Our Daily Bread 646: Alien Eyelid, Eamon The Destroyer, Frog, Pelts…
September 15, 2025
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
Alien Eyelid ‘Vinegar Hill’
Album (Tall Texan) 5th September 2025
Psychedelic country-soul is a rather beautiful thing, especially when performed with such heart and soul. Alien Eyelid have a wonderful laidback all-consuming warmth with a hint of baroque-ness that at times remind me of the wonderful Left Banke, especially on beautiful psychedelic ballad “Blue”. The title track “Vinegar Hill” could have walked straight from Basement Tapes with its Dylan and The Band feel, until it goes all early King Crimson on us, and is one of those rare things, a ten-minute track that does not overstay its welcome.
This Alien Eyelid debut is a gem of an album, and one of the finest things I have had pleasure to listen to this year.
The Beths ‘Straight Line Was A Lie’
Album (ANTI-)
I seem to be writing a lot about indie guitar music at the moment; there has certainly been an influx of the stuff appearing in my inbox and long may it continue if it is all of the quality of this quite lovely album of guitar indie pop/rock. The Beths of course write songs of verve and heart, and this new album is no different. Straight Line Was A Lie is an album ram jammed with catchy choruses and heartfelt lyrics all wrapped in fine melody and radio friendly hooks and jangly guitar chimes, as all good indie pop/rock should.
Eamon The Destroyer ‘The Maker’s Quilt’
Album (Bearsuit Records)
You can never be disappointed when a new release by Bearsuit Records appears. There is always a tinge of adventure, as you know it is going to be a trip hop and skip and a jump of musical exploration. The Maker’s Quilt is no exception; an album that brings together dance, psych, 60’s like spy soundtracks with a tinge of folk and rock/pop… all sometimes in the same song. At times it reminds me of what the Wicker Man soundtrack might have sounded like if it was set in the late 80’s early 90’s in a village just outside Manchester when the acid house explosion was happening. There is a joy and a magic and a melancholy madness that is just impossible to resist and resist you shouldn’t.
Frog ‘Bitten By My Love Version XI’
Single taken from Album The Count (Audio Antihero) 19th September 2025
“Bitten By My Love” is a rather lovely single, but what else could you expect from the marvellous Frog. Six minutes of undiluted late summer breeze love, a heavenly stroll through the textures of late-night radio; a song that sends my mind spinning back to the days when songs like this would haunt and confuse and engross in equal measures. A sexual healing for the social misfit.
The Jack Rubies ‘Are We Being Recorded’
Single (Big Stir Records) 19th September 2025
I don’t think I have written about any releases on Big Stir Records for a while. So here I am putting it right, for here we have the new single by The Jack Rubies, a band that once again takes me back to my youth. The days when I spent the hours of 9 to 5.30 working (or not working) in various record stores, and I remember The Jack Rubies album Fascination Vacation being unloved and unsold in the record racks, which is a shame as I remember it being not a bad record. And thirty-seven years down the line here I am listening to the latest release by same band. And how little changes for once again it is indeed not a bad record and sounds like it could have well been released back in the days when the pubs shut at eleven o’ clock. It has the air of a record that thinks a lot of itself, and that always appeals to me…call me strange. Link (no examples available yet to hear).
Ike Goldman ‘Kiki Goldman In How I Learned To Sing For Statler And Waldorf’
Album, 10th September 2025
I love this album so much that I’ve just bought a copy on CD: do I need say more. Well, I will, apart from it having the best album title I have come across in a long time, it’s such a lovely beautifully happy/sad album full of melancholy and magic. It may be the closest one can get to rediscovering the joy of The Beach Boys Friends and Smiley Smile era without actually listening to the said albums. Plus, anyone who mentions Stephen Sondheim in his influences is certainly someone who deserves giving a listen to, and once you have given a listen to downloading or streaming or buying his CD.
Noisy ‘Grenadine’
Single
“Grenadine” is a song that is swathed in a beautiful melancholy, a melody that will haunt and play bellringers pontoon with your heart; a pure and unadorned example of why pop music can save your life and make even the bad times bearable. One of the only plus points about growing old is that you have the joy and innocence of your youth to look back on, and this single brings that joy flooding back with a tearful smile and fading caress.
Pelts ‘Swimming’
Single (Fika Recordings) 10th September 2025
Here we are again with a track of post-punk indie-guitar-pop: Am I becoming a man who only reviews indie post punk guitar meanderings? Am I revisiting my teenage years of being totally enamoured with the indie scene of the 80s, or is it just that I am being sent loads of fine new alternative guitar pop/rock? Well probably a bit of all the aforementioned. For the Pelts ‘Swimming’ is indeed a fine tuneful guitar thrust of angular melodious alternative pop skew wifferty (not to be confused with 60’s psych cult band Skip Bifferty). Yes indeed, another fine track and one you will find on their forthcoming 4-track EP, released on the excellent Fika Recordings label. So, seek and buy my old chums or forever hold somebody else’s codpiece.
SCHØØL ‘I Think My Life Has Been OK’
Album (GEOGRAPHIE)
There are a few questions this debut album throws up. One, are they a French band that sings in English? So do they, in rehearsals, talk to each other in French and then sing the songs in English or to get in the mood? Or do they talk in English? Also, when they play in France, do they sing the songs in French or English? Apart from those burning questions this is actually a quite catchy album of alt guitar rock/pop and very late eighties and early 90’s indie rock: early Blur, Ride, Chapterhouse and the like all spring to mind. I would certainly advise any indie guitar music fans out there to give this a listen, as it is very good indeed.
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 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 or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Our Daily Bread 644: The Cords, Fat Concubine, Ali Murray…
August 4, 2025
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
The Cords ‘Fabulist’
Single (Skep Wax Records) Released 22nd July 2025
‘Fabulist’ is a fine jingle-jangle indie pop rush of pure young person want; a sonic three chord extravaganza of the sound of young Scotland relishing the first flush of summer romance; a song to make an old man sit and weep at the loss of his youth and memories of the days when C86 was where it was at.
Fat Concubine ‘Empire’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) Released 12th September 2025
Empire is the sound of falling out of a nightclub worse for wear, staggering the dark cold streets, queuing in a chippy and ordering something with chips and covering it with gravy or curry sauce or both and then sloppily eating it spilling it all down your going out clubbing clothes while standing in someone else’s sick as you wait for a taxi not to show up. It is getting home and fumbling with your key to get into your abode and wondering both where did you put your phone and where on earth is the tv remote. You then pass out on the settee as your cat alternates nesting your chest and gently pawing your face. It’s great to be young.
Headless Kross/Poundland
Split Album (Cruel Nature Records) Released 12th September 2025
I have to admit to being a pop music lover. I’m a man who’s reduced to a quivering wreck by the sound of Billy Fury singing a song by Jimmy Campbell; a man who has to wipe a tear from his eye when a blast of 70’s pop nostalgia sneaks unexpectantly from the radio/tv. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love the sound of sludge rock, a little metallic evil blackness to avail itself to my inner soul. Nor does it mean I cannot get excited by one of the most important bands in the UK at the moment, that being Poundland doing what they do best in soundtracking the state of the UK with its pounding experimental punk rock attitude and noise, but with the right amount of melody to make it commercially viable to the general public: and the more people who get to hear their blast of wanton grinditude the better the good old jolly UK will become.
This split album by Headless Kross and Poundland delivers both the charming brooding sludge-like metal of Headless Kross and Poundland doing what they do best. And if you are so inclined to have a step away from middle aged men wanting to be Roger McGuinn, then this could well be worth your time and trouble and cash.
The Last Of The Lovely Days ‘No Public House Talk’
Album (Gare du Nord) Released 19th August 2025
This debut from The Last Of The Lovely Days is a rather lovely jangly guitar pop beast of an album; an album that once again evokes not just the golden days of indie pop but also has a rather fetching undercurrent of 60’s girl group panache – just like those two fine bands from the 80’s, The Shop Assistants and The Primitives, did so well. Songs that deal with the never grows old subject of love lost and found. And these fine songs are wrapped lovingly with charming melodies and hooks that will linger and help your day be a much more enjoyable experience.
Ali Murray ‘The Summer Laden’
Album Released July 1st 2025
It makes a rather pleasant change to receive an album from an artist from Scotland that doesn’t sound like Teenage Fanclub. Not that I may add, I have anything against Teenage Fanclub, I find them rather spiffing, but a change is as good as a rest or so they say.
The Summer Laden is in fact a rather lovely pop album of breezy mostly mellow pop songs. Indeed, it is “Laden” with the sound of summer, and has a melodeon sway that is quite bewitching, and could be Celtic cousins with that Welsh wonder of verse and catchy chorus, Armstrong (Julian Pitt).
Occult Character ‘Butterfly’
Single (Metal Postcard) Released 24th July 2025
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” Muhammad Ali once famously said, and that would be a perfect description of this short new track by Occult Character, funnily enough called ‘Butterfly’, as it floats with an uneasy synth pop sway fluttering away in an eccentric manner, pulling one in with its gentle experimental charm only to be knocked out by the sucker punch of the dark brooding lyrics.
Oopsie Daisies ‘As If’
Single (Metal Postcard) Released 18th July 2025
Synth pop boogie at its finest. Yes, a song of charm and home recorded warmth that could have easily emerged from a demo tape from a budding new romantic dreamboat from the early 80s; a song that fills me with a quirky nostalgia of the days when there were three weekly music papers as well as the pop twice weekly No 1 and Smash Hits pop glossies. And it could well have been featured in all five: maybe not Sounds, As If would maybe a little too on the frivolous side for them.
Scotch Funeral ‘Ever & Ever’
Album Released 30th July 2025
If rumble tumble grunge fuzz-soaked guitar is heaven to your ears, then this fine album by Scotch Funeral is for you; an album of true indie rock ‘n’ roll. “New Found Happiness” is a melody pop punk delight worthy of Ash in their glory years; the closer, “In Dreams“, is a fine mishmash of Daniel Johnston like poetry and Nirvana like grunge; and “She’s A Writer” could have stepped straight off a K records compilation album. If Scotch Funeral were on K Records or a similar label of such acclaim, they may well get the attention they deserve, for they have that special something you cannot quite put your finger on that separates them from 99 per cent of all the other indie punk pop rock ‘n’ rollers out there. Ever & Ever is certainly an album that deserves your attention.
Alexei Shishkin ‘Tiki Taka (2006)’
Track taken from the upcoming Album, Good Times (Rue Defense) Released 5th September 2025
Is this the best song recorded about football or soccer for our American readers? I think it could well be. It has a wonderful semi slacker psych vibe; it’s like being drunk and on your settee hazily watching the beautiful game unfold until you lose your will to live or you’re too drunk to reach the remote. A song of laidback excellence.
The Striped Bananas ‘Vampire of Mine’
Single Released 25th July 2025
Psych Grunge now there’s a thing for you. Imagine if you will that Kurt Cobain had worn velvet pantaloons and love beads and had hooked up with a disco dolly from a Matt Elm film in a nightclub scene instead of Courtney Love and appeared in an episode of the Banana Splits. Nirvana could well have sounded like this. A fine and dandy cartoon pop song, in fact two fine cartoon pop songs as the B-Side ‘Venus Die Trap’ is pretty nifty as well.
Tiberius ‘Sag’
Single (Audio Antihero) Released 18th July 2025
I thought for the first twenty seconds of this fine single that it was Lloyd Cole causing a commotion, but then it soon shifted into a Jeff Buckley guitar alt rock melodramatic bombast, the kind that hasn’t been heard since the days Buffalo Tom walked the earth. And while I am mentioning other artists, I will mention Oasis, not because it sounds like them, but because it doesn’t and that is another point in its favour believe you me.
Tugboat Captain ‘Pest Control’
Single
‘Pest Control’ is a fine slice of extremely British boutique pop art; a singalong song of arch darkness; a calling card into an exclusive quaint drinking club frequented by Neil Hannon, Ray Davies and John Howard, and every playlist must include Shorley Wall by Ooberman. This track has been culled from their album Dog Tail, and maybe worthy of further investigation.
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 time or room for – time restraints and the sheer volume of submissions each month mean there are always those releases that miss out on receiving a full review, and so we have added a number to both our playlist and list.
All entries in the Choice Releases list are displayed alphabetically. Meanwhile, our Monthly Playlist continues as normal with all the choice tracks from July taken either from reviews and pieces written by me – that’s Dominic Valvona – , Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, and this month, Kalporz writer Samuel Conficoni. Our resident Hip-Hop expert Matt Oliver has also put forward a smattering of crucial and highlighted tracks from the rap arena.
CHOICE RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH OR SO:
Blanco Teta ‘‘La Debacle las Divas’
(Bongo Joe) Review
Lukas Cresswell-Rost ‘Weight Away’
(Wayside & Woodland Recordings) Review
Theon Cross ‘Affirmations: Live at Blue Note New York’
(New Soil) Review
Cumsleg Borenail ‘10mg Citalopram’
(Cruel Nature Recordings) Review
Exploding Star Orchestra ‘Holy Mountains’
Fortunato Durutti Marinetti ‘Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter’
(Quindi Records/We Are Time) Review
Tony Jay ‘Faithless’
Review
Freh Khodja ‘Ken Andi Habib’
(WEWANTSOUNDS) Review
The Lancashire Hustlers ‘Here But Not Here’
(Steep Hill) Review
Kevin Robertson ‘Yellow Painted Moon’
Review
Maria Elena Silva ‘Wise Men Never Try’
Review
Sol Messiah ‘War of the Gods’
THE PLAYLIST::
Blanco Teta ‘Subiduki’
Scotch Funeral ‘Weak at the Knees’
Freh Khodja ‘Aich Sar Bina Koulili’
Brickwork Lizards ‘All the We Are – Reworked by Sebastian Reynolds’
Natural Information Society ‘Sound Talisman’
Sol Messiah Ft. Sa-Roc ‘Auset’
Raekwon Ft. Ghostface Killah & Method Man ‘600 School’
Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire ‘Y.O.Utopia’
Open Mike Eagle ‘ok but I’m the phone screen’
Nicholas Craven & Boldy James Ft. C Dell & Nick Bruno ‘At&T’
Clipse, Pusha T & Malice Ft. Ab Liva ‘Inglorious Bastards’
Estee Nack & V Don Ft. Al-Doe ‘EZBRED’
Rachel Eckroth ‘Yin Yang’
Theon Cross Ft. Isaiah Collier, Nikos Ziarkas & James Russel Sims ‘We Go Again – Live at the Blue Note, NYC’
Peter Evans (Being & Becoming) ‘Malibu’
Homeboy Sandman & Sonnyjim ‘Can’t Stop Me’
Apollo Brown & Bronze Nazareth ‘Wheel Of Misfortune’
Ramson Badbonez & Leaf Dog ‘Celestial Bodies’
Max Schreiber ‘Layla Mistakel’
The Conspiracy ‘Salisbury Road’
SUO ‘Big Star’
Fortunato Durutti Marinetti ‘Beware’
Jeff Tweedy ‘Out in the Dark’
Kevin Robertson ‘Yellow Painted Moon’
Soft Hearted Scientists ‘Hello Hello’
Whitney ‘Dandelions’
The Lancashire Hustlers ‘Perhaps’
Ali Murray ‘ Toby’
Alex G ‘June Guitar’
Spotless Souls ‘In the Heart’
The Noisy ‘Twos’
Wolfgang Perez ‘So Ouco’
Eve Goodman & SERA ‘Blodyn Gwylly’
Joe Harvey-Whyte & Paul Cousins ‘lift’
Sirom ‘For You, This Eve, the Wolves Will Be Enchantingly Forsaken’
Austistici & Jacek Doroszenko ‘After Water Formed A Shape’
Cumsleg Borenail ‘You Mean Something To Me’
Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley ‘Encore 1’
Exploding Star Orchestra ‘Afterburn (Parable 400)’.
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 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 or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
bigflower ‘piggybird’
Single – Released last month by the artist
There is something strangely bewitching and beautiful about “Piggybird”; it’s all echoing vocals, subtle psych organ and a rather wonderful twangy guitar playing a rather sweet riff. Imagine Duane Eddy slowly waltzing with Hank Marvin through the gates of heaven whilst God looks on and gently flicks popcorn at the stars.
The Conspiracy ‘Trollied’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) 4th July 2025
I have written about The Conspiracy a number of times over the last few years or so, and with justification, as they are bloody marvellous. Bloody marvellous in such a British eccentric way; in a way that they can be lumped together or in fact tied in a ribbon in a heavenly way with the likes of Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, The Kinks and Julian Cope and XTC and The Fall and Billy Childish and even The Libertines/Babyshambles.
Yes, indeed, The Conspiracy make art shaped sculptured pop songs that don’t really get played on mainstream radio but instead will bow down and kiss the feet of the plodding Oasis of rock n roll that is Oasis. The tragedy of this that the eccentricity, the soul and intelligence of The Conspiracy are not getting the rightful acclaim they deserve from both the radio and the press/blogs and the general public.
Tony Jay ‘Faithless’
Album – 13th June 2025
I love the music of Tony Jay. I love the gentle caress of the lo-fi-ness; the simple drum machine; the tape hiss; the occasional fret buzz of the guitar; the handheld percussion; the beautiful dreaminess of the JAMC and MBV influences – two bands I think may mean a lot to Tony Jay. “Familia Dreams” is a stunningly beautiful ballad; a duet featuring the vocals of Kati Mashikian, and probably worth getting the album alone for.
The rest of the album is also rather good, indeed; all sonic heavenly softly strummed guitars and slightly distorted throbbing bass and whispered vocals. An album that lays gentle on your soul, one of those albums to soundtrack falling in and out of love to.
The Kirkbys ‘It’s A Crime: The Complete Recordings’
Comp-Album (Think Like A Key) 13th June 2025
I don’t normally go to the trouble and expense of buying an album so I can review it, but there is something quite magical about this compilation of the complete works of The Kirkbys, who of course were Jimmy Campbells first band, and takes us back to the early days of Merseybeat up to the point where he formed the psych wonder that was the 23rd Turnoff, and in fact includes a demo of ‘Michael Angelo’ recorded by the Kirkbys before it became The Turnoff’s debut (and only single), and of course now rightly regarded as a psych classic.
‘Michael Angelo’ is not the only classic song Jimmy Campbell wrote, as this album shows. ‘Bless You’ and ‘Don’t You Want Me Anymore’ have a complete 60’s beat charm that both The Beatles and The Byrds would have been proud of, and that lost wonder ‘Keep Me Warm {Til The Sun Shines}’ is truly a 60’s gem. ‘It’s A Crime’ is the sound of one of rock n rolls true lost poets in his early years singing songs of beauty and bittersweet magic; what’s really a crime is that Jimmy never ever tasted even a whiff of success in his lifetime, and now nearly twenty years after his death, is still only known by a few. Maybe one day a car advert will use one of his songs and will be propelled Nick Drake like to the covers of Mojo and the like. Link to release can be found here…
The Noisy ‘Twos’
Single – (Audio Antihero) Release last month.
‘Twos’ is a rather fine and dandy pop song, all 50s like pop melody and all sweetly sung and swung. In fact, as soon as I started listening to it, I started to smell candyfloss (I kid you not). Maybe pop supremacy is airborne and taking hold of music lovers’ nostrils…yes, what we have here is a song to fill your vape with a song to smoke and sniff.
Kevin Robertson ‘Yellow Painted Moon’
Album – 11th July 2025
Kevin Robertson is back. Yes, the Scottish Roger McGuinn has released his brand-new album just in time to soundtrack the Summer; and it’s an album that would not sound out of place in that Summer of 67. Kevin has done what he does best and released an album of 12 string laced beauty. Folk-rock, the psychedelic and 60’s pop are melded together with his usual style and grace. Yellow Painted Moon is the kind of album I get sent by the cartload – the number of bands and artists who are in thrall to the 60’s has to been seen/heard to be believed – but Kevin Robertson does it better than most and has an obvious love of the love generation, and his love shines through in his art he produces.
Scotch Funeral ‘Weak At The Knees’
Track taken from the upcoming album Ever & Ever, released this summer by the artist
A teaser track from the forthcoming album by Scotch Funeral, who are a rather fine musical extravagance hailing from the mighty Rhyl, a place I spent many great days in the 70s (I wonder if the Black cat amusement arcade is still there?). Scotch Funeral here supply us with a rather rambunctious kick in the nether’s with a punk pop romp of supreme guitar gnarl and fortitude that makes one indeed weak at the knees as all good kick in the nether’s should.
Soft Hearted Scientists ‘Hello Hello’
Single – (The Hip Replacement) 11th July 2025
The Welsh psychedelic collective The Soft Hearted Scientists are back with a bang. Well actually, more of a chime – a chime of the 12-string guitar variety. Yes, ‘Hello Hello’ is a song so good they had to name it twice; all 60s love and melody pure pop magnificence.
Spotless Souls ‘In The Heat’
Single (Soliti) 11th July 2025
The Spotless Souls debut single is a fine post punk piece of jangly pop; a song that comes over like a slightly artier Sundays, and has a lovely undercurrent of darkness that I find very appealing indeed.
Marc Teamaker ‘Teas n Seas’
Album – 8th August 2025
Teas n Seas is a rather lovely and flowing album of warm sounding enriching songs of love and remembrance. If 70s Beach Boys/Fleetwood Mac/ Todd Rundgren and the beautiful bountiful radio candyfloss MOR/AOR rock pop with an occasional country rock tinge magic is your thing, then this album could well be for you. Certainly, a perfect album to soundtrack sitting on the Beach soaking up the sun and sipping a cup of tea to whilst watching the incoming tide. Yes, an album to soundtrack your summer.
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 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 or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
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 time or room for – time restraints and the sheer volume of submissions each month mean there are always those releases that miss out on receiving a full review, and so we have added a number to both our playlist and list.
All entries in the Choice Releases list are displayed alphabetically.
Meanwhile, our Monthly Playlist continues as normal, with all the choice tracks from June taken either from reviews and pieces written by me – that’s Dominic Valvona – or Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea. Our resident Hip-Hop expert Matt Oliver has also put forward a smattering of crucial and highlighted tracks from the rap arena.
CHOICE RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH OR SO:
Armstrong ‘Handicrafts’
Review
Audio Obscura ‘As Long As Gravity Persists On Holding Me to This Earth’
Review
Francis Bebey ‘The African Seven Edits’
Jeff Bird ‘Ordo Virtutum: Jeff Bird Plays Hildegard von Bingen, Vol 2’
(Six Degrees Records) Review
Che`Noir ‘The Color Chocolate 2’
Dave Clarkson ‘Was Life Sweeter?’
(Cavendish House) Review
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A Boy’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review
Novelistme ‘Fabulous Nonsense’
Review
Nowaah The Flood ‘Mergers And Acquisitions’
Luiz Ser Eu ‘Sarja’
(Phantom Limb)
Various ‘TUROŇ/AHUIZOTL’
(Swine Records w/ Fayuca Retumba) Review
Voodoo Drummer ‘HELLaS SPELL’
Review
The Wants ‘Bastard’
(STTT) Review
Warda ‘We Malo’
(WEWANTSOUNDS) Review
THE PLAYLIST
Bedd ‘Messed up Your Head’
Dragged Up ‘Clachan Dubh’
John Johanna ‘Seven Hunters’
Vlimmer ‘Gleichbau’
Heavenly ‘Portland Town’
Novelistme ‘I Want You Here’
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A boy’
Juppe ‘Woozy’
Noura Mint Seymali ‘Guereh’
Francis Bebey ‘Agatha – Voilaaa Remix’
Anton de Bruin & Fanni Zahar ‘Running On Slippers’
Chairman Maf ‘Wild Turkey’
Lord Olo & TELEVANGEL ‘BEAT EM!”
Masta Killa Ft. Raekwon & Cappadonna ‘Eagle Claw’
Aesop Rock ‘Movie Night’
Oddisee ‘Natural Selection’
Nowaah The Flood ‘Protocol’
Ello Sun ‘River’
Luiz Ser Eu ‘O Sol Nas Suas Pestanas, Adora’
Elena Baklava ‘Kamber’
Jason van Wyk ‘Remnants’
Mary Sue & Clementi Sound Appreciation Club ‘Horse Acupuncture’
Evidence ‘Different Phases’
Vesna Pisarovic ft. Noël Akchoté, Tony Buck, Greg Cohen, Axel Dörner ‘Vrbas vodo, što se često mutiš?’
Itchy-O ‘Phenex’
Tom Caruana Ft. Dynas ‘Aisle 9’
C-Red & Agent M ‘Godspeed’
Scienze & NappyHIGH Ft. Benny The Butcher and Elaquent ‘Capt. Kirk’
Charles Edison ‘No Love Lost’
Parallel Thought & Defcee ‘Graduation Picture’
Fashawn & Marc Spano Ft. Blu ‘No Comply’
Che Noir ‘Blink Twice’
Saadi ‘Homo sapiens’
Charlie Hannah ‘St. Gregor the Good’
HighSchool ‘149’
Swansea Sound ‘Oasis v Blur’
The Wants ‘Data Tumor’
Tigray Tears ‘Wishing for Peaceful Times to Return’
Jeff Bird ‘Shining White Lillies’
The Good Ones ‘Agnes Dreams of Being an Artist’
Briana Marela ‘Value’
The Still Brothers & Vermin the Villain ‘Alright’
LMNO & D-Styles ‘Best to Lay Low’
The High & Mighty Ft. Breeze Brewin ‘Super Sound’
Slick Rick & Nas ‘Documents’
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 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 or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
Nash Albert ‘Kingdom Of Love’
Album – 6th June 2025
Now then my dearies what do we have here…well, an album by Nash Albert, an artist I admit I’d never come across before, and his third album called “Kingdom Of Love”. It sounds to me like the kind of album that would have been released in the 1980’s by a major label pretending it was an indie. It has a mixture of 80’s rock bombast with a slight tinge of goth and folk and psychedelic goodness and AOR pop. And all in all an enjoyable listen for an album that could have been released anytime in the last 40 years.
Armstrong ‘Handicrafts’
Album – 1st June 2025
Armstrong (or Julian Pitt) as I have mentioned so many times in my past reviews of his work has a God given gift for melody that is rather quite a rare and marvellous thing, and one that really deserves to be heard by more people and hopefully these 43 songs that make up this double CD comp of his wonderful gift for melody will go some way to putting that right. For we have 43 slices of home recorded sunshine pop, from the Housemartins meets Joe Meek Pop Splendour of “Sunday Walking” to the seventies Bacharach and David late tv shine of “Cosmos World” fed through the mind of Brian Wilson circa “The Beach Boys Love You” sessions.
So many aural delights: “The Wonderful Sweetest Girl” is a fine 4 track wonder of lo-fi post punk jangle pop and “Yesterdays Over” is a rather sweet piano ballad worthy of the Zombies, or the mid to late sixties magic of the Hollies or the Smiths like “Let’s Be Decisive”. I could honestly just go on and on listing the tracks and writing about how beautiful and wonderful they all are, so instead of doing that I just advise you buy the CD, and you will not be disappointed.
Dragged up ‘Blakes Tape/ Clachan Dubh’
Single
Ah, more indie guitar rock to tempt me with. I admit, I get sent way too much indie guitar rock to listen to, but when it is as fun and as well done as this I really do not mind. What we have here are two tracks of sublime indie chuggery: is chuggery a word? And if so, have I spelt it right? Anyway, Dragged Up do it all very well and hopefully will find themselves on the BBC6 music playlists and maybe even one day finding themselves guesting on Jools Holland (if so, please kick him in the groin for me), as I find the distant whispers of the mainstream calling their name.
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A Boy’
EP – (Metal Postcard Records) 16th May 2025
Metal Postcard Records is becoming the record label to go to if you require some discordant post punk in your life. Not only do they offer us the Neon Kittens, The Salem Trials and the Legless Crabs but now their latest band of jagged angular post punk the wonderfully named Half Naked Shrunken Heads. This their debut ep is four tracks of Public Image Ltd /Bow Wow Wow extravaganza, experimental mixture of punk, dub and rather fetching kicking your heals downtown filthy art filled rock ‘n’ roll…. yes, another gem. One day Cherry Red Records are going to release a series of box sets of Metal Postcard releases and people will marvel how they never heard it first time around.
Heavenly ‘Portland Town’
Single – Digital Release 6th June 2025
The first new single from Heavenly in 20 years, and a fine single it is as well, all charming indie guitar strum and melody filled harmony bliss. A beautiful ode to Portland Town, a song that captures and enraptures and makes me want to pop on a plane with my guitar and busk away till my heart is content. A lovely summer single.
Majken ‘A Siren’
Single – (Sing A Song Fighter) 12th June 2025
“A Siren” is a rather beautiful atmospheric unusual ballad filled with rising sunsets and falling dew drop, a journey into the life and minds of a wistful muse. For Majken has a rare and sweet musical talent that emits warmth and tenderness.
Novelistme ‘Fabulous Nonsense’
Album – 10th June 2025
I like this album. Novelistme is obviously a talented songwriter and musician, and “Fabulous Nonsense” is a fine album made up of good songs and some fine melodies and some great guitar riffs; an album that will appeal to all lovers of indie rock legends GBV and Graham Coxan’s solo recordings. But there is a something that I have to mention, that I find the production and sound of the album just a little to clean and clinical for my tastes, and lacking a little warmth; the same problem I have with XTC, which is my problem and not Novelistme, and is the only thing that is stopping me loving the album, but really is a good listen.
Swansea Sound ‘Oasis V Blur’
Single – 6th June 2025
Oasis Or Blur, now that is a question that really needs to be answered even after all these years. Obviously, I am well known for my hatred of Oasis, so Blur is the obvious answer, and this lovely blast of indie is good fun with its Fall like riffage and radio friendly melody. If I was on jukebox Jury I would be holding up the Hit card…. I would probably be wrong, but it’s all good fun.
The Twirlies ‘Think That I Am In Love’
Single – (Café Superstar Recordings) 23rd May 2025
This single is a rather beautiful summery pop song. The word charming was indeed invented to describe this charming slice of indie pop. The Twirlies could well be a band worthy of further investigation; any band that can remind me of both the Zombies and Belle and Sebastian doing a summer shimmer is indeed a band worthy of further investigation. I Think That I Am In Love with this single.
The Wants ‘Bastard’
Album (STTT) 13th June 2025
There is something quite Go Betweens-ish about The Wants, but a more experimental Go Betweens, a more jagged angrier experimental colder sounding Go Betweens. I think it might be the Grant McLennan-like vocals. Although I could be completely wrong about this. If so, please ignore my opening sentence. It might be because my wife is listening to the Go Betweens in the other room and there might be a cross contamination of musical genius.
Anyway, I like this gang of post punk musical miscreants. They have a lovely 80’s psychedelic undercurrent to their sound that combines with the coldness of their post punk energy, and the whole album is an enjoyable emulsion into darkness and angular sadness. A fine album.
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 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 or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions
ALL ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Tristan Armstrong ‘Lonely Avenue’
Album (Self Release) Already Out There On Bandcamp
Power Pop, Power Pop, Power Pop…I get sent so much power pop that I despair. Not that I don’t like power pop: I do. But only when it has a touch of adventure and thrill, and songwriting talent, and so much of it is so bloody average. They all know how to make power pop records; they just forget to write good songs: it’s all shit lyrics and borrowed melodies and crunchy guitars.
But this album by Tristan Armstrong succeeds where so many other fail, as he has the crunchy guitars but he has also songwriting talent and remembered that music is an artform and there is more to life than The Beatles, Big Star and Bad Finger. Tristen adds Americana, and I can hear just as much influence of Gram Parsons and Whiskeytown and Wilco than the usual three B’s, and so this has a lovely subtle urge of mild experimental warmth and texture that lesser artists would not consider. And when he does venture into the Big Star territory with “Queen Of Diamonds”, he does it with a natural flowing charm.
Yes indeed “Lonely Avenue” is a fine pop rock album and one that I would recommend to both power pop lovers and those who just love and enjoy a bloody good album.
Fran Ashcroft ‘Box Harry Day’
Album 30th May 2025
Box Harry Day is the third album from Fran Ashcroft, and anyone who has been lucky enough to enjoy his last two gems will indeed enjoy this his third foray into his own whimsical and darkly dour comical view on life and the characters he comes across in this not-so-Great Britain.
The twelve tracks on this album are split between six wonderful written vignettes and six beautiful orchestral instrumentals composed by Fran using AI, but in this case Fran being an extremely talented producer and musician has composed some rather beautiful pieces of music and they fit in well with his more lo-fi lyrical gems, and proving in the right creative hands AI can be used to make some quite beautiful art. Box Harry Day is an album of warmth, beauty and songs of lyrical accuracy of everyday British life that stands alongside the works of Coward, Davies, Dury and Haines.
bigflower ‘Something Appears’
Single – Already Out There On Bandcamp
Bigflower is back with his usual blast of monthly excellence, this time with a sonic endeavour of synth excellence. Yes indeed, “Something Appears” is a monster of a track, part Giorgio Moroder part Manchester rave; a track so buoyant that if Shelly Winters had this on her iPod in The Poseidon Adventure she would not have drowned and would have lived to swim another day: you could say she was raving not drowning.
Cody Brant & Diumal Burdens ‘A Panacea Nurtured Gurgles’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) Already Out There On Bandcamp
An aural montage of madness is maybe how one can describe this mixture of found sounds, drumbeats and samples. For “A Panacea Nurtured Gurgles” and albums of this ilk are really works of aural art best enjoyed when trying to escape the mundanities of life; finding escape in the subtle humour and the strategic placing and overlaying of sounds to create a painting of sound: a painting you can close your eyes and lose yourself in.
Fir Cone Children ‘Gearshifting’
Album (Blackjack Illuminist Records) Already Out There On Bandcamp
This album is very good – now there’s a review for you. But I’m not lying, it is very good. It sounds like the Shop Assistants, Ride and the Olivia Tremor Control getting together to gatecrash the local school indie disco to impress nobody but themselves. It has melody, charm and a not so deadly danger. It has what everyone wants from their indie album: pop suss, experimental joy mixed in with the usual post punk bass extravagancies and chiming flange melodious guitar with some rather fetching vocal harmonies – and I can even hint a subtle influence of Syd’s Pink Floyd in the mix. Can I say anymore to convince you to give this fine album a listen… if not, then bugger you. It’s your loss.
Mama Oh No ‘The Mutant’
Single Already Out There
I have more than a soft spot for 60’s Garage Rock, so this wonderful blast of riffery is indeed a blessing to the ears; a track that could have walked off any of those wonderful 60’s garage rock compilations I used to spend my teenage years rifling through in the old Prope Records in Button Street in Liverpool in the 80’s. Yes indeed, ‘The Mutant’ is blessed with a rather wonderful walking bass riff, fuzz guitars and an organ sound that would make the organist from the Fuzztones weep with joy. As you will need not telling, I await the album.
òrain ‘Hanging Fruit’
EP (Practise Music) Already Out There
This four-track EP is a rather lovely warm sounding thing of indie pop splendour; an EP of wonderfully written songs that has one’s head spinning in a slow like carousel waltz of melancholy and pure bliss. Songs that lovers of Belle And Sebastian and the Sundays will grab and hold to their hearts and play until they are paisley etched shadows of forgotten dreams and half remembered fantasy wishes.
St Johns Wood Affair ‘2’
Album 23rd May 2025
The swinging sounds of the 60’s are plundered and rediscovered in this gem of psych tinged poptitude; all original songs all steeped in the love of all things 60s pop. “Center Of Your Universe” the opening track is all “Last Train To Clarksville” guitar jangle and tells you what to expect from the rest of the album: all in your mind’s eye lyrics and the spirit and love of 1967. If an album was made to come with a cardboard cutout Kaftan, it was the St Johns Wood Affair’s 2.
Byrds like harmonies and backward guitars abound on “Hoping On The Train In Vain”, and “Magic Carpet Ride” haunted by the ghosts of the memory of late 60’s Small Faces. My favourite track, the lovely “Secret Garden”, is a kiss of pure psych pop bliss.
2 is an enjoyable and fun listen, especially for us who are still in love with the 60s sound and the 60s dream that will never fade.
Sister Wives ‘YnCanu’
Single (Libertino) Already Ou There
There is something rather beautiful about the Welsh language, and this fine single “YnCanu” by Sister Wives is a rather dark and gothic psych-Grunge gem sang in their native language. Imagine if you will The Feminine Complex being transported twenty years into the future to Seattle and told to make their mark on the local rock scene. If you can imagine that you may have some idea what this single may sound like. If you can’t imagine that just give it a listen…you will not be disappointed.
Smashing Red ‘Dark Eyed Girl’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) Already Out There
The ‘Dark Eyed Girl’ is a 60’s tinged guitar pop song that could have appeared any time over the last 50 years. It could have been performed equally by The Honeycombs (have you heard their stunning flop single “Eyes”, a forgotten dark masterpiece), The House Of Love or even Luke Haines’s Auteurs in a less narky moment. Yes, the ‘Dark Eyed Girl’ is indeed a fine guitar pop song, one that weaves a sensual sinister magic that is strangely attractive like a 60’s Mick Jagger in a floral dress.
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
Our Daily Bread 636: Eamon The Destroyer, Cats Of Transnistria, John Howard, Yellow Belly…
February 4, 2025
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
bigflower ‘trip d’
Single Released on the 31st January 2025
‘Trip D’ by bigflower is a cavernous atmospheric journey of yearning and sadness; three plus minutes of guitar solitude with a quite wonderful nagging riff. Once again Ivor Perry showing us why he is rated one of the finest guitarists to emerge from the 80’s Manchester scene.
Cats Of Transnistria ‘Horror’
Single (Soliti Recordings) Available Now
Horror is anything but horrible, but an atmospheric gem of Goth-y dream pop, awash with succulent 80’s keyboards and dreamy vocals. It’s as if the last 40 years been nothing but a dip in the shower with the Man From Atlantis.
Chaos Emeralds ‘Passed Away’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
Not to be confused with the Nashville Pop duo of the same name as this, Chaos Emeralds are anything but a pop duo but a rather excellent lo-fi sludge Indie rock duo with the occasional stray into both shoegaze and goth. “Count Me Out” reminds me of very early Psychedelic Furs before they went all Hollywood on us and polished up their prettiness in pink. At other times it reminds me of early 80’s Cure and Smashing Orange, which is not to be confused with smashing an orange, which is a messy and pointless exercise and The Chaos Emeralds are anything but pointless and messy, they are a fine band with a rather wonderful atmospheric sound.
The Conspiracy ‘White Winter Coats’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) 21st January 2025
I am a fan of The Conspiracy. I love their Englishness, and this excellent track really does not disappoint, it’s all seventies Bowie and Mid 80’s Julian Cope and what Syd Barrett might have sounded like if he was not a troubled soul. This is a taster to their forthcoming album, an album I will no doubt tell you all about in the coming weeks.
Eamon The Destroyer ‘Radio Sessions’
EP (Bearsuit Records) Released 21st January 2025
What we have here is an acoustic six track EP of songs recorded for two radio sessions in 2024: and mighty fine they are as well. The songs work well in acoustic form – is there such a genre of folktronica (ED: yes, there is), because if not Eamon The Destroyer has discovered it.
The Wickerman soundtrack, Momus and Leonard Cohen collide in a not so frenzy-like pleasure of subtle sly nods and winks whilst feeding Bagpuss illicit halogenic expressions of drugs gone by whilst showing thumbnail sketches of could and should have Beens. This really is a stunning six track EP of pure epic beauty.
John Howard ‘For Those that Wander By’
Album (Think Like A Key) 14th February 2025
“For Those That Wander By” is an album of sublime eloquence, an album that is steeped in songwriting craft and God-given talent. An album that features eight songs co-written by John Howard and poet Robert Cochrane, set to be released on Valentines Day, which by accident or design is extremely apt. For the album is quite a beautiful thing indeed. It is steeped in a lush wave of warmth, sadness and melancholy.
This is an album that draws on the experience of life and the passing of time; a dream world of haunting memories and ghosts from your past that caress and comfort you in the knowledge, as the old saying goes, that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all, and the skeletons in your closet are taken out daily and slow danced with under a full and rich moon.
John Howard is, as we all should know, one of England’s great musical hidden treasures, and this album coming exactly 50 years after his debut, the quite marvellous “Kid In A Big world”, goes to show that John has not lost any of his vocal capabilities. If anything, he is singing better now than he ever has, producing an album that Elton John would sell his children to be able to produce. An album of pure magic.
The Men ‘Po Box 96’
Single (Fuzz Club) Available Now
Fuzzy punk grunge with wah-wah guitar solo all in less than two minutes. If you like the sound of that give it a listen, if not give it a listen anyway: it takes longer to open a can of corn beef.
The Model Workers ‘Disaster Punk’
Album – Released 28th January 2025
I really know very little about the Model Workers apart from they are a pretty good three-piece punk band, or pop punk to be more precise: more early Green Day but with a bit more balls than say the Sex Pistols, a band that took me back to the days when my then 15 year old daughter used to text me every Tuesday to remind me to pick up that week’s copy of Kerrang and at the time that mag and its accompanying tv channel was filled with bands of this ilk and like. The Model Workers are indeed very good and I can quite easily imagine “Red Rose” or the extremely catchy “Sorry Again” popping up on the channel or the wonderful Dead Kennedy’s like “Surf Storm”, which is my favourite track on this mighty enjoyable seven-track mini album.
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) Released 21st January 2025
Next Year’s Model is sadly not a reworking of the genius Elvis Costello and The Attractions album from 1978, although it does have a 16 second track called Elvis Costello among the seven extremely short tracks that make up this release. Occult Character is of course someone I write about very often in this blog as I like him very much, and he releases an awful lot of music, and this is another off the cuff experimental dementia music ridden foray into the diseased mind of the good old USA. And I love it.
PS: Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ made last month’s choice selection of releases.
Salem Trials ‘Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) Released 24th January 2025
Any album that kicks off with a track that sounds like Magazine covering Television Personalities, How I Learned To Love The Bomb soundtracking Russ spewing juicy gossip to a man he can only see whilst standing in one of the only remaining red telephone boxes left in The UK. And not even a nice part of Britain…we will say the red telephone box by the town hall in St Helens, it stinks of piss and decay but has a lost nostalgic beauty; a one-off memory of exciting times and rushed conversations, which is the perfect description of this wonderful post-punk album.
“Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground” could well be the Salem Trials best album yet, which is pretty much high praise as all The Trials many albums are pretty good indeed. One day Cherry Red Records will release a CD boxset of The Salem Trials and it will be hailed as the complete collection of one of Britain’s finest guitar bands.
Yellow Belly ‘Ghostwriter’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
The shimmering glisten of the beautiful awakening of the first summer steps of the handwritten rhyme. The melody of the clouds casting dark shadows of the night pulling dream like caricatures of memories past. The haunting bewitching soundtrack to the forever young in your mind. Yellow Belly dives deep into the subconscious and slowly teases the sadness and delight, offering the hope of the gentle and the meek, being the beacon of light that slowly emits the slow electronic drumbeats of yesterday, the vocals encapsulating the art that is found in all great pop music, the heart rendering yearning of the modern songbird or the memories of Julee Cruise floating through the speaker of your old radio kidnapping your beating heart and holding ransom to the melancholic wishes of yesterday. Yellow Belly’s Ghostwriter is an album touched with the dark hand of beautiful heartache and a bewitching stillness that is totally entrancing.
The End of the Month Revue: Playlist & Choice Album Releases
January 30, 2025
THE MONTHLY PLAYLIST SELECTION PLUS A NEW FEATURE IN WHICH WE CHOOSE OUR CHOICE ALBUMS FROM THE LAST MONTH.
Something a little different for 2025: a monthly review of all the best music plus a selection of the Monolith Cocktail team’s choice albums. Chosen this month by Dominic Valvona and Matt Oliver from January’s post.
The 32 tunes for January 2025:
Noémi Büchi ‘Gesticulate Elastically’
Cumsleg Borenail ‘Topological Hausdorff Emotional Open Sets’
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets ‘March on for Pax Ramona’
Hifiklub & Brianna Tong ‘Angelfood’
Divorce ‘Pill’
Trinka ‘Navega’
Gnonnas Pedro and His Dadjes Band ‘Tu Es Tout Seul’
Rezo ‘Molotov – The Sebastian Reynolds Remix’
The Winter Journey ‘Words First’
Saba Alizadeh ‘Plain of the Free’
Miles Cooke & Defcee ‘zugzwang’
Eric the Red & Leaf Dog ‘Duck and Dive’
Harry Shotta ‘It Wasn’t Easy’
Kid Acne, Spectacular Diagnostics & King Kashmere ‘AHEAD OF THE CURVE’
Damon Locks ‘Holding the Dawn in Place (Beyond Part 2)’
Talib Kweli & J. Rawls ‘Native Sons’
Emily Mikesell & Kate Campbell Strauss ‘Recipes’
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi & Boom.Diwan ‘Utviklingssang – Live’
Nyron Higor ‘Me Vestir De Voce’
Ike Goldman ‘Bowling Green’
Elea Calvet ‘Filthy Lucre’
Expose ‘Glue’
Neon Kittens ‘Enough of You’
Occult Character ‘Tech Hype’
Dyr Faser ‘Physical Saver’
Russ Spence ‘Phase Myself’
The Penrose Web ‘Hexapod Scene’
Park Jiha ‘Water Moon’
Robert Farrugia ‘Ballottra’
Memory Scale ‘Afternoon’s Echoes’
Joona Toivanen Trio ‘Horizons’
Timo Lassy Trio ‘Moves – Live’
Choice Albums, thus far in 2025
So, for an age I’ve been uneasy with the site’s end of year lists: our choice albums of the entire year posts, which usually take up two or three posts worth, such is the abundance of releases we cover in a year. I’ve decided to pretty much scrape them going forward. Instead, each month I will pick out several albums we’ve raved about, plus those we didn’t get time to review but think you should take as granted approved by the Monolith Cocktail team. Some of these will not be included in the above playlist. Each album is listed alphabetically as I hate those numerical voting validation lists that our rivals put out.
Cindy ‘Saw It All Demos’ (Paisley Shirt Records)
Reviewed by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea here
Cumsleg Borenail ‘A Divorced 46 Year old DJ From Scunthorpe’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Dyr Faser ‘Falling Stereos’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Expose ‘ETC’ (Qunidi)
Reviewed by BBS here
Farrugia, Robert ‘Natura Maltija’ (Phantom Limb/Kewn Records)
Reviewed by DV here
Kweli, Talib & J Rawls ‘The Confidence Of Knowing’
Picked by Matt Oliver & DV
Locks, Damon ‘List Of Demands’ (International Anthem)
Reviewed by DV here
Mikesell, Emily & Kate Campbell Strauss ‘Give Way’ (Ears & Eyes Records)
Reviewed by DV here
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Picked by DV
Philips Arts Foundation, Lucy ‘I’m Not A Fucking Metronome’
Reviewed by BBS here
Toivanen Trio, Joona ‘Gravity’ (We Jazz)
Reviewed by DV here
Winter Journey, The ‘Graceful Consolations’ (Turning Circle)
Reviewed by DV here
ZD Grafters ‘Three Little Birds’
Reviewed by DV here – technically released digitally the end of last year, but vinyl arriving sometime in February
For those that can or wish to, the Monolith Cocktail has a Ko-fi account: the micro-donation site. I hate to ask, but if you do appreciate what the Monolith Cocktail does then you can shout us a coffee or two through this platform.
Our Daily Bread 635: Gentles, Cindy, Expose, Uri Rubin…
January 16, 2025
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Cult favourite, anointed as the “king of no-fi”, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea continues to contribute to the Monolith Cocktail in 2025 with his idiosyncratic irascible and aphorisms, his unique take on the music we send him each month to review. An artist in his own right, part of the family band The Bordellos for an age but releasing music sporadically under his own name and various guises, his latest release, a split contribution with Dee “Persian” Claw and The Neon Kittens, is due out on the 21st February, released by Cruel Nature Records.
Cindy ‘Saw It All Demos’
Album (Paisley Shirt Records)
The title of this album does not lie. It is indeed Demo’s and released on a cassette, and is a pretty nifty little album. Seven songs mostly recorded in a bedroom, and which we all know is one of the three best things one can do in a bedroom. There is a beautiful warmth and tenderness about these seven tracks; softly strummed guitar, hushed vocals, simple keyboard and percussion – apart from track 7 “The Violins”, which features the full band in a simply charming little indie pop number but doesn’t actually feature a violin at all, It’s still my favourite track on this album as I’m always a sucker for some velvety like guitar. Once again, another fine release from the wonderful Paisley Shirt Records label.
Divorce ‘Pill’
Single
I like this. It’s experimental. It’s catchy. It’s quirky and funky, all the things one wants from pop singles. It has a quite beautiful slow melancholy piano solo part which I can picture Yoko Ono opening curtains to in a large white room. And can I offer higher praise than that…I don’t think I can.
Duckie Mr Poetry ‘Miami Vice’
Single
Now, there are two reasons I like this track, and I will be honest, I’m in no way an expert on hip hop or rap and very rarely write about it, but this is rather good. It’s short, it is funky, there is plenty of hop in the hip and plenty of hip in the hop. Plus it also mentions Guinness in the lyrics and I have never come across another Hip Hop track that mentions that fine Irish brew in its lyrics: you don’t get NWA mentioning it, they are too busy fucking the police.
Expose ‘ETC’
Album (Quindi) 24th January 2024
Discordant Jabberwocky noise explosion erupts from the mouths of Sonic Youth’s long lost ill-mannered cousins, who sprout melodious pop misadventure whilst listening to the greatest guitar hits from the last 50 years on a vintage Ronco cassette and amp, surfing to pass the time of day and attract yearning looks from passing strangers who long to be the band. Do I like this? Of course! It is frivolous, it is fun, it is what rock n roll should sound like. It is both experimental and pure pop for now people. It is sexy. It is noisy. It has the appeal of cutting off a sticking out tongue from an annoying clown and cello taping it to a rocket ship so it can lick the stars.
Gentles ‘Gentles’
Album (Metal Postcard Records)
There is nothing gentle about Gentles. They are in fact a slam bam refuge of post punk disgust, an angular riff of ferocious quantity and quality part Fall part Swell Maps part Syd Barrett Pink Floyd after downing a gallon of turps. Yes, there is a subtle 60s guitar vibe that the band themselves probably have not noticed lurking underneath their arrogant angst.
Gentles are everything it means to be young angry and free to do whatever they want: if they can be bothered getting around to it.
Ike Goldman ‘Newt And Lovers/ Bowling Green’
Single
This double-sided A-side single is rather ace. Imagine if you will re-found unreleased tracks from The Beach Boys circa Smile…need I say more. If the answer is yes, you have no right reading the Monolith Cocktail as we all know late 60s Beach Boys is as perfect as it gets, and music obviously influenced by the late 60s Beach Boys done with such love and warmth is also as pretty much darned perfect as you get. Why is Ike Goldman not a household musical name? He should be.
The Neon Sea ‘As I Wonder’
Single
I like this. It has a nice early Stone Roses type jangle, and melody wise reminiscent of Blur in one of their melancholy moments: sweet, sad and mournful wrapped in a warm wash of guitar serendipity. A lovely single.
Penrose Web ‘It’s…The Penrose Web EP’
EP(Gare du Nord)
This EP is the debut release from The Penrose Web and it is rather spiffing in a good old early 80s Garage Rock way; an EP that takes me back to the days of visiting London to take in the great garage rock scene, days of the Bigfoot and the club on Camden Lock – whatever it was called – and myself and my girlfriend at the time having to share a taxi with a dodgy French man back to the Hotel because we missed the last train. The magic of music and the magic of the Penrose Web and the memories they inspire. This EP is really rather good indeed…I hope they do an album.
Lucy Philips Arts Foundation ‘I’m Not A Fucking Metronome’
Compilation Album
I’m Not A Fucking Metronome is a rather excellent compilation album to raise money for the Lucy Philips Arts Foundation, which is a foundation started in memory of Lucy Philips who was drummer and a regular face around the Leicester arts scene who sadly, suddenly, passed away in May of 2024. All money raised will help support Leicester creatives.
This Comp is actually a bit of a rarity as all 12 tracks are rather very good indeed. And I can imagine all the tracks appearing on the much missed and never replaced John Peel show: from the punk/post-punk opener by Boilers “Looking Good” – a song written by Lucy herself – through to the beautiful psych folk-tinged ballad “Heroes/Villains “by Chris Cottis Allan and the short sharp all wrapped up in one and half minuets pure punk of the excellently named Potato Legends.
As I have said, an album where all 12 bands need congratulating in adding 12 really wonderful slices of alternative pop/punk/rock to a great album and a fine cause.
Uri Rubin ‘The Way You Are’
Album
The Way You Are is what you call a grower, an album that sneaks up on you and gently wraps its arms around you and gently rocks you into submission with its lyrical tales of life and love. Uri Rubin has a lovely relaxing laidback vocal styling, part Smog, part Leonard Cohen and part Lambchop. He really does have a quite lovely voice, which he uses to good effect on these well written songs; songs that don’t stand out individually – they are not made to be radio smashes – but flow into each other to offer you 45 minutes or so of pure escape.
Monolith Cocktail Blog 