Monthly Playlist: April 2023: Circe, Micall Parknsun, Suki Sou, Carla Boregas, Ammar 808…
April 27, 2023
CHOICE MUSIC FROM THE LAST MONTH: TEAM EFFORT
The Monthly Revue playlist of 2023; a choice selection of tracks from the last month on the blog. Curated by Dominic Valvona with Matt Oliver on the Rap Control once more, and music from reviews by our latest recruit Gillian Stone plus Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Graham Domain and a returning Andrew C. Kidd. Expect to hear the unexpected as we leave you with this 45 track selection before we go off on a May sabbatical (well half of May, be back around the 15th with a packed schedule of choice music).
TRACKLIST//
Altın Gün ‘Çıt Çıt Çedene’
Ammar 808 Ft. Belhassen Mihoub ‘Yarima’
Les Abranis ‘Achethkhi’
Orti, Mayorga y Chiriboga ‘Muñequita Blanca’
Tuzeint ‘Mujer Divina’
United Grind Ft. Gamechangers ‘Doin This All Night’
King Kashmere & Alecs DeLarge ‘Most Blunted’
Neon Kittens ‘Loving Your Neighbour’s Wife’
Opus Kink ‘1:18’
Gabrielle Ornate ‘Delirium’
H. Hawkline ‘Plastic Man’
Land Of OOO ‘Matthew’
African Head Charge ‘A Bad Attitude’
Swans ‘Paradise Is Mine’
The Oldest Voice In The World ‘Talysh Mountain Border’
La Faute ‘The Crown’
fhae ‘Love You’
Alice ‘Triste et tout seul’
foil ‘Don’t Look’
Ali Murray ‘Spirit Of Unknowing’
Khotin ‘Lovely’
MultiTraction Orchestra ‘Reactor One’
Tobias Meinhart ‘Luna Park’
Deca & Ol’ Burger Beats ‘Blight’
Prastense & Shortrock Ft. Uncommon Nasa ‘A Broken Letter’
Micall Parknsun ‘Back’
Your Old Droog ‘Pronouns’
Illinformed Ft. Eric The Red ‘Doctor’
Silver Moth ‘Sedna’
Escupemetralla ‘Several specimens of ruminant animals with large udders chewing grass in a Cambridge meadow’
Sweeney ‘High School Damage’
Ale Hop & Laura Robles ‘Son de los diablos’
Cornelius Corvidae ‘Silver Flower’
James Howard ‘The Reckoning’
Draag ‘Mitsuwa’
Mike Cale ‘Slow Club’
Suki Sou ‘Petrichor’
Issei Herr ‘Aria’
Carla Boregas ‘A Cidade doe Outros’
Simon McCorry ‘Halcyon Fire’
CIEL ‘Somebody’
Tomato Flower ‘Destroyer’
Cindy ‘Earthly Belonging’
Circe ‘Riot Of Sunlight’
Chloe Gallardo ‘Bloodline’
Gillian Stone’s Monthly Reviews
Alice ‘L’Oiseau Magnifique’
(Bongo Joe Records) Available Now
At 23 songs ranging from 0:26 to 3:59, Genevan intergenerational micro-choir Alice’s L’ Oiseau Magnifique (“The magnificent bird”), released via Bongo Joe Records, is like one continuous, minimal folk symphony with 23 short movements.
Mother and daughter Yvonne Harder and Lisa Harder, along with Sarah André, juxtapose crisp, resonant harmonies with accompaniment on a thrifted synth, creating a sound that could be equated to a more lo-fi, European Mountain Man. The album is like sonically experiencing a family living room concert, with half-finished knitting out on the table and the smell of chicken stock simmering in a musty, 200-year-old home.
Despite its minimalism, there are moments L’ Oiseau Magnifique that take the listener by surprise: the jangly percussion, synthetic bird sounds, and unorthodox hand-to-mouth vocals on “Nous marchons”, the Gregorian chant atmosphere on “Deux mille trains”, and the field recordings of car sounds on “La santé”. The album starts and ends with the inclusion of mistakes, with the false starts and happy laughter on the second track, “Triste et tout seul”, and the last track “Rires”. Instead of taking one out of the moment, these instead are filled with personality, warmth, and a sense of inclusion in Alice’s process. Their moments of imprecision throughout are profoundly charming and imbued with a fearless humanness that makes L’ Oiseau Magnifique utterly unique.
Altın Gün ‘Aşk’
(Glitterbeat)
Conceptually multifarious, Altın Gün’s Aşk (Glitterbeat Records) is a manifold of ancient, vintage, and current. With their “Anatolian folk-rock sound”, the Amsterdam-based sextet interprets traditional Turkish folk song through the lens of psychedelic 70’s acid disco folk. Yet despite this sonic and conceptual complexity along with profoundly adept musicianship, the ethos of the 10-song album can be boiled down to something very simple: fun.
Beginning with the formidable energy of “Badi Sabah Olmadan”, the urge to dance is established right off the top. This continues with “Su Sızıyor” with its “The Guns of Brixton” bassline held down by Jasper Verhulst, and the jangly “Leylim Ley”. “Dere Geliyor” features wicked percussion by Chris Bruining, warbly guitar by Thijs Elzinga, and Merve Daşdemir’s smooth vocals. “Çıt Çıt Çedene” is classically groovy, while “Rakıya Su Katamam” is a brief foray into headbanger territory. The intro and breakdown of “Canım Oy” could be something off Santana’s Abraxas, while Daniel Smienk’s drums on “Kalk Gidelim” are both wild and sexy. Erdinç Ecevit’s beautiful microtonal vocals then soar over the Wish You Were Here feel of “Güzelliğin On Para Etmez”. The album ends strong with the disco feel of “Doktor Civanım”, reminiscent of Blondie in their prime. Throughout the record, Ecevit incorporates the saz, or bağlama, a lute used in Turkish folk music, staying true to Altın Gün’s influential roots.
In a rare feat, every song on Aşk is fantastic, equating to a conceptually profound, joyfully executed, “all killer no filler” vibe.
H. Hawkline ‘Milk For Flowers’
(Heavenly)
Starting out a certain way, where you think you know what you’re getting into, then taking you by surprise, is the thematic journey of H. Hawkline’s Milk For Flowers (Heavenly). So is lyrical vulnerability.
The first two songs on the Cate Le Bon-produced record, “Milk for Flowers” and “Plastic Man”, begin with a deep nod to Carole King, Paul McCartney and the Brill Building. “Suppression Street” is where the lyrics begin to encase the listener into a heartfelt sense of melancholy tenderness: “Grief is an encounter and I speak it/It carries like a shadow on the carpet”. It then transitions into the Neil Young vibe of “Suppression Street”, with none other than the great John Parish on bongos. The album then slams into the indefinable, stunning “Denver”, and suddenly Milk For Flowers takes flight, as if everything was leading up to this moment.
It continues to soar through “Athens At Night” with its dance-y palate of 80s sequenced synths and electric keyboards, George Harrison guitar riffs, and “Blue Monday” drum fills. The album lands back into being piano driven for “Like I Do”, and stays there for the remainder of the album. And it is here where the lyrics begin to shine again; on “It’s A Living” (“Old women/Young children/Can teach you everything you need to know about living”) and “Mostly” (“I wanna die/I wanna die/I wanna die happy”). True ballad “Empty Room”, with its form made up of two distinct sections, then takes out the album.
Milk For Flowers begins steeped in traditional songwriting, takes you on a breathless journey, then brings you back into a place of safety, where feelings can be acknowledged and processed.
La Faute ‘Water Colours’
Watercolours, the second single from Toronto, Canada-based La Faute’s forthcoming debut album Blue Girl Nice Day, is like the sonic representation of a slightly wilted bouquet of pastel-hued flowers.
Whispered, velveteen vocals softly weave into an atmospheric palette of dark, atmospheric folk that explores the liminal space between beauty and discomfort.
Thematically traversing the “feeling of infatuation bordering on obsession”, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Peggy Messing speaks to the unpredictable and undivinable nature of watercolour paints as an allegory for “that desperate, slightly sickening feeling that love or obsession can bring”.
There is something sinister simmering under the surface of the track – a gentle violence that slowly rears its head from beneath wisps of gorgeous minimal lushness. Messing’s hushed vocals are a step away from cracking, like the quiet control of Watercolours could break at any moment. But it doesn’t, and the tension is stunning.
Joining the team earlier this year, Gillian Stone is a multi-instrumentalist and interdisciplinary artist originally from the Pacific Northwest and based in Toronto, Canada. Through her eponymous vocally-driven post-rock/drone folk solo project, she has released two singles, “Bridges” and “Shelf”, and her debut EP, Spirit Photographs. Stone holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from Vancouver Island University and an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Drawing from her eclectic taste, she has worked with Michael Peter Olsen (Zoon, The Hidden Cameras), Timothy Condon and Brad Davis (Fresh Snow, Picastro), The Fern Tips (Beams) Völur (Blood Ceremony), NEXUS (Steve Reich), and visual artist Althea Thauberger.
Gillian Stone Reviews A Trio Of Recent Releases.
Ruxpin & Stafrænn Hákon ‘Meet Me In Forever’
(Sound In Silence) Available Now
Ruxpin and Stafrænn Hákon’s Meet Me In Forever (Sound In Silence) is imbued with chillness but also encourages bodily movement. This is the first collaborative effort from the Icelandic artists, who have been separately releasing music for over twenty years. Previously creating in somewhat disparate sonic worlds, Ruxpin’s melodic IDM and Stafrænn Hákon’s atmospheric post-rock collide in Meet Me In Forever.
With elements of melancholic nostalgia and an ambient retro-vibe overall, the album is reminiscent of turn of the millennia Boards of Canada with more sophisticated, modern production. This genre blending is clear off the top of the record in the first track “Flawless Delivery” with it’s clear yet warbling post-rock guitar tones, percussive breath sounds, and swirling synths. There are electroacoustic elements throughout the record, such as in the meditative third track, “Odesa”, and in the field recordings that accompany “Offshore” and “Reunited (If It’s What You Want)”. The latter, penultimate track, is perhaps the strongest on the record. Sparse vocals by Olena Simon soar over a Múm-esque soundscape, ending with a field recording of barking dogs and human laughter.
Overall, Meet Me In Forever retains a special quality of being a record you could both sleep to and dance to simultaneously.
Anemic Cinema ‘Iconoclasts’
(Ramble Records) Available Now
Iconoclasts, released via the independent Melbourne-based label Ramble Records, is “Avant-jazz-metal collective” Anemic Cinema’s newest offering. Undoubtedly a jazz record at its core, the album from the Belgium-based group is also so much more. Opening with the considerable energy of “Oneirophrenia” (meaning: state caused by sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, or drugs that is hallucinatory and dream-like), the song introduces a heaviness along with alluding to influences from Zappa and Ornette Coleman. “Iconoclasts, Pt 1”, “Iconoclasts, Pt 2”, and “Iconoclasts, Pt 3”, three movements with a nod to prog in their naming convention, then take the listener on a vast and stunning timbral journey.
The intro of “Pt 1” hails to classical Modernism, while composer Artan Buleshkaj enhances the space with beautiful, reverb-y suss chords on baritone guitar. Things get far more metal in “Pt 2”, with the juxtaposition of horns and distorted guitar enhancing the angular aesthetic of the movement. It ends with Steven Delannoye’s solo bass-clarinet, which then evolves into a tritone driven bass clarinet riff that grounds “Iconoclasts, Pt 3”. For “Business in the Front, Party in the Back”, Delannoye’s tenor sax and Rob Banken’s alto sax trade solos over Buleshkaj’s fuzzed-out guitar. Halfway through, the track completely changes speed into more traditional jazz guitar, with the hollow body sound of Jim Hall, before the fuzzed-out guitar comes back in for a modified head that takes out the tune.
The album then moves into a fucked up little interlude, “In Sillico”, with wild, sliding guitar and fantastic drum work by Matthias de Waele. “Tessellate” trades a headbanger feel with total chaos, while “108” takes out the record with the softened timbres of acoustic steel sting guitar and soloing clarinet.
Iconoclasts is a singular experimental triumph that takes the listener on an epically diverse sonic journey.
Philip Selway ‘Strange Dance’
(Bella Union) Available Now
At the heart of Philip Selway’s Strange Dance, his third solo album released via Bella Union, is the orchestral piano ballad. It’s how the album begins (“Little Things”) and ends (“There’ll Be Better Days”), and where it returns to throughout (“The Other Side”, “The Heart Of It All”). Yet in between, there is also so much else going on.
Lyrically, the album is profoundly sad, but ends with the trepidatious hope of “There’ll Be Better Days”. There are tidbits of Radiohead’s influence – the occasional Thom Yorke chord progression and Jonny Greenwood string arrangement – but otherwise it stands apart.
Between Marta Salogni’s production and Selway’s vocals, the lush sonic environment is reminiscent of Peter Gabriel in his prime. And Strange Dance does stray from the piano ballad: “Picking Up Pieces” with its driving, 90s feel and “Make It Go Away” with its acoustic guitar and percussion that could be from a 80s Paul Simon record.
Favorites on the album include “What Keeps You Awake At Night”, which includes beautiful Steve Reich-esque glockenspiel, the unorthodox percussion timbres and high, sustained strings of title track “Strange Dance”, and “Salt Air” with its droning synth, distorted vocals, and sparsely swooping orchestral parts.
Throughout the record are the incredible percussion parts of Valentina Magaletti, who played in lieu of Selway as the Radiohead drummer felt he was “not in the right mindset” to contribute drums.
Strange Dance is a thing of luxuriant, sorrowful beauty that further establishes Selway as composer in his own right.
Joining the team earlier this year, Gillian Stone is a multi-instrumentalist and interdisciplinary artist originally from the Pacific Northwest and based in Toronto, Canada. Through her eponymous vocally-driven post-rock/drone folk solo project, she has released two singles, “Bridges” and “Shelf”, and her debut EP, Spirit Photographs. Stone holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from Vancouver Island University and an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Drawing from her eclectic taste, she has worked with Michael Peter Olsen (Zoon, The Hidden Cameras), Timothy Condon and Brad Davis (Fresh Snow, Picastro), The Fern Tips (Beams) Völur (Blood Ceremony), NEXUS (Steve Reich), and visual artist Althea Thauberger.
Monthly Playlist Revue Of February 2023: Moonlight Benjamin, Von Pea, Philip Selway, Pussy Riot…
February 28, 2023
The Monolith Cocktail’s Monthly Playlist Of Choice Music
Picked By Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver, Brian ‘Bordello’, Gillian Stone, Graham Domain
Four hours of choice music from February, the Monolith Cocktail Revue features tunes from our reviews and columns, plus the tracks we didn’t get room to feature. This month’s selection is courtesy of Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver, Brian ‘Bordello’ She, Graham Domain and Gillian Stone.
.:TRACK LIST IN FULL:.
Moonlight Benjamin ‘Wayo’
Lunar Bird ‘Creatures’
Von Pea ‘Ode To Slick Rick’
Champion Poundcake ‘RAGS ANYMORE’
Spectacular Diagnostics ‘The Played List (Ft. Sonnyjim and Kid Acne)’
The Go! Team ‘Whammy-O’
Rogue Jones ‘Fffachlwch Bach (Bach)’
the clickBAITERS ‘Rear Ended’
Lucy & The Drill Holes ‘A Mouse’
Langkamer ‘Sing At Dawn’
First Day Of Spring ‘Normal Person (Love You Forever)’
SUO ‘Blue Evening’
Bondo ‘Instrument’
Mary Ocher ‘Love Is Not A Place (Ft. Your Government)’
Novelistme ‘Make Nothing’
Benjamin Benedict ‘Furlough Blues’
Za!/Tarta Relena/La TransMegaCobla ‘El Sweep The Lehelan’
Seljuk Rustum ‘Desi Bunny’
La Tene ‘La Taillée’
Imaad Wasif ‘Mr. Fear So Long (Money Mark Rework)’
Efeks ‘As Good As It Gets (Ft. The Strange Neighbour)’
The God Fahim ‘Man Of Steel’
Fliptrix ‘OCD With The LOVE (Ft. Coops And Verb T)’
Brainorchestra ‘Thin Patience’
Flying Monk & Wz (Corrupted Monk) ‘AF1’s’
Room Of Wires ‘Welcome To The End Game’
ANKHLEJOHN & LOOK DAMIEN! ‘CELINE AT THE MET GALA’
Pussy Riot ‘Putin’s Ashes’
Geeker-Natsumi ‘A Sheep That Never Gets Lost’
ASSASSUN ‘At Gunpoint’
Neon Kittens ‘Portable Fire’
Demikhov/Norda ‘Science! Science! Science!’
Antti Lötjönen ‘Circus/Citadel Pt. III’
Saint Abdullah ‘Divine Timing Is Intuitive’
Tachycardie ‘Collision Au Sens Strict’
Kety Fusco ‘Starless’
Polobi & The Gwo Ka Masters ‘Kawmélito’
Seaming To ‘Blessing’
Lisel ‘Immature’
Sly Moon ‘The Ghosts Comin’’
FUZ ‘First light’
Lavar The Star & Shabazz Palaces ‘Glass Top Roof (The One)’
Mecánica Clásica ‘Mantra De Felpa’
Kalia Vandever ‘Temper The Wound’
Xqui & Kaiho Zion ‘Agori Quitonie’
Stereo Hypnosis & Roedelius ‘VÍK I’
Philip Selway ‘Strange Dance’
The Good Ones ‘This Amazing Love Has Stayed With Me’
NO(w) Beauty ‘Atonia’
Floral Portrait ‘Winter Isolation’
Hawk Percival And Friends ‘The Mountain’
The Mining Co. ‘Wake Up’
Steve Stoeckel ‘Just One Kiss’
Chris Plum ‘As Long As The Sun’
Total Refreshment Centre ‘Black (Ft. Brother Portrait)’
Anteek Recipes ‘NY Fatcap’
Verb T & Illinformed ‘Bogus Journey’
Hus KingPin ‘Tony (Ft. Sagelnfinite)’ Copywrite/AWOL One & Kount Fif ‘Word From Our Sponsor’
Monthly Playlist: January 2023: Mentrix, Kahil El’Zabar, Sara Noelle, Your Old Droog, Onoe Caponoe…
January 31, 2023
CHOICE MUSIC FROM THE LAST MONTH: TEAM EFFORT
The inaugural Monthly Revue playlist of 2023; a choice selection of tracks from the last month on the blog. Curated by Dominic Valvona with Matt Oliver on the Rap Control once more, and music from reviews by our latest recruit Gillian Stone plus Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea and Graham Domain. Expect to hear the unexpected.
TRACK LIST//
Mentrix ‘Be Mahsa Be Nika’
Meadow Argus ‘No Company’
Anton Barbeau. ‘Dollis Hill Butchers’
Guided By Voices ‘Wild Kingdom’
The Wot Nots ‘Oi!’
Wings Of Desire ‘Runnin”
The Gangsta Rabbi ‘Ana’mika (138the Entr’acte)’
Neon Kittens ‘Chalk’
Smuts ‘Kalashnikova’
Dyr Faser ‘Life Form’
Earth ‘Rocker’
Xqui Ft. Bettina Schroeder ‘I Have A Knife’
Flexagon ‘Fort Saumarez: MP2’
George Winstone & Ben Monder ‘Part I’
Liela Moss ‘Empathy Files’
The Good Samaritans ‘Onughara’
Phil Ranelin & Wendell Harrison. ‘Genesis’
Fliptrix/Onoe Caponoe/Ramson Badbonez ‘SM58’
Masai Bey/BMS ‘I.a.a’
Micall Parknsun/Jazz T ‘Still…’
Dexter Dine ‘Sunshine In A Can’
Elise Preys/Marc-Antoine Perrio ‘Petites Heures’
Bjorn Magnusson ‘Everybody’s Got Something’
Designers ‘Moulindjek’
dal:um ‘Dot’
Clamb ‘Glittering Watermelon Oracle – Live’
Justo The MC/Axian ‘Autopilot’
Skyzoo/The Other Guys ‘Bodies!’
Carlos Nino & Friends ‘Drum Solo +, “Sounds Like Memory…”‘
Ghostwoods ‘Terminus’
Kety Fusco ‘2072’
Raul Refree ‘La Plage’
Esbe ‘Coventry Carol’
Sara Noelle. ‘Blooming Yucca’
Kahil El’Zabar And The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble ‘Harvest Time’
Beats & Pieces Big Band ‘Op’
Galactapus ‘Radio Kolossos’
Oddisee ‘Many Hats’
Upfront MC/Badhabitz ‘Stay Afloat’
Your Old Droog ‘Here’s Johnny’
Onoe Caponoe ‘Pet Cemetry’
Our Daily Bread 555: Sara Noelle, Dexter Dine, La Tene
January 23, 2023
New Contributor Alert: Gillian Stone’s inaugural reviews roundup for the Monolith Cocktail
Joining the team in 2023, Gillian Stone is a multi-instrumentalist and interdisciplinary artist originally from the Pacific Northwest and based in Toronto, Canada. Through her eponymous vocally-driven post-rock/drone folk solo project, she has released two singles, “Bridges” and “Shelf”, and her debut EP, Spirit Photographs. Stone holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from Vancouver Island University and an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Drawing from her eclectic taste, she has worked with Michael Peter Olsen (Zoon, The Hidden Cameras), Timothy Condon and Brad Davis (Fresh Snow, Picastro), The Fern Tips (Beams) Völur (Blood Ceremony), NEXUS (Steve Reich), and visual artist Althea Thauberger.
Sara Noelle ‘Do I Have To Feel Everything’
27th January 2023
Do I Have to Feel Everything, Sara Noelle‘s third album, oozes vulnerability and expresses feelings both directly and allegorically through naturalistic themes. Ever present are the Los Angeles-based artist’s soothing, velveteen vocals which deliver melodies that often sweep into unexpected places. Produced by Dan Duszynski (Loma), the album pays homage to its influences while also managing to hold its own. The opening track, “Blooming Yucca”, begins with a bassline that is distantly PJ Harvey-esque, like something from To Bring You My Love, while “Slip Away” gives a gentle nod to Harvey’s White Chalk. The title track, “Do I Have to Feel Everything”, transitions into an 80’s synth vibe. This aesthetic evolves further in “Sun Fades the Pain”, which evokes a sonic landscape of The War on Drugs being interpreted through the lens The High Priestess archetype. Perhaps the most stunning moment on the album is “Dust Clouds” moving into “Hum”; the former being an interlude built with creepy, beautiful, natural
ambient soundscapes, and the latter being a journey of unexpected chord progressions. Do I Have to Feel Everything is a gorgeous and gentle journey that ebbs and flows like water on a calm day.
Dexter Dine ‘Flood’
31st January 2023
Dexter Dine’s Flood is best listened to with headphones. The self-defined Brooklyn, NY-based “apartment rocker” conjures a diverse and expansive sound that is a “mixture of melodic samples, multi-part drum grooves, and off-kilter saxophone solos”. From the Animal Collective vibes of “Flooded Meadows”, “Splatter In Two”, and “Lockeeper”, to the Juana Molina-esque
“Peanutbutter”, to the Bossa Nova feel of “Valley Of Air”, the beats he creates are the driving force behind this electroacoustic pursuit. There is even a touch of Burial in Dine’s sound, which spatially meanders around the physical sonic space – again, excellent for headphone listening. Interspersed throughout Flood are sometimes trilling, sometime harmonized reverby alto sax
parts that congeal the album’s sound into something that stands on its own. In addition to Flood being Dine’s eighth record since mid-2016, and he also does sound design for gallery- based dance performances. Dine is a prolific artist, and his work is ethereal, striking, and drenched in both sunshine and melancholy.
La Tène ‘Ecorcha/Taillée’
(Bongo Joe Records) 3rd February 2023
La Tène’s Ecorcha/Taillée is a meditative, minimalist folk masterpiece. It’s two pieces, “L’Ecorcha” and “La Taillée”, travel and swirl in stunning glacial motion. Released by Genevan label Bongo Joe Records, the three core members of the French/Swiss ensemble create a droning, modern artifact by use of harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, and percussion. For Ecorcha/Taillée, the group expanded into a seven-piece, with guest artists contributing guitar, bass, headband, and bagpipes. The album, which was recorded live in a single take, was produced in a cultural centre and ballroom converted from a barn. In line La Tène’s singular folk aesthetic, the main functionality of this space is to build interest in folk music from Auvergne, a region in central France.
The starting minutes of “L’Ecorcha”, which runs at 18:26, establish a repeating, ascending melody that solders the foundation of the album’s trance-like odyssey. Almost unchanging until six minutes in, the piece then slowly swells into a spiraling, understated density. “La Taillée” (14:34, a short piece by the band’s standards) maintains a pulsating minor 2nd chord progression and clave rhythm from start to finish. The piece has distinct parts, starting almost-dance like, breaking into a minimal groove, then descending into a gentle dissonance before softly exploding. Both “L’Ecorcha” and “La Taillée” are utterly captivating and are imbued with experimental triumph. The members of La Tène are avant-garde historians, and the result of their work is a timeless sonic world that is hauntingly beautiful.
Gillian Stone
Choice Albums of 2022: Part One M to Z: Machine Girl to THE Zew.
December 15, 2022
The second part of the Monolith Cocktail teams favourite albums of 2022.
A recap in case you haven’t yet read part one
Well was I wrong last year when called 2021 the annus horribilis of all years. It has been soundly beaten by the shit-show that is 2022. The invasion of the Ukraine, cost of living crisis, another hideous wave of Covid – which even if the jabs are being rolled out, and the deaths rate, hospitalizations is nothing like the first wave back in 2020, is still causing major illness, absences and disruptions to a society already facing a heap of doomsday scenarios -, strikes, activism, fuel poverty, looming austerity, and the continuing horror show of a zombie government being just some examples. Yes 2022 qualifies as one of the most incomprehensible years on record of any epoch; an ungovernable country in the grip of austerity point 2.0, and greater world untethered and at the mercy of the harridans on either side of the extreme political divide, the billionaire corporates and narcissist puritans.
And yet, it has been another great year for music. Despite the myriad of problems that face artists and bands in the industry, from a lack of general interest to the increasingly punitive costs of touring and playing live, and the ever encroaching problems of streaming against physical sales and exposure, people just can’t quit making music. And for that we, as critics – though most of us have either been musicians or still are – really appreciate what you guys do. In fact, as we have always tried to convey, we celebrate you all. And so, instead of those silly, factious and plain dumb numerical charts that our peers and rivals insist on continuing to print – how can you really suggest one album deserves their place above or below another (why does one entry get the 23rd spot and another the 22nd; unless it is a vote count) –, the Monolith Cocktail has always chosen a much more diplomatic, democratic alphabetical order – something we more or less started in the first place. We also throw every genre, nationality together in a serious of eclectic lists: no demarcation involved.
The lists include those albums we reviewed, featured on the site in some capacity, and those we just didn’t get the time to include. All entries are displayed thus: Artist in alphabetical order, then the album title, label, who chose it, a review link where applicable, and finally a link to the album itself.
This year’s picks have been chosen by (Dominic Valvona), Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Matt Oliver, Andrew C. Kidd and Graham Domain.
M.
Machine Girl ‘Neon White OST-The Wicked Heart’ ACK
Billy MacKenzie ‘Satellite Life’ (Cherry Red Records) GD
Mai Mai Mai ‘Rimorso’ (Maple Death Records) DV
Review
Nduduzo Makhathini ‘In The Spirit Of Ntu’ (Blue Note) DV
Marlowe ‘Marlowe 3’ (Mello Music Group) MO
Luke Mawdsley ‘Luke Two’ (Spine Records) DV
Premiere
Simon McCorry ‘Scenes From The Sixth Floor’ DV
Review
Brona McVittie ‘The Woman in the Moon’ (Arts Council of N. Ireland) GD
Review
Amine Mesnaoui & Labelle ‘African Prayers’ (Lo Recordings) DV
Review
Milc & Televangel ‘Neutral Milc Hotel’ (Filthy Broke Records) MO
Modern Nature ‘Island Of Noise’ (Bella Union) DV
Tumi Mogorosi ‘Group Theory: Black Music’ (Mushroom Hour & New Soil) DV
Montparnasse Musique ‘Archeology’ (Real World) DV
Review
Mount Kimbie ‘MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning’ ACK
Muramuke ‘S-T’ (Accidental) DV
Ali Murray ‘Wilderness of Life’ (Dead Forest Records) GD
Reviews
N.
Nicole Faux Naiv ‘Moon Rally’ (Bronzerat) DV
No Age ‘People Helping People’ (Drag City) DV
Review
No Base Trio ‘II’ (Setoladi Maiale) DV
Review
Noah ‘Noire’ (Flau) DV
Review
Che Noir ‘Food For Thought’ (TCF Music Group) MO
O.
Old Fire ‘Voids’ (Western Vinyl Records) GD
Review
Open Mike Eagle ‘A Tape Called Component System With The Auto Reverse’ (Auto Reverse Records) MO
Orange Crate Art ‘Contemporary Guitar Music’ (Somewherecold) DV
Review
P.
The Paxton/Spangler Septet ‘Ugqozi’ (Eastlawn Records) DV
Review
Peace De Résistance ‘Bits And Pieces’ DV
Penza Penza ‘Neanderthal Rock’ (Funk Night Records) DV
Le Pietre Dei Giganti ‘Vetie e Culti’ (Overdub Recordings) DV
Review
Plastic Candles ‘Dust’ (Paisley Shirt Records) BBS
Review
Plop & Junnu ‘S-T’ (Fiasko Records) DV
R.
Revelators ‘Revelators Sound System’ (37d03d records) GD
Reviews
J Rocc ‘A Wonderful Letter’ (Stones Throw) MO
Robert ‘Orange is the New Black’ (Antelope Records) MO
Scott Robertson ‘Footprints In The Butter’ (Subjungle) BBS
Review
S.
Salem Trials ‘Love Joan Jett’ (Metal Postcard Records) BBS
Review
SAULT ‘AIR’ (Forever Living Originals) ACK
Review
Say What ‘S-T’ (We Jazz) DV
Review
Shabaka ‘Afrikan Culture’ (Verve/Impulse!) DV
Ignacio Simón ‘Old Friends’ (Bandcamp) GD
Review
Širom ‘The Liquefied Throne Of Simplicity’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Sis ‘Gnani’ (Native Cat Recordings) GD
Review
Silverbacks ‘Archive Material’ (Full Time Hobby) GD
Review
The Soft Pink Truth ‘Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This?’ ACK
Spygenius ‘Jobbernowl’ (Big Stir Records) BBS
Review
Staraya Derevnya ‘Boulder Blues’ (Ramble Records) DV
Review
Stepbrothers featuring the Honourable Ted ‘S/T’ EP (German Shepherd Records) GD
Review
Shepard Stevenson ‘Man Down’ (Somewherecold) DV
Review
Stereolab ‘Pulse of the Early Brain’ (Duophonic and Warp Records) GD
Robert Stillman ‘What Does It Mean To Be American’ (Orindal Records) DV
Carl Stone ‘We Jazz Reworks Vol. 2’ (We Jazz) DV
Review
Gillian Stone ‘Spirit Photographs’ DV
Review
STS & RJD2 ‘Escape From Sweet Auburn’ (RJ’s Electrical Connections) MO
Misha Sultan ‘Roots’ (Hive Mind) DV
Review
Sweeney ‘Stay for the Sorrow’ (Sound in Silence) GD
Review
T.
Team Play ‘Wishes And Desire’ (Soliti) DV
Mauricio Takara and Carla Boregas ‘Grande Massa D’Agua’ (Hive Mind) DV
Review
Tone Of Voice Orchestra ‘S-T’ (Stunt Records) DV
Review
Trupa Trupa ‘B Flat A’ (Glitterbeat) DV
Review
V.
Various/Solidary ‘Blue And Yellow’ & ‘Yellow And Blue: Help For Ukraine’ (Binaural Space) DV
Review
Various ‘Live at WOMAD 1982’ (Real World) DV
Review
Various ‘Mensajes del Agua: Nuevos Sonidos Desde Peru Vol 1’ (Buh Records) DV
Various ‘Music For Ukraine’ (We Jazz) DV
Review
Various ‘Pierre Barouh And The Saravah Sound: Jazz, Gumbo And Other Hallucinatory Grooves’ (WEWANTSOUNDS) DV
Review
Various ‘Spirit Of France’ (Spiritmuse) DV
Review
Vera Di Lecce ‘Alter Of Love’ DV
Violet Nox ‘Eris Wakes’ (Infinity Vine) DV
Review
Vukovar ‘The Body Abdicator’ (Other Voices) DV/BBS
Review
W.
Wish Master & Axel Holy ‘First Nature’ (Official Recordings) MO
Ethan Wood ‘Burnout’ (Whatever’s Clever) DV
Review
Billy Woods ‘Aethiopes’ & ‘Church’ (Backwoodz Studioz) MO
X.
Iannis Xenakis ‘Electroacoustic Works’ (Karlrecords) ACK
Z.
THE Zew ‘IFI1IFO’ (Numavi Records) BBS
Review
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.
Our Daily Bread 549: Gillian Stone ‘Spirit Photographs’
November 15, 2022
ALBUM REVIEW
DOMINIC VALVONA
Gillian Stone ‘Spirit Photographs’
Dressed like a spiritualist flapper of the 1920s on the cover of her new EP, the Toronto siren and artist Gillian Stone summons various manifestations in the pursuit of processing both grief and the debilitating effects of mental health.
Made apparent by the title, the 19th century and early 20th century phenomena of “spirit photography” lends a somewhat esoteric, supernatural and mysterious angle to what is in fact the more academic psychiatric method of dealing with, and in time, coming to terms with loss. For each song on this deeply felt, atmospheric release represents one of the five stages of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ pioneering model: that’s Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally, Acceptance. The Swiss-American doyen of psychiatry, heralded in Time magazine as one of the 20th century’s “100 Most Important Thinkers’, wrote one of the leading works (On Death And Dying) on accepting the inevitable in the late 1960s, after personally witnessing such traumas and dealing with childhood illness herself – an epiphany was struck after facing the aftermath of the Second World War’s concentration camps.
More or less the standard in counseling and navigating death, Kübler-Ross’ process is merged with unscientific empirical desperation and the often charlatan practice of Spiritualism. As a practice that grew out of the infancy of photography itself, and in part from the collective grief of the American Civil War, certain practitioners using various techniques added dead family members, loved ones in apparitional form to sitting portraits – usually lurking behind the very much alive subject, or manifesting from their supposed psyche. What may have been a comfort to some – proof of life-after-death and messages from beyond the ether – was essentially a trick. However, Stone draws that which cannot be quantified, explained together with the scientific mind in an act of describing her own anxieties, pains, but eventual release from the spectre of depression. And although this is a sometimes haunting, uneasy EP, Stone’s beautifully accented prose and emotions are delivered with a lighter, diaphanous touch that exudes as much promise as sorrow. Even when covering the heavy melancholy of Black Sabbath’s morbidly curious ‘Solitude’ Stone turns a self-pitied gloom of a tune into a Pentangle (the quintessential English acid-psych-folk ensemble not the Satanic symbol) like, medieval reaching and more sweetened proposition.
Stone obviously turns the original’s pained, male-prospective on its head: with everything that entails. Mind, it’s still a trudge through the miserable, and it’s also used to represent ‘stage four” on the scale: depression. Talking though of addressing gender imbalances, Stone enters, at times, the heavily over-subscribed post-rock arena on many of the EP’s tracks. It’s a genre I’m not too impressed with personally, and find quite boring and mundane – sacrilege I know, but God I hate Mogwai and their self-indulgent turgid malaise. Stone however, brings an endearing, inviting almost, quality to that genre; especially on the gently sweeping, almost sleepwalking dreamt spell ‘June’, which opens the EP. Representing the first stage, denial, this slow drummed bohemian and quivery-droned chill is one of Stone’s most sublime turns; a kind of haunted communion of Dana Gavinski, Michael Peter Olsen, the Heartless Bastards and Aldous Harding – two of which appear on Stone’s specially created playlist of EP influences.
Working with co-producer Michael Peter Olsen (Zoom, The Hidden Cameras) and drummer Spencer Cole (Weaver, Weather Staion) Stone’s singular talents are amplified by the accentuated, careful and purposeful contributions of her foils. Especially on the two tracks already mentioned, but also on the folksy and gothic travelled tumultuous ‘Amends’ (Provincials and These Trials break bread with All About Eve as a snuggled suffused saxophone-like drone weeps), and David Sylvain mood piece ‘Raven’s Song’. The latter I’m sure has some American Gothic, Poe-like inspiration about it; after all, it is supernatural in sound with touches of creeping hymnal atmospherics and even the ominous clopping of hooves.
That’s both “anger” and “bargaining” dealt with on this journey. The final stage, turning point you could say, is of course “acceptance”, and this is reflected on the siren song ‘The Throne’. Full of “drowning” metaphors it might be, but the waters of despair also cleanse and wash away the helpless state of a mental stumbling block in the process. Hints of 70s folk-rock and country can be, intentional or not, detected on what is another beautifully conveyed plaint. I must emphasis however that Stone’s timbre, cadence and tone is far from mournful, or even helpless. Instead the abstract of dealing with such problems, illness and grief is articulated with a certain beauty (that word yet again) and spirit of perseverance and understanding. In an age, as Stone quotes, of “collective trauma” it can feel so comforting to know that others get your pain, or, in this case can transform it into something so constructive and creatively therapeutic: no matter how bleak. But unlike the parlour tricks, charade of spirit photography, Stone casts her ghostly visitations aside, finding a release and source of light in the darkness of both inner and outer torment.
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.
GRAHAM DOMAIN’S REVIEWS SPECIAL
ALBUMS
Old Fire ‘Voids’
(Western Vinyl Records) 4th November 2022
Voids is the second album by Old Fire, AKA composer and producer John Mark Lapham (formerly of The Earlies). Whilst the first album received comparisons to This Mortal Coil, the new one comes across like the soundtrack to a bleak art film, particularly the instrumental tracks. Which isn’t to say it’s not great! Indeed, the music is often uplifting in its sadness and beauty.
Over the five years in which it was recorded, the Pandemic happened, Lapham lost both parents and split from his long-term partner. Feelings of loss, isolation and desolation form the themes of the album and are ever present in the music and songs throughout. Partly a collaborative affair there are fantastic performances from Bill Callahan, Julia Holter, Loma’s Emily Cross and Adam Torres!
The album begins with the instrumental ‘All Gone’, which fades in on mournful brass and echoing piano with squiggles of babbling synth noise, space FX and virtual ghost choir! Soon giving way to ‘Blue Star’ a dream-pop/country/jazz song that part recalls Marissa Nadler circa ‘Drone-flower’. This gem of a song features the wonderful Emily Cross of Lomawith a voice as devastating as Lana Del Rey!
‘When I was in My Prime’ features the magnificent Bill Callahan (Smog) intoning a tale of summer love, loss, sadness and longing. Beginning with a droning orchestra it soon conjures a picture of flying insects feeding on wild flowers, the anticipation and the thrill of love, the freeing of the soul. A double bass and brushed drums add to the air of ease. But all too soon, as birds swoop down, still feeding at the death, a lonely guitar sings of the emptiness left behind as love leaves and a relationship ends!
‘Corpus’ follows – wind noise and droning keyboards mix with sad brass, tremolo guitar, brushed drums and discordant noise while Mr Smog intones a mantra that rests somewhere in-between Nick Cave and Ian McCulloch but, ultimately, could only be Bill Callahan. ‘Love is Only Dreaming’ is next, an instrumental that is more about atmosphere than melody sounding not unlike the throb of an alien space craft in a 1950’s Sci-fi B-Movie!
Adam Torres sings the fantastic ‘Dreamless’ sounding somewhere in-between Billy Mackenzie and Russell Mael with his soaring falsetto. The song and electronic music give the feel of floating in space – drifting endlessly in the black void – dreamless!
An outstanding piano version of John Martyn’s ‘Don’t You Go’ sung by Bill Callahan is a definite highlight! The sad themes of loss and mourning fitting in perfectly with the rest of the album.
The strange sci-fi world of ‘Window’ features Julia Holter singing through a voice processor or vocoder making her sound cold and alien, machine like almost! This contrasts with the warm music of woodwind, harp, brass, brushed drums and tremolo guitar. The overall feel is like something from the Cocteau Twins circa ‘Echoes in a Shallow Bay’– Wonderful!
The album ends with four superb instrumental pieces. In ‘Uninvited’, swashes of guitar fade in as the cold dawn peers through the curtains. The sound of early morning comedown, half dream, half surreal train ride down the rabbit hole of perception! ‘Memory’ creates feelings of unease, of distorted reality, a mushroom trip too far, a silent scream! Beauty born of sorrow and realisation. Like taking ownership for the weight of the world! This sense of sorrow overwhelms, bursting its banks in ‘Father as a Child’. While ‘Circles’ finds calm reflection after the storm, the floodwaters finally beginning to subside as the Sun breaks through the clouds and birds return to the skies!
FaltyDL ‘A Nurse to my Patience’
(Blueberry Records) 11th November 2022
The new album by FaltyDL (Electronic Musician and New York based Producer Drew Lustman) is a departure from his more dance-orientated records. The album draws on the sounds more often associated with less commercial independent or experimental artists. There are still tracks that can be danced to, but perhaps not in the usual dance clubs. ‘Zoo Jarre’ is reminiscent of New Order while ‘God Light’ filters in The Cure. ‘Come See Us’ features Interpol’s Paul Banks on vocals over a pounding drum machine and synth driven electronic alternative 80s style song! Much better are ‘Four Horses’ and ‘A Brother Bears the Silence’ – two acoustic psychedelic songs featuring the incredible Julianna Barwick on background vocals (check out her own incredible Healing is a Miracle album). ‘Doves Fears’ ends the album on an instrumental high note of anthemic surf guitar and pop synth summer melody.
A O Gerber ‘Meet Me at the Gloaming’
(Hand in Hive / Father Daughter Records)
The second album by LA resident A O Gerber explores childhood trauma, her fraught upbringing in a religious community, childhood fear of the unknown. However, the introspective songs are filled with melody and sound almost pop-country in their stripped back guitar, vocals, bass, drums format. Vocally she reminds me of Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles. However, the songs exist in the unreality of twilight, the gloaming, where dreams meet material existence, a reality half hidden by the falling shadows of night.
Modern Stars ‘Space Trips for the Masses’
(Little Cloud Records) 11th November 2022
The third album by psychedelic riders of the storm, Modern Stars, falls somewhere between The Mission and The Fields of the Nephilim. New single ‘Monkey Blues’ also has hints of the Doors and may have been an underground hit had it come out in 1987! That’s not necessarily a criticism as the 3-piece band hail from Italy and perhaps, are not too familiar with 1980’s UK Goth! ‘Mmmm’ is a Goth anthem if ever there was one, complete with flanged metallic drums. While, ‘My Messiah’ musically sounds like a discarded Joy Division jam from 1978 but in a good way! ‘Drowning’ adds tabla hand drums and sitar to the mix. The album ends with ‘Ninna Nanna’ a song that sounds a bit different with female vocals. Unfortunately, the vocal melody sounds like ‘Come by yar my lord’, perhaps making it the first Goth-spel song? Overall, a fine, if not totally original, album.
Ben Pagano ‘Exploring Dreams’
(Bandcamp)
This is the third release from New York singer songwriter and keyboard maestro Ben Pagano. The album is a collection of seven songs that sit vocally somewhere between Supertramp and Randy Newman! My favourite song is ‘Everybody’s Ghost’. The arrangements are pleasant with piano, synths, guitar, bass and drums and the overall sound has a 1970’s soft rock or AOR feel that will find favour with many. If he can stamp more of his own personality and quirkiness on the songs, he may get the success he seeks. One to watch!
I Work in Communications ‘Kiss My Emoji Ring’
(Tier)
‘The taste of Square Sausage versus the taste of sausages of other shape’ has perhaps never been considered for a ‘Panorama’ Special Investigation! However, under the watchful eye of Dr Arthur Mind MBS there has now been an investigative study to show that the shape of food can and does have a positive effect on its taste!
Consider the Triangle, for example, and its effect on the cheesiness of food! Former Cosmonaut Alexi Kraft discovered the wonders of this shape when he invented Kraft Cheese Slices in order to supply the first man in space Yuri Gagarin with a calcium filled snack that would strengthen his bones whilst orbiting the Earth in Vostok 1 on April 12 1961. After several attempts to sustain enough calcium for the space flight using oblong shaped cheese, the triangle was discovered by accident to be the perfect shape for maximum cheesiness, when one of the oblong shaped cheeses broke diagonally in half while Yuri was riding his bicycle down a hill in preparation for the G Force of the rocket launch!
Of course, in modern times it is quite apparent that a Babybel round cheese is nowhere near as tasty as a Kraft Cheese Triangle! However, the shape of food was soon to play a devastating part in Gagarin’s life. Tragedy struck Gagarin when in 1966 he inadvertently ate a Quality Street green triangle whilst filming an advert for Kraft! His ‘hero status’ in tatters, Gagarin was forced to flee to the West. He never recovered from his fall from grace, ending his days hidden in a bear costume-playing Bungle on Rainbow.
Like the dream reality of Yuri Gagarin, Kiss My Emoji Ring is heroic, strange, troubled, shaped with taste like a square sausage, weird! Doomed to global obscurity but reaching for the stars!
AND A COUPLE OF SINGLES
Tigercub ‘The Perfume of Decay’
(Loosegroove Records)
Gillian Stone ‘Ravens Song’
(Bandcamp)
Taken from the forthcoming EP Spirit Photographs, the new single from this Toronto-based experimental singer and musician is a sparse yet cinematic soundscape-folk song. It reminds of Nick Cave or P J Harvey in its moonlit darkness – can’t wait for the EP!
Reviews Jamboree
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
The cult leader of the infamous lo fi gods, The Bordellos, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea has released countless recordings over the decades with his family band of hapless unfortunates, and is the owner of a most self-deprecating sound-off style blog. His most recent releases include The Bordellos beautifully despondent pains-of-the-heart and mockery of clique “hipsters” ode to Liverpool, the diatribe ‘Boris Johnson Massacre’ and just in the last couple of months, both The King Of No-Fi album, and a collaborative derangement with the Texas miscreant Occult Character, Heart To Heart. He has also released, under the Idiot Blur Fanboy moniker, a stripped down classic album of resignation and Gallagher brothers’ polemics. And just this week, Metal Postcard Records have put out a collection live Bordellos material on Bandcamp.
Each week we send a mountain of new releases to the self-depreciating maverick to see what sticks. In his own idiosyncratic style and turn-of-phrase, pontificating aloud and reviewing with scrutiny an eclectic deluge of releases, here Brian’s latest batch of recommendations.
Singles/Videos/Tracks.
Volcano Victims ‘Canicular Years’
I like this for a number of reasons, the first being they are called the Volcano Victims, what a great name for a band, the second thing I like is that it is a lovely jangly affair full of melody and spring freshness: the kind of song I may hum to myself if the occasion merits it. And also, it has a guitar solo; one that I don’t just ignore and push to the back of my mind [I on the whole hate guitar solos], but one I actively enjoyed and brought a smile to my face. So well done Volcano Victims.
Tori Amos ‘Better Angels’
(Decca Records) Taken from the 4th December released Christmastide EP
Sometimes you need a bit of over the top melodrama from Tori Amos, so why not a bit of over the top Christmas melodrama from Tori Amos. Crashing piano, Brian May like guitar flourishes and Tori emoting about what a bad year 2020 has been, but at least we have made through to Christmas: well some of us have. But this is a lovely dramatic swoosh of a velvet stage curtain of a song; one to drink port while looking out onto the cold dark but still beautiful world in which we live haunted by the memories of the year past.
Jumbo ‘Fluorescence/Mouse’
27th November 2020
This is a fine two track DIY pop single from Jumbo. It reminds me of both the Flaming Lips and Polyphonic Spree in the way their music at times has a cracked wonder and life affirming joy that delights, thrills and wants one to get a gang of friends around and sit in a field playing guitars and drinking bottles of milk stout or other beverages of your choice, and being young and carefree. Once again pop pickers another example of the magic of music.
Mandrake Handshake ‘Gonkulator’
(Nice Swan Records) 20th November 2020
I really love this track, more Jefferson Airplane than The Brian Jones Town Massacre (which is quite unusual these days), this track being more old school psych than the have a guitar peddle will press it and be buggered with the writing a melody malarkey bunch. For this does not just have a melody but a wonderful flute floating throughout the lovely song.
Gillian Stone ‘Bridges’
20th November 2020
‘Bridges’ is a dark and beautiful song; a song of many textures all of them warm in a very cold and brittle kind of way; a song that deals with life memories and all of their unbecoming and becoming raptures, it is the kind of song that one should only share with their closest and to be trusted friend. But that is the beauty of music as all listeners are the artist’s friends and this song deserves many friends as it is a lovely fragile tattered love letter to hope and remembrance of the dark and light in one’s life past and present.
‘Covid Christmas Nightmare’
(Metal Postcard Records)
A dark spooky Christmas lullaby from a unknown unnamed act [even though I think I know who the culprit is], a tinkling keyboard and lyrics concerning facemasks and Covid related issues, poor Santa is hold up at home with Covid-19, but not to worry he has posted the presents to the children’s parents: Let’s hope he has used royal mail and not Hermes. A nice and bewitching track, one to download and add to your Christmas playlist.
Albums..
Sunstack Jones ‘Golden Repair’
(Mai 68 Records)
Sunstack Jones might well be a band from Liverpool but they’re a band steeped in the sun and melody of the West Coast of California circa 1968-1973. Gentle guitar jangle and fuzz merge with the harmonies of Crosby Stills and Nash, and at times bring to mind The Charlatans/Primal Scream/Stone Roses/The Verve in their more laid-back moments. This is maybe not the most original of albums but not all albums have to be original to be enjoyed, and any fans of the bands just mentioned will no doubt find Golden Repair an enjoyable listening experience.
The Salem Trials ‘Meet The Memory Police’
Oh my lord here we go again. Yes, it is time to review yet another album by the finest guitar band of 2020: The Salem Trials. Meet The Memory Police is the trials 6th album of the year and once again is as excellent and entertaining as their previous five; this one having a strange Rolling Stones vibe about some of the tracks but still retains the strange Salem Trials sound/feel that is totally unique to them.
They have a strange twisted aura of summers gone by, the sound of reliving the glory of last night’s party with cold pizza and leftover wine and awaking in the arms of the girl that used to be. There is a melancholy joy that runs throughout their music and indeed runs throughout this fine album. The Salem Trials are like a magical musical sponge soaking up many influences from the last 50 years of rock ‘n’ roll and when you give it a squeeze music with sleaze, dirt, danger and a dark madness drip ever so slowly, leaving a puddle on the floor for the wayward likeminded souls to splash and strip and writhe and shout and scream. If rock ‘n’ roll is dead this is the soundtrack to the wake: the sound of faded glamour and sordid memories. Once again the work of a truly special band.
See also…
Salem Trials ‘Fear For Whatever Comes Next’ (Here)
Salem Trials ‘Do Something Dangerous’ (Here)
Salem Trials ‘Pictures Of Skin’ (Here)
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