Monolith Cocktail Blog

Anniversary Albums And Deaths Marked Alongside An Eclectic Mix Of Cross-Generational Music, Newish Tunes And A Few Surprises. Dominic Valvona.

Just give me two hours of your precious time to expose you to some of the most magical, incredible, eclectic, and freakish music that’s somehow been missed, or not even picked up on the radar. For the Social is my uninterrupted radio show flow of carefully curated music; marking anniversary albums and, sadly, deaths, but also sharing my own favourite discoveries over the decades and a number of new(ish) tracks missed or left out of the blog’s Monthly playlists.

The grand dame of high and conceptual arts, Fluxus major, and formidable musician Yoko Ono recently celebrated her 90^th birthday. Incredible. And still in fine fettle after nine decades of groundbreaking work. A smattering of choice songs from the back catalogue waits.

As is customary each month, I also mark a number of choice anniversary celebrating albums. 50 in March, there’s tracks from the Faces Ooh La La, T-Rex’s Tanx, Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure, the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds Of Fire and Cymande’s Second Time Round. There are also a couple of hip-hop specials, with 30^th selections from Ice-T’s Home Invasion and Lords Of The Underground’s Here Come The Lords.  A mere fledgling in comparison, I also selected a tune from Crime And The City’s 2013 rebirth, American Twilight – in my opinion one of their best. 

As ever I also pay a small tribute to those we’ve lost on the way, with nods to both De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove/Plug 2 (nee David Jolicoeur), and the jazz doyen Wayne Shorter.

Spread out amongst that lot is newish music from Trupa Trupa, Lee Paradise, Florence Adooni, The Church, Elaine Howley, Misha Panfilov, Hinako Omori and Blue Lake. I’m currently in the middle of an escapist binge, soaking up episodes of Miami Vice, and so couldn’t resist adding a more obscure soundtrack from the series: Executive Slack’s ‘Our Lady’.

38 tracks in all; the alternative soundtrack to your week, or weekend. The alternative radio show, devoid of the chatter, the sycophantic and the bores.

___Track List___

Yoko Ono ‘Hirake’
Trupa Trupa ‘OPÓR’
Executive Slacks ‘Our Lady’
Lee Paradise ‘Timeless’
Wayne Shorter ‘Angola’
R.A.P. Ferreira ‘Fighting Back’
De La Soul ‘Plug Tunin’’
Florence Adooni ‘Yinne’
Wayne Shorter ‘Joy Ryder’
Faces ‘My Fault’
Yoko Ono ‘Approximately Infinite Universe’
Crime And The City Solution ‘My Love Takes Me There’
The Church ‘No Other You’
Lords Of The Underground ‘Flow On (New Symphony)’
De La Soul ‘Oodles Of O’s’
T-Rex ‘Mister Mister’
Roxy Music ‘Beauty Queen’
Yoko Ono & Automatique ‘Coffin Car’
Yoko Ono ‘Growing Pain’
Elaine Howley ‘Silent Talk’
Floating World Pictures ‘Til Dusk, At Devran’
Wayne Shorter ‘The Soothsayer’
De La Soul ‘Pass The Plugs’
Wayne Shorter ‘Montezuma’
Nacho Mendez ‘Levais Mi Amor’
Paul Fishman ‘Paradise’
Misha Panfilov ‘At The Helm’
Hinako Omori ‘Snow’
Wayne Shorter ‘Harry’s Last Stand’
Mahavishnu Orchestra ‘Celestial Terrestrial Commuters’
De La Soul ‘Tread Water’
Missus Beastly ‘Decision’
Horse Lords ‘Rundling’
Yoko Ono ‘Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over The City’
Cymande ‘Anthracite’
Blue Lake ‘Shoots’
Yoko Ono ‘It’s Time For Action!’
Ice-T ‘G Style’