quite a loud thing going on (‘Haunted House’), are still masters of distorted surf guitar (‘Vault Of Heaven’), and have not lost their knack for a catchy strange pop tune, (‘Get Stimulated’). The lovely charmingly charming pop beauty that is ‘The Lord Has Come Back Today’ might just be my favourite track on this rather fine enjoyable album. They even have a whistling solo on ‘Pagan Man’, which there is certainly not enough of in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. So, the eighth Pixies album is in fact quite a musical treat.
Keiron Phelan & The Peace Signs ‘Bubblegum Boogie’
(Gare Du Nord) 23rd September 2022

What we have here my lukewarm fluffy bunny fetishists is an album of sophisticated polite pop – and we all need a little sophistication and politeness in our lives. Remember children always say please and thank you afterwards [ooeer missus]. And this album of melody rich pop could be your injection of sophistication for the day.
‘Trojan Pony’ kicks off the album with a fine Harry Nilsson like pop ditty that would not sound out of place on any of his early 70s pop masterpieces. Kieran Phelan is obviously a fan of the seventies laid-back pop as we find a tribute to the lovely gentleman and cult favourite John Howard with ‘Song For John Howard’, a lovely short piano ballad that not just recalls the music of the great man but also Brian Wilson as well, which indeed cannot be a bad thing.
The whole album is awash with gentle laid-back slightly quirky songs that have a layer of sadness and memories, and sometimes, sad memories are the most beautiful. And Bubblegum Boogie is indeed a beautiful little sophisticated bubble gum pop album.
Grave Goods ‘Tursday. Nothing Exists’
(Tulle) 9th September 2022

“Step softly into the new world of the underground” is the opening line from the opening track ‘Come’ from this rather fine post-punk album of clattering guitars and such malarkey. And it’s an invitation I would readily advise all fans of clattering guitars and such malarky to well accept. For they will be treated to seven tracks of aggressive alternative rock post-punk that takes some rather fine lyrics [which I am very taken with] and guitar riffs that put Grave Goods a step up from the usual gallop of the many many other post-punk bands. An album well worth investigation dear readers.
The Legless Crabs ‘And If You Change Your Mind About Rock ‘n’ Roll’
(Metal Postcard Records)

Thank the fuck for the Legless Crabs. After spending over an hour going through my emails to see what delights I could pontificate about and tell you lovely readers all about, I was left bereft. I had listened to loads of power pop with shite lyrics; shoegaze which in itself stands alone as why I have not reviewed it: anything that describes itself as shoegaze is enough to put me off, we all know what shoegaze is, music that reaches for the stars but very rarely manages not to leave the ground. So thank fuck for the rock ‘n’ roll un pc digs at modern life the Legless Crabs on a regular basis release. And If You Change Your Mind About Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is up to their normal high standard.
Guitars that fuzz and buzz and on this occasion form layers of pure confusion that take you back to the golden age of watching loud guitar bands in dingy clubs. ‘Piss Lake’, ‘Anti -Christian Scientists’ and every other track on this album are filled with an anger and disgust at the way modern life is shaping up.
This album is a much more serious and mature sounding album of rock ‘n’ roll. They no longer sound like the slap dash young noise merchants that overdosed on JAMC and the Cramps and Pussy Galore and now sound like they have had to grow up and get jobs. And that has just made them even angrier.
This is an album of darkness like their others, but the others came with a cheeky wink this with just a terrifying blank stare.
Salem Trials ‘Postcards From The Other Side Of The Sun’
(Metal Postcard Records)

A triple album by the Salem Trials: well it would be a triple LP if it were released on vinyl. There are 29 tracks and each and everyone is filled with the whip snap guitar madness that the Salem Trials deal in.
Songs that echo the world we live in full of dark humour, nostalgia, darkness and T Rex riffs. ‘Black Flash’, which imagine instead of David Bowie guesting on the Marc Bolan Show you had Mark E Smith, and instead of it being in a TV studio it was on a small boat that was slowly sinking below the waves, slowly lapping around Marc and Mark E’s knees; a song of pure and beautiful magic and maybe my fave ever Salem Trials song. Pure brilliance. But there are so many. Andy and Russ are quite incapable of not doing anything that is not at least very good; they have their own sound; they have their own feel; they have their own magic.
The Salem Trials are one offs. They take their influences of post-punk, psych, seventies glam, no wave, indie pop and merge into what can only be described as a unique and rewarding listening experience.
Andrei Rikichi ‘Caged Birds Think Flying Is A Sickness’
(Bearsuit Records)

Apart from Caged Birds Think Flying Is A Sickness being a great album title it is also a fine album; an album that takes electronica, dance and cinematic sculptures to a new and experimental place, a place where white noise and James Bond soundtracks collide to great and unusual effect. ‘What Happened To Whitey Wallace’ sounds like monks playing on a old ZX 90 computer game and ‘Bag, Lyrics, New Prescription’ could be on a soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock movie set in a colourful but black and white jazz world.
Yes, indeed once again Bearsuit Records have released an album crammed with original thought-provoking music that is both experimental but also very listenable; an album to soundtrack the spin of a roulette wheel and the shadow-stained wet pavement of a neon signed littered night time street.
The Monolith Cocktail Monthly Playlist Revue: Future Kult, Your Old Droog, Baby Cool, Drug Couple, Brown Calvin…
August 31, 2022
PLAYLISTS SPECIAL
TEAM EFFORT/ CURATED BY DOMINIC VALVONA

All the choice tracks from the last month, selected by the entire Monolith Cocktail team: Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Graham Domain and Andrew C. Kidd.
For the past couple of months we’ve been experimenting with both Spotify version and Youtube (track list will vary) versions of the playlist. Whatever your preference found both below:
TRACKLIST
Future Kult ‘We’
Grooto Terazza ‘Tropische Krankheiten’
Speech Debelle Ft. Baby Sol ‘Away From Home’
Joe Nora & Mick Jenkins ‘Early’
A.G. ‘Alpha Beta’
Your Old Droog & Madlib ‘The Return Of The Sasquatch’
Gabrielle Ornate ‘The Undying Sleep’
Yumi And The Weather ‘Can You Tell’
Baby Cool ‘Magic’
Claude ‘Turn’
Lunar Bird ‘Venilia’
Imaad Wasif ‘Fader’
Legless Trials ‘X-Tyrant’
Dearly Beloved ‘Walker Park’
Staraya Derevnya ‘Scythian Nest’
Short Fuze & Dr. Kill ‘Me And My Demons’
Group ‘The Feeling’ JJ Doom ‘Guv’nor’ (Chad Hugo Remix)
DJ Nappa ‘Homeboys Hit It’
DJ Premier Ft. Run The Jewels ‘Terrible 2’s’
Zero dB ‘Anything’s Possible’ (Daisuke Tanabe Remix)
Underground Canopy ‘Feelm’
Revelators Sound System ‘George The Revelator’
Montparnasse Musique Ft. Muambuyi & Mopero Mupemba ‘Bonjour’
The Movers ‘Ku-Ku-Chi’
Yanna Momina ‘Heya (Welcome)’
Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin ‘Savanne’
Barrio Lindo ‘Espuma De Mur’
Brown Calvin ‘Perspective3’
Nok Cultural Ensemble Ft. Angel Bat Dawid ‘Enlightenment’
Li Yilei ‘A Hush In The Dark
Celestial North ‘Yarrow’
Andres Alcover ‘White Heat’
Nick Frater ‘Aerodrome Motel’
Drug Couple ‘Lemon Trees’
Cari Cari ‘Last Days On Earth’
Ali Murray ‘Passing Through The Void’
Diamanda La Berge Dramm ‘Orangut The Orangutan’
Your Old Droog ‘The Unknown Comic’
Jesse The Tree ‘Sun Dance’
TrueMendous & MysDiggi ‘Talkk’
STS & RJD2 ‘I Excel’
Jester Jacobs & Jack Danz ‘HIT’
Oliver Birch ‘Docile Healthier’
GOON ‘Emily Says’
Lucy & The Drill Holes ‘It’s Not My War’
Apathy, Jadekiss & Stu Bangas ‘No Time To Waste’
Verbz & Mr Slipz ‘Music Banging Like’
Sly Moon ‘Back For More’
Guilty Simpson Ft. Jason Rose & DJ Ragz ‘Make It Count’
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.