Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions
ALL ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
Dr Strangely Strange ‘Anti -Inflammatory’
Album (Think Like A Key) 12th March 2025
Anti-Inflammatory is the first new album from Dr Strangely Strange in decades, and it’s a bit of a beauty it must be said.
Ten songs of their own wonderful mixture of folk, Baroque pop and psych, and is at times extremely touching songs that deal with looking back on life and mortality but with a melancholy smile on its face. “Like Water Like Wind” is a simple and touching ballad worthy of Dylan, and the three instrumentals on the album are woven with a strange and magical inner calmness/serenity that one doesn’t have the pleasure to come across that often.
Dr Strangely Strange are now aged in their eighties and goes to show that both class and talent are two things that don’t wither with time.
Nick Frater ‘Oh Contraire!’
Album 28th February 2025
What we have here is a bit of a pop masterpiece. “Oh Contraire!” mixes baroque pop with sunshine pop and a healthy dose of late 70s power pop and early 80s New Wave, wrapped in a wonderful 70s radio friendly sheen. One could easily imagine any of these wonderful nuggets of pop emerging from your transistor radio on a hot summer’s day in 1976, or any year since.
Nick Frater is a quite wonderful songwriter and a melodian extreme. The twin guitar solo frenzy and fills and frills on “I Know you Know I Know” is worthy of Thin Lizzy at their finest, on a song that sounds like Bad Company covering the Knack (or vice versa) but is a gem of radio pop/rock glory. “Seraphim Called” brings to mind the wonderful Gilbert O Sullivan, Andrew Gold and Dean Friedman; “One Minute” is a fine old-style FM/AM pop rocker, and “All Roads Lead To Home” is a beautiful McCartney-like piano ballad. The whole album is an exercise in demonstrating the beauty and song crafting skill of Nick Frater, and an album that celebrates the magic of the pop song.
Honor Saint Williams ‘London Metal’
EP (Bour Records)
As everyone who reads this monthly outpouring of my ramblings about the new music that I get sent to pontificate poorly about knows, I have a soft spot for DIY lo-fi folk ramblings. And by rights I should really like this. In fact, I more than like it, I love it. I know I’m beginning to sound like Louie Walsh after spotting a banana in the lead singers of a boy bands pocket and kidding himself that he is just pleased to see him, but this is rather lovely. It has all the ingredients of what makes lo-fi alt folk so great and that is songwriting talent: “pissing on the fire in your eyes” is a fine line, and can be found on my favourite track on this fine EP. All four tracks are excellent lovely DIY lo-fi and makes this an EP that I wish was an LP, and one I had in my collection.
Takuro Okada ‘The Near End, The Dark Night, The Country Line’
Album (Temporal Drift) 7th March 2025
This is the first album by Takuro Okada outside his own country of Japan, and one wonders why when an album such as “The Near End, The Dark Night, The Country Line” is so beautiful and comes like a breath of fresh air when spending an hour or so sifting through the oh so similar and unexciting power pop, indie rock that is currently clocking up my email inbox.
Takuro had an amazing skill of crafting gentle beguiling jazzy songs/instrumental pieces with just that touch of invention. The subtle fuzz/distorted guitar on the wonderful shimmering “Shadow” is simply mesmerising. There is a beauty and experimental flair at work that one does not come across every day; jazz, field music and ambient works combine to make this collection such a deep and rewarding listen.
Andrew Rumsey ‘Collodion’
Album (Gard du Nord) 28th February 2025
“Collodion” is a rather beautiful album indeed. Nine short well written acoustic pastoral folk tinged songs. Yes pastoral folk by a paster, or Bishop in this case, for Andrew Rumsey is indeed the Bishop of Ramsbury: whatever next?! Anyway, it is a fine album of love, life, hope and regret.
The whole album lasts less than 20 minutes, and if you want to spend an hour or so relaxing just listen to it three times in a row. It’s not an album you can get bored of, as a well written song is a thing one can never grow tired of, and Collodion is full of them.
Schizo Fun Addict ‘An Introduction To…’
Album (Fruits der Mer Records)
There are bands that light up your life; bands that enforce the knowledge that music is the greatest of arts; bands that bewitch and beguile you with a God given majesty; bands that can turn your stomach into twisted knots of excitement and just as easily untwist them with a calming ease. Schizo Fun Addict are one of these bands. I should write groups, for I’m old enough to remember when people used to ask who is your favourite group, and you would reply, The Beatles or The Beach Boys or The Smiths or The Kinks. I mention this as Schizo Fun Addict are worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as all of those classic groups.
Just listen to the guitar chiming timbre of “Fate Chaser”, you are whisked away to the golden hills and valleys of the Canyon in LA in the days before Charles Manson cast his shadow of evil. Or the pop sussed magic of the Schizo’s version of “In The Long Run”, a song that proves nothing is impossible, for as perfect as the original version is by The Carrie Nations from the Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls film, Schizo Fun Addict somehow manage trump it and make the perfect pop song even more perfect. And to prove that this is no fluke they do the same with The Mamas And Papas classic “Dedicated To The One I Love”, a song they smother in a pure heavenly warmth.
This thirty-seven-track compilation, An Introduction To Schizo Fun Addict, is an album that is a must have for any serious music lover: whether you are already a fan of the band and lucky enough to have their mostly released on ltd vinyl back catalogue or never have been lucky enough to hear or own any of their releases. If you are the latter: well welcome to the sound of your new favourite band; in an ideal world a band that be played on a daily basis on the biggest radio stations around the globe and would make the world seem that bit more special a more magical place to be.
Russ Spence ‘Phase Myself’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) 27th January 2025
I really like this album; it reminds me of what Squeeze would sound like if Chris Difford sang all the songs and had been shot from a cannon to a planet where Bowie’s Scary Monsters album is performed on a daily basis by law to people who eat their cabbage with a plastic fork and wear ill-fitting satin flares with just enough tightness around the crotch. For the power of Russ Spence’s mind and thoughts is a strange and wonderous thing.
Russ is of course lead vocalist with the marvellous Salem Trials, and this album occasionally drifts into the Trials territory as Andy Goz from the band features on guitar on some tracks: “Yeah God” especially. This is the kind of album one can imagine developing into a bit of a cult album over the years; it has the aura of a cult album one that will not be played on radio or written about but will be stumbled over and raved about by those who hear it in the oncoming years – a little like Russ’ namesake Skip Spence and his mighty OAR album -; and will inspire more future artist’s to try and capture their own brand of madness and smother it with super market brand brown sauce.
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
Choice/Favourite Albums Of The Year: Part One: A to F: A Journey Of Giraffes to Nick Frater
December 11, 2023
SELECTED BY GRAHAM DOMAIN, BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA & DOMINIC VALVONA
Just when we thought it couldn’t get much worse: it did. 2023 has been yet another, if not even more depressing shit show on the world stage and closer to home. The stalemate defence of Ukraine, Hamas’ barbaric massacre and rape on the 7th October, and the Israeli retaliation; the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region; the cost of living crisis; threat of pandemics and all kinds of illness; bedbugs; A.I.; strikes; activism; fuel poverty; Iranian protests; and the continuing horror show of a zombie government dragging on, being just some examples. 2023 qualifies as one of the most incomprehensible years on record of any epoch; an ungovernable country in the grip of austerity point 2.0 (the architect of the last one now back to haunt us all again), 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.
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.
Whilst we are proud to throw every genre, nationality together in a serious of eclectic lists, this year due to various collaborators commitments, there will be a separate Hip-Hop roundup by Matt Oliver in the New Year. The lists, broken up this year into three parts (A to F, H to N, P to Z), includes those albums we’ve reviewed or featured on the site in some capacity, plus a smattering of 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.
A_
A Journey Of Giraffes ‘Empress Nouveau’ (Somewherecold Records)
Chosen & Reviewed By Dominic Valvona/ Link
‘Imbued by a suffusion of influences, most notably Harold Budd and Susumu Yokota (once more) but also Kazumichi Komatsu, Sakamoto & Sylvain, Andrew Heath and Eno, John Lane spins, weaves and spindles the essence of place and time; stirring up dulcimer-like tones of the Orient, a hand-ringing school (could also be a call to prayer, or assembly point prompt, perhaps the intermission signal at the opera or theatre) bell, or softly evoking a South American wilderness.
This is yet another essential album from one of the best artists working in this field of subtle, sometimes breathtaking and sublime, exploration – although this is experimenting without sounding like you’re experimenting, if that makes sense. It’s a joy to experience.’ DV
Dot Allison ‘Consciousology’ (Sonic Cathedral)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by Matteo Maioli/Link
‘Folks? backstory? Chamber-pop? I do not know. All this and also none of it. Simply: Dot Allison.’ MM
Anohni and the Johnsons ‘My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross’ (Rough Trade)
Chosen by Graham Domain
Anthéne & Simon McCorry ‘Florescence’ (Oscarson)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘A both hallowed and moving merger of seasonal changes, suffused with a certain gravitas and meaning, the pastoral is revalued and sent out on a voyage of reflection. Florescence is yet another minimalistic work of sublime quality from a collaboration perfectly in-synch with each other.’ DV
Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff ‘Magg Tekki’ (Sing A Song Fighter/Mississippi Records) Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘In action, they sound out a controlled raucous of rustling, shaking ancestral calls and conscious version of Afro-beat, Afro-jazz and Afro-soul; like Kuti sharing the stage with Laba Sosseh and Seckou Keita. As a counterbalance, a pause from the rolling and polyrhythmic drums, there are short interludes of time-outs in the community and under nature’s canopy of bird song: the sound of the breeze blowing through the trees overhead and all around, and of children playing in the background, as the kora speaks in communal contemplation.
At times they create a mysterious atmosphere of grasslands, and at other times, play a more serenaded song on the boulevards that lead down to the sea. On fire then, when in full swing, but able to weave a more intricate gentler sound too, the AGBDGY prove an exhilarating, dancing combo with much to share: the ancestral lineage leading back centuries, but lighting up the present.‘ DV
B__
Moonlight Benjamin ‘Wayo’
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘No one quite channels the “iwa” spirits and musical, drum-beating ceremony of Haitian vodou like one of its most exhilarating priestesses, Moonlight Benjamin. Returning with her atmospheric and grinded-scuzz swamp-blues foil Matthis Pascaud for a third manifestation of hungered electrified vodou-blues, Moonlight roughs up and adds a wider tumult of energy to her vocally incredible and dirt music imbued sound of deep southern roots, West African and Hispaniola influences: an all-round Francophone sound you could say, from Louisiana to Mali and, of course, her homeland of Haiti.
As wild as it is composed, Moonlight Benjamin takes the vodou spirits back home to Africa, before returning, via the bayou, to Haiti on another fraught electrified album of divine communication.’ DV
Blur ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ (Parlophone/Warner)
Chosen by Brian Bordello
‘An album of nostalgia, melancholy and heartbreak, and one of Blur’s best.’ BBS
Brian Bordello ‘Songs For Cilla To Sing’ (Think Like A Key)
Chosen by DV & GD/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘As ridiculous as it may seem on the surface, the lower than lo fi (making Sparklehorse sound like a flash git bombastic ELO in comparison), nee no fi King of the well-worn Tascam four-track and St. Helens idiosyncratic Les Miserable, was only one person away on the Venn diagram of Cilla Black’s orbit. His potential songbook of flange-y distorted (more through low grade recording techniques) and curmudgeon demos did make its way to the, then retired from singing, Liverpool songbird – in the three or four decades before her death more the star of TV presenting and hosting than performer.
If imagining Brian Epstein inviting Ian McCulloch to front The Tremolos, or The Red Crayola, Spaceman 3 and a budget Inspiral Carpets time-travelled back to 1962 sounds like one incredible proposition, then this songbook is for you.’ DV
The Bordellos ‘Star Crossed Radio’ (Metal Postcard)
Chosen by GD/Reviewed by GD/Link
‘The latest release by St Helens finest is a cabinet of curiosities containing some wonderful lo-fi gems and hitherto lost standards!
This album is one to treasure, an Aladdin’s cave of eclectic life affirming songs. The Bordellos are the fine web that holds the stars in place!’ GD
Jaimie Branch ‘Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))’ (International Anthem) Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘As an unwittingly last will and testament, the late experimental trumpeter Jaimie Branch’s final led album with her Fly Or Die ensemble is a beautiful collision of ideas and worldly fusions that pushes and pulls but never comes unstuck. In fact, despite the “world war” suffix backdrop this album of both hollered and more disarming protestation colourfully embraces the melodic, the groove and even the playful.
Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((word war)) is an accomplished album that channels the legacies of Chicago, New Orleans and New York to create an eclectic modern adventure in protest jazz.‘ DV
Julie Byrne ‘The Greater Wings’ (Ghostly International)
Chosen by GD
Bex Burch ‘There Is Only Love And Fear’ (International Anthem)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘In the moment extemporized expressions in multiple locations, both in Europe and North America, the feels on Bex Burch’s new album are led or prompted by a hand made xylophone. Any yet, there’s no particular pattern nor pathway to these captured performances; Burch joined as she is by a myriad of notable artists/musicians, all of whom only met for the first time before each improvised performance.
Each day is a different sound and a new canvas for Burch, who transcends her bearings and musical boundaries. There’s rhythm to these improvisations, a real groove that at times counterbalances the passages of avant-garde expression to create a non-linear journey of emotions, thoughtfulness and sense of yearned fears.’ DV
C___
Luzmila Carpio ‘Inti Watana: El Retorno Del Sol’ (Bongo Joe)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Full of wonderment and magic, the Bolivian performer and composer Luzmila Carpio returns with her first all-encompassing album in a decade. Imbued with an ancestral heritage and language that predates the Conquistadors colonial apocalypse, Carpio weaves and plays with her Aymara and Quechua roots, its creation stories, shamanistic ceremonies and humble custodianship of nature.
Carpio invites us into her dreams and meditations with a wonderful message of universal care and respect for that which nurtures and feeds us; an unbroken link to civilizations like the Incas, propelled into the 21st century.’ DV
Billy Childish & CTMF ‘Failure Not Success’ (Damaged Goods Records)
Chosen by BBS
‘Quite simply what Billy Childish does best: spit feathers at an unplucked rock ‘n roll chicken.’ BBS
Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers ‘Somanti’ (Bongo Joe)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Reuniting for a second explosive dynamic album of electrified Vodou and Mizik Rasin, the Haitian collective Chouk Bwa and the Belgian production duo The Angströmers once more propel ritual and ceremony into an otherworldly futuristic setting.
Music from another dimension, the Haitian roots music and performative religious invocations and words of wisdom from Chouk Bwa are sent through a vortex into the future on another successful union.’ DV
Julian Cope ‘Robin Hood’ (Head Heritage)
Chosen by BBS
‘An album of psych, folk and pop wizardry; one that matches up to the best of the man. Cope is on a run of brilliance that is equal to his run of greatness from the late 80s to early 90s. A national treasure, and one of the last living motherfuckers.’ BBS
Creep Show ‘Yawning Abyss’ (Bella Union)
Chosen by GD/Reviewed by GD/Link
‘Make no mistake, John Grant is a genius! As half of Creep Show he provides the moments of sheer joy! ‘Bungalow’ comes over like a song that could have been on any of his brilliant solo albums, post ‘Queen of Denmark’. It’s a fantastic vocal, the music dark, funny, sexy, – electronic music at its best and a good song to boot! Elsewhere we find him singing strange rhymes on the title track ‘Yamning Abyss’ – a song that grows on you with each play.’ GD
D____
Vumbi Dekula ‘Congo Guitar’ (Hive Mind/Sing A Song Fighter)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Removed from a full-on band setting of loud blazed, wailed horns, thundering drums and chanted vocals Kahanga “Vumbi” Dekula’s legendary guitar shines on a new solo album of his melodious virtuoso playing.
Hive Mind’s inaugural partnership with Winqvist’s own Sing-A-Song-Fighter label is both a joy and discovery; the Congolese star, more or less, singlehandedly capturing the listener’s attention with a captivating septet of natural, expressive performances.’ DV
Diepkloof United Voice ‘Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul’
(Ostinato Records) Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Incredibly moving and enriching for the soul, the united Diepkloof chorus has achieved the seminal with nothing more than their voices; releasing perhaps one of the year’s most essential records.’ DV
Dexter Dine ‘Flood’
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by Gillian Stone/Link
‘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.
Dine is a prolific artist, and his work is ethereal, striking, and drenched in both sunshine and melancholy.’ GS
Matt Donovan ‘Sleep Until The Storm Ends’
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘In the face of political, social discourse and ruin, lawlessness, loss and anxiety Donovan captures the evocative moments and scenes we all often take for granted; turning nighttime walks, the memories of loved ones into something musically and sonically lasting.
Barefoot Contessa daydreams sit well with clavichord buzz splintered boogies on yet another enriching and rewarding album that slowly unfurls its understated balm of warmth and also protestation gradually over repeated plays. On the fringes certainly, a true independent diy artist, Matt Donovan is far too good to stay under the radar. Do yourselves a favour, grab a copy on bandcamp now.’ DV
Dur-Dur Band Intl. ‘The Berlin Session’ (Outhere Records)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Marking the first session of new-recorded music since the halcyon days of their heydays in 80s Somali, the revivalist legacy incarnation of the Dur-Dur Band is back with a truly “international” sounding groove.
Simultaneously familiar whilst offering a fresh songbook (of a sort), the Dur-Dur Band Int. Berlin Session is as lilting as it is dynamic. Above all it’s always grooving to a unique fusion of worldly rhythms and beats, catapulting that Somali funk to new heights and hopefully making new fans with lively and cool performances. Nothing should keep you buying a copy.’ DV
Dutch Uncles ‘True Entertainment’ (Memphis Industries)
Chosen by GD
Dyr Faser ‘Karma Revenge’
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘It turns out that Dyr Faser are rather good at mixing the esoteric krautrock of the Amon Düül family (especially the Wagnerian acid-wash and otherworldly vocals of Renate Knaup-Krötenschwanz) with grunge, alt/post/space rock and doom; bridging morbid curiosities, spirals of melancholy with black sun fun, fun, fun! A great duo to discover. ” DV
E_____
Eamon The Destroyer ‘We’ll Be Piranhas’ (Bearsuit Records)
Chosen by BBS/Reviewed by BBS/Link
‘Performed with a wit and wisdom only matched by the beauty and musical genre hopping extravagance not seen since John Peel dropped his record collection down three flights of stairs… A madness of electronica, psychedelia, dance and pop; at times sounding like an inspired Momus after sharing magic mushroom soup with Cornelius and Ivor Cutler. Yes, there is magic in these tracks that one can lie back and completely lose themselves in…’ BBS
The Early Mornings ‘Ultra-Modern Rain’ EP (Practise Music/Rough Trade)
Chosen by GD/Reviewed by GD /Link
‘It is an exhilarating ride of moody bass lines, spikey guitar, distorted chords and garage drums with vocals by Annie Leader.’ GD
Ex-Norwegian ‘Sooo Extra’ (Think Like A Key)
Chosen by BBS/Reviewed by BBS/Link
‘Sooo Extra is the 14th album from Ex Norwegian and like all the other Ex Norwegian albums I have heard it is a rather excellent affair full of pop hooks and has a lovely undercurrent of darkness, a bittersweet taste of songwriting savvy you really do not come across everyday: sadly.’ BBS
F______
Fantastic Twins ‘Two Is Not A Number’ (House Of Slessor)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Competitive from the outset, birthed from a primordial cosmic womb, the Fantastic Twins in Julienne Dessagne’s otherworldly sci-fi fantasy go through hellish travails and separation before finding a final resolution. From the bawled birth of ‘I Was First’, the Berlin-based French producer, musician and vocalist explores the magic, duality and multiplicity of twins over an album of metallic, chrome and liquefied material sci-fi and otherworldliness: even the haunted and supernatural.
Albums from Carl Craig, Man Parrish, Fever Ray, Andy Stott and others, alongside the influence of Cosey Fanny Tutti, Chris Carter, Coil, Nina Simone and Pan Sonic can be added to the depth and range of this accumulative mood board and framework.
It proves a fertile concept and doorway to the investigations of the “psyche” and its relationship to all manner of inquisitive explorations. A most striking sophisticated debut from an artist with depth and curiosity.’ DV
Fat Francis ‘Oyster’
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Disillusioned despondency and a touch of the roguish are filtered through softened hues of idiosyncratic lo fi beauty, as Fat Frances’ hardened, worn-down posterior reveals a heart-wrenching drip-drip pouring of poetic insecurity, dealt and languorous resignation.
Yet despite the wretchedness of the world, the austerity and the lawlessness and directionless malaise of our times, there’s a melodious magic to be found in this rough diamond’s (excuse the cliché) Northern lament. It’s as if Frances has somehow brought an air of Bonnie & Clyde folklore, or an enervated and far less violent Badlands to a West Yorkshire pastoral landscape.
Oyster has quickly become one of my favourite albums of 2023 – the balmy washes and heartache wistfulness drift of ‘Billy’, a worthy earnest but sublime song, being just one highlight. It should if life was fair, bring attention and plaudits to this artist, but I won’t hold my breath.’ DV
Fhae ‘Sombre Thorax’ (4000 Records)
Chosen by GD/Reviewed by GD/Link
‘This is a wonderful album of ethereal, ambient, dream-folk-pop that ebbs and flows like the tides and inhabits its own world of subtle beauty. Sometimes, mists of the sea seem to creep into the music and the edges of reality become blurred, the music shape shifting into another dimension!
A fantastic debut album, I can’t wait to hear more!’ GD
Fir Cone Children ‘The Urge to Overtake Time’ (Blackjack Illuminist Records)
Chosen by GD/Reviewed by GD/Link
‘This is fantastic album from Berlin based band Fir Cone Children. It sounds like it was recorded in 1979 when New Wave (Post Punk) creativity took hold for a couple of years and no two bands were the same!
Time Needs an Upgrade’ sounds like the Cure mixed with the Pop Group. ‘Snowblack’ sounds like Wire led by Jeff Lynne! ‘The Inability to Raise the Left Corner of my Mouth’ sounds like the Buzzcocks if they had been from San Francisco circa 1968. ‘It Feels Complete’ sounds like the Cramps if they had been Buddhist Monks! ‘Spider School’ sounds like the Scars mixed with the Undertones and Interpol. ‘One Hundred Years’ sounds like the Sound mixed with Wire and MBV! But moreover, although there are always comparisons to be made, Fir Cone Children have an individual spark; the music is much more than the sum of its influences! Perhaps, the best German band since Faust!’ GD
Flagboy Giz ‘Disgrace To The Culture’ (Injun Money Records)
Chosen by DV
‘Exciting bounce-hip-hop-modern-R&B cross-pollinations from the colorful, parading Mardi Gras tail-feather shaking chief, who once more leads with attitude and verve another street theatrics company of like-minded artists on a strut through New Orleans. The second album from motivator, performer, producer and MC, Flagboy Giz – he of the world famous Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians -, and his crew of contributors, is a rambunctious hyper merger of The Meters, Neville Brothers, Lee Dorsey, Dr. John. Master P, Lil Wayne and DJ Jubilee. What’s not to like.’ DV
Flat Worms ‘Witness Marks’ (Drag City)
Chosen by DV
‘I’d like to believe the reemergence of the L.A. garage-punk-rockers is down to my glowing review of the their Live In L.A. album from 2022 (which made our choice albums of that year). But whatever the reasons, their return (back once again in the Ty Segall fold) is very much welcome; especially as they’ve lost none of that vociferous wired attitude and spirit. Witness Marks is an assured, mature and heavy vortex of growling and fierce, but slacker too, Gang Of Four, Salem Trials, Modern Lovers, The Fall and The Southern Death Cult sounds. And if that doesn’t grab you, nothing else will.’ DV
Flexagon ‘The Towers I: Inaccessible’ (Disco Gecko)
Chosen by DV/Reviewed by DV/Link
‘Through a near domination of the high seas, a skill in winning wars, a Norman lineage and generally to annoy the French, the Channel Islands have been a British dependency for centuries. During that time a whole lot of history has passed under the bridge; the last 200 years of which are channeled by the Guernsey native, artist and environmental, site-specific composer Flexagon.
A work of site-specific atmospheric stirrings and timelessness, The Towers I: Inaccessible album translates the off-limits sites of Guernsey into a multi-layered sonic map for inquiring minds. An Island life, history and shared trauma is transduced across a mix of styles and delivery methods as both repurposed and more derelict out of bounds architecture is allowed to breath and to tell stories of the history that’s passed through its doors. Even with the all too awful reminders of Guernsey’s occupation (finally liberated in the May of 1945 after nearly five years of German authoritarian rule; at least a thousand of its people deported to camps in Southern Germany) these towers transmit plenty of arresting Meta and fertile research, which Flexagon and his foils have turned into a lush, dreamy and mysterious veiled journey.’ DV
Nick Frater ‘Bivouac’
Chosen by BBS/Reviewed by BBS/Link
‘The art of the concept album is alive and well and living in the confines of Nick Frater’s new album Bivouac; an album about escaping post industrial Britain and seeking solitude in a woodland sanctuary.
All the tracks run into each other giving you the blanket of warmth and melody, which really is not a bad thing and with the coming Winter months can indeed be an essential requirement as it may be the only warmth we get this year. It’s sunshine pop after all. It brings to mind the magic of Jellyfish and Squeeze at their best. The 70s am pop of Andrew Gold, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren all collide and cause an explosion of one of the most heart warming and joyful albums of the year.’ BBS
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.
THE INIMITABLE BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA DELIVERS HIS VERDICT ON A NEW HAUL OF RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH (all of which are available now, unless stated otherwise)
___/SINGLES/EPS\___
Humm ‘Danced Alone (Who I Am When I’m In love)’
This month’s cover stars
‘Danced Alone [who I Am When I Am In Love]’ is a lovely jaunt of melancholy wonder, a respite of fulfilment; the kind of charming acoustic pop that Eddi Reader used to occasionally bother the bottom end of the Top 40 with when people cared about such things. I think Humm could be ones to watch, and expect them to pop up on the radio 2 playlists soon: that is, if there is any justice in this musical world.
Bloom de Wilde ‘Clown’s Ride On A Kangaroo’
(Cherry Red)
There is something quite joyous and magical about ‘Clown’s Ride On A Kangaroo’. It’s perfect radio pop with a bewitching quality that seeps into your soul, takes hold of your heart and spins it around leaving you a giddy mess of stirred up emotions. It’s a hopeful future memory of found love, that old 60s or 70s pop song appearing on your transistor radio as you dance by yourself, imagining in your arms was the partner of your dreams. Pure pop perfection.
Tom Satch Kerans ‘Those Lies’
If catchy Stones-like rock ‘n’ roll is your thing, and if it is not your thing, what on earth are you doing reading the Monolith Cocktail! For what we have here is a catchy slice of early 80s like Rolling Stones or a Tom Petty with a Bee in his Bonnet – in fact have you ever heard of anyone who has ever had a Bee in his Bonnet? I have squashed a wasp in my ear, but that is a whole completely different story. But I cannot imagine having a bee in your bonnet being a very pleasant experience, unlike this song, which is a very pleasant experience and one more people should share in.
Dragged Up ‘Hex Domestic’
(Cruel Nature Records)
With a shiver and a shudder, the rumbles and vibrations of a bass, and the warmness of an escape from everyday life, you enter the indie world of the cassette label. You enter into the world of Cruel Nature Records, a world that exists not just in films directed by Jason Reitman but also in real life; in real life UK, a place that is in need of a shot of indie alternative art more and more everyday. And it’s labels like Cruel Nature Records that is somehow making my life tolerable and giving me hope. For they release ltd edition cassettes as splendid and life affirming as this little 4 track beauty by Dragged Up; 4 tracks of pure Velvets, Teenage Fanclub and Vaselines like gems of warmth and cold walks on rain soaked pavements attempting to window shop in boarded up shop windows in the decaying memories of what the High Street used to be: 4 tracks of pure beauty, melancholy and hope.
Dog Door ‘Cover Up Contest’
‘Cover Up Contest’ by Dog Door submerges into your yesterdays with a trip down to the days when Sparklehorse was an essential part of ones record collection; when Mercury Rev used to soundtrack your evening with your not quite married friends, and sipping to much alcohol was a daily occurrence. This is a track that almost catches the magic of those carefree days, and is a quite lovely thing indeed.
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Nick Frater ‘Bivouac’
17th November 2023
The art of the concept album is alive and well and living in the confines of Nick Frater’s new album Bivouac; an album about escaping post industrial Britain and seeking solitude in a woodland sanctuary.
All the tracks run into each other giving you the blanket of warmth and melody, which really is not a bad thing and with the coming Winter months can indeed be an essential requirement as it may be the only warmth we get this year. It’s sunshine pop after all. It brings to mind the magic of Jellyfish and Squeeze at their best. The 70s am pop of Andrew Gold, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren all collide and cause an explosion of one of the most heart warming and joyful albums of the year.
The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls ‘The Ship, The Compass And The New World’
At last, the debut album from The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls. And it’s just what the world needs; honestly it does. In this time of war and death we need the sound of an instrumental like Joe Meek magic/madness brought to us by three tiny plastic dolls. We need adventure guitar twang; the whirring and whirling of sci-fi sounds; the feeling you are witnessing the second coming of the black and white TV age: the age when cobble streets and Minnie Caldwell were everybody’s sweetheart.
The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls sound like they could have stepped straight out of the wonderful explosion of 60s teenage high musical melodrama that was “Live It Up” – the Smart Alecs would have killed to have tracks like these, or at least swapped their motorbikes for. A wonderful album, the perfect soundtrack for sitting in a coffee house: the coffee house being the 2 i’s not Costa.
The Conspiracy ‘The New Zeitgeist’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Eccentricity is not a common thing in music these days. It is on the whole frowned upon, with record labels and radio stations tending to play safe and stick with the same old or the same new soulless pop or indie by-numbers strum alongs. Music with intelligence and verve and wit are pushed to the backwaters; the likes of the great Julian Cope and Luke Haines becoming nothing more than an influential cult. And that dear readers can be the only explanation why The Conspiracy are not better known, and currently reside in the ‘never heard of them, they cannot be any good brigade’, where in fact I have heard of them and they are very good indeed. As I’ve written in previous reviews of their music, they are very bloody British; they wear their love of The Kinks and the aforementioned Julian Cope on their sleeves.
Intelligent witty lyrics and riffs that at times sound like an upmarket Billy Childish – the days of him not slumming it at Aldi but buying his riffs from Selfridges. See The Conspiracy are intelligent contrary buggers who do not dumb down their art, and in these days of Neanderthals wanting Oasis to reform that can only be applauded, and they should be given medals for trying to keep intelligent artful pop alive and well.
Neon Kittens ‘Nine Doesn’t Work For An Outside Line’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Post-punk beatnik shenanigans are afoot with this the new release from Neon Kittens. Their second album [I think] carries on where their last left off, with spoken female vocals purring erotically like an attractive nun filing her nails, smiling, knowing her crotchless knickers are only slightly hidden by her too short mini habit wondering just where to place her oversized cross next, over the scratch and sniff guitar yearnings that are part Fire Engines, part Scary Monster & Super Creeps, part rock ‘n’ roll, and part sexual abandonment. Yes, this is the true sound of total derailment. This is the sound of a 15 year old girl French kissing her jazz induced slightly older best friend with benefits; an album of pure off-center genius.
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