The monthly Digest includes a clutch of accumulated short new music reviews and the social inter-generational/eclectic and anniversary albums celebrating playlist.
Kaloja ‘A Body Of Water’
(Artetetra) Released 19th April 2026
A new team-up on the kooky and experimental label of repute, Artetetra, with Paul Wilson aka F. Ampism collaborating with Jan Anderzén of Tomutonttu, Kemialliset Ystävät and Tarzana note to create an aquatic and liquid plopped and plonked world of molecule dances and the birthing of odd giddy, tweeting and high pitched lifeforms.
Wilson under his sonic disguise has form in this sphere having released the speaking, communicating, singing, gargling and mewling atoms and floated microscopic forms soundtrack The Vertical Luminous on Hive Minds last December. Now with a new foil, those explorations once more spring into action across a lush blossoming and air-bubbled immersion of a maverick biomorphic world populated by alien creatures, more familiar hints of nature and the shapeshifting.
A bubbly lava. A computerised floppy disc cut and shutter. An oriental dulcimer like glisten and slide of spindled microbiology. All this and the whistled high pitches and the uncurling of life on an adventurous roving and shifting sonic world of blips, the courtly, the dubby, the rhythmic, the lunar and most importantly, watery. A short review, but I’ve more or less summed up this blooming oasis of quirks and quarks, nature and the aquatic. Another recommendation if you are looking for something different in the electronic field of biospheric inventiveness.
Carol Maia & Jeremy Gustin ‘It’s Nice To See A Lake In Your Eyes’
(Hive Mind Records) Released 27th March 2026
Last heard on these pages adding her soothed vocal evocations to Wolfgang Pérez’s Só Ouço album last year (another quality release on the Hive Mind label), the Rio guitarist and singer-songwriter Carol Maia now brings that ethereal to woozily dreamy voice to the collaborative imaginings of the Brooklyn homed drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer Jeremy Gustin.
Created long distance, between each artist’s respected studio bases in North and South America and pulling in a number of equally visionary players from those two scenes, this partnership effortlessly merges ideas and inspirations to create a dreamy realism. For It’s Nice To See A Lake In Your Eyes transports the listener to peaceable if sometimes haunted descriptive realms that amorphously dip into the new wave, the vaporous, pop, the psychedelic, the Fairlight era of the 80s, the drifting and most importantly untethered. And amongst those perimeters there’s mirages aplenty, the hallucinatory and poetic: at least in part, the album is influenced by Maia’s readings of Marcelo Ariel’s poetry collection, A água veio do sol, disse o breu. It offers up something both magical and cosmically fatalistic; here’s a sample, included both in the PR notes and on the bandcamp page:
The light of being is like water
it also came from the Sun
where all the planets want to enter
Within the Sun
Being is immobile
like the gratuitousness of an ecstasy
similar to breathing
Outside the Sun
Being is mobile
Time eternal
and chronological time
If still unfamiliar with both the orchestraters of this blissed and equally saddened affair, Gustin’s notable contributions include tours and recordings with such luminaries as Joan As A Policewoman, David Byrne, Marc Ribot, Norah Jones and fellow Hive Mind artist Ricardo Dias Gomes (who incidentally offers up a certain saddened Franco-esque vocal on the mid 90s Radiohead-like ‘Vou Ficar’), whilst Maia has been building up a reputation for herself on the contemporary experimental Rio scene. It’s from this same scene that Maia has enlisted the notable players and artists Frederico Heliodoro, Paulo Emmery and already mentioned Dias Gomes. From Gustin’s neck of the woods you’ll hear both the contributions of Will Graefe and Ryan Dugre. Altogether it makes for a promising if subtle partnership of dreams and visions; one minute almost in the Chanteuse mode, the other, evoking Flora Purim and Tom Ze or lost in an 80s pop haze and more chaotic jazz: Strangely, ‘Lake Of Meaning’ reminded me in places of 70s balladry Beach Boys checking into a miraged version of 70s Brazil.
From hollowed tubular trips into nature, to soft synth soundtracks conjuring up various horizons and scenes of personal and heartfelt escapism, love and loss, the acoustic and synthesized merge to complete a poetically mesmerising and soulful work of art. Ramon Farran & Robert Graves Olive Treemeets Arto Lindsey in a supple, chimed, tubular and tinkled spellbound experiment. A fantastic album in short, worthy of your support and better still, money!
The Music Liberation Front Sweden ‘Lost Hope Society’
(Subexotic) 24th April 2026
Emerging this month from out of the Subexotic portal, a refreshing call for compassion; a shout out for all the “nice people” missing from the high anxiety era of individualism, community and social detachment. Content at their lot, with no fear of missing out on the next TikTok generated bullshit, or envious of their neighbour’s lifestyle, the Portsmouth artist Michael Evill cranks up the generators, oscillators and apparatus and plugs in various instruments under The Music Liberation Front Sweden guise to venture forth into an occult musical world of vaguely familiar evoked inspirations and influence from the 70s, 80s, 90s and the now.
The Lost Hope Society isn’t quite as resigned as it sounds, lingering amongst a soundtrack of library music, Kosmische, electrio-pop, the Gothic and sci-fi, and finding as it does composed passages of thought and resilience in the face of social media and technological-driven fear, discourse and selfishness. As vocalised throughout, both through female and male voices (sometimes the borrowed and collaged), there’s a constrained contempt and anger held against the forces of such division and upset whilst extending a near despondent hand to those that could make it all so much better.
In this sphere the quintessential queer, supernatural and esoteric sounds of Sapphire & Steel meet Mike Oldfield, Electrelane, Stereolab, Tomat, Belbury Poly and New Order. A cosmic toybox is opened up of the accelerated, motorised, dialled, crystalised, glassy and fizzing. Machines, synthetic operators and kit sit alongside guitar fx, interferences, spacy rays and the wilderness on an album that makes offers up both wishful thinking and daydreams of a more aspiring society of common decency and well, niceness.
Rave At Your Fictional Borders ‘Analogue Nomadism’
(Meakusma Records) Released 3rd April 2026
Despite the liberal ideals of a borderless world, the realities can be far messier and pressured, a strain even, when put into practice. But though politically a much more difficult promise to make, this multicultural paradise, it’s already been put into practice musically: for ages in fact.
Step forward in-demand drummer and bassist Dave De Rose and fellow trick noise maker and guitarist Marius Mathiszik of Rave At Your Fictional Borders, a troupe of sonic and musical nomads; a newly instigated and rearranged trio that now includes the drummer and vocalist Salim Akki. It’s a sort of new formation, brought together for the group’s debut album proper. In keeping with the concept, ideas of leadership and instigation are amorphous, with no one in charge and ideas freely shared between whoever happens to be in the room at the time of the recording.
For the debut album, Rose and Mathiszik in pursuit of that same nomadic freewheeling spirit of musical adventure, were invited by Akki to take up a short residency at Essouri Jamal‘s newly built L’Bridge recording studio in the famous Moroccan city of Kenitra (for geographical fans of the site, that’s 40km north of Rabat). Tapping into that rich city’s atmosphere, its amalgamation of Roman, Phoenician, Portuguese and Spanish colonialism and its eventual Moulay Ismail liberated 17th century architecture, history and culture, the trio embarked on a spontaneous experiment of porous and mystical rhythm making. As with previous broadcasts from the troupe, the signature of these rhythms is varied; once more like a drum kit engine slipping and spluttering in a ricochet, stilted, skipped and wobbled staccato fashion, taking time to find traction and a groove amongst the alien, mysterious sounds and beds of the fx, loops and manipulations.
Provenance-wise we are dealing with a shadowy mirage bleed of Moroccan mysticism, various African rituals and alchemy, post-rock, post-punk, dub and darkened progressive-jazz. A hybrid world in which Idris Ackamoor and Sly & Robbie share room with Battles, Jah Wobble, BLK JKS and Tortoise. Or one in which you can hear a transformed vision of a chinking and glass raising Afro-party following on after a subterranean hallucination of Gnawa music and Ifriqiya Electrique. Akki’s voice is just as amorphous and bound to fluctuate between references to his own Arabian culture as to hoot and shout expressively in a language all of his own making over the beats, the deep vaporising and throbbed basslines.
With an avian menagerie of titles as the only guide (from long billed and long-limbed wading birds to warblers, ducks and hummingbirds), reflecting the diverse range of references, or cultures in the blend, but also their migratory nature, the listener is transported to vaguely familiar and yet often exotic shadowy worlds. Curiosity and improvisation culminate in a very modern sounding fusion of mystique and global inspirations; a fourth world of possibilities.
Morita Vargas ‘III’
(Hidden Harmony) Released 17th April 2026
Aligned with Hidden Harmony from the very start, the Argentinian producer and singer Morita Vargas now unfurls a generous offering of recordings created between 2014 and 2025 for that same label. A concept of futurizing almost familiar Latin sounds, rhythms, the sound of a signature Spanish guitar and ancestry with Argentina’s minimalistic club scene, electronic “avant-pop” and a transformative vision of aria opera is extended further to cover multiple experiences, soundscapes, suites of contemplation in the stillness of a South American desert range and ideas of sensory hallucination.
Both on a vaporous near lost in the ether and cinematic scale, Vargas uses allurement and the beckoning in synchronicity with the haunting. Simultaneously as diaphanous and cloaked in the vaporous, subtle industrial and metallic electronic drum padded sounds of the alien, the listener must beware that these tracks are as esoteric as they are dreamily birthed in touching and melodic synthesized beauty.
Permeating with often the most succinct of lyrics, Vargas’s voice is transformed, filtered, modified, taken down pitches and doubled-up to sound like either an apparition or a cosmic aria. Though there’s also passage in which Vargas near raps in a feverish modern pop manner or like a both kooky and disturbing child. That voice, constantly in a flux between effects and performance, is married to shuttered and shunting beats, subtle concertinaed dub, the manufactured sound of steaming valves, an anvil being struck, electro tremolo guitar reverberations, the dance of a puppeteer, coldwave and various percussive elements that recall ancient and very much alive pre-Hispanic colonised South America.
Zola Jesus, Grimes, Celestial North are the names that came into my head when listening and reviewing this minimalistic work of vocal, sound and rhythmic work. But with the Latin influences, the call and immersion of the Argentine scene, it becomes something far more unique and distinct.
Van Pool ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’
Released 15th April 2026
Everybody who follows the Monolith Cocktail should by now be familiar with the expletory, freely untethered and often squeezed until the pips fall out saxophone playing and accompanying electronic manipulations of the prolific Andy Haas: an artist whose career began as a Muffin in Martha’s new wave outfit of the late 70s to his work with Meg Remy’s ever expanding U.S. Girls troupe and his myriad of solo and collaborative offerings born out of the New York scene. Appearing this month as part of just one of those many projects, the Van Pool troupe are back with another “unburdened” near freeform and untethered improvised album that stretches the boundaries of live music further.
Whilst the lineup seems reasonably fixed, joining Andy on the quartet’s latest album Special Purpose Vehicle (a reference or poke at the legal term created by a parent company or individual for a specific, restricted business purpose, such as holding property assets, project financing, or risk isolation) are the guitarists Omer Leibovitz and Kirk Schoenherr, and the drummer Layton Weedeman. As a fifth wheel, and so far, featured on at least the last two releases, is bassist Ari Folman-Cohen.
Together, they conjure up a kind of live-feel fusion of post-rock, rock-jazz, grooves, the playfulness, prog, freeform and almost psychedelic across five performances of varying moods, speeds, and feels. Not so much workouts, but the rhythms are there as the band strike up passages of climatic breaks, splashes and the funky. Haas varies his input from the melodic to the vibrato, and from the squeaking to the near mizmar-like, recalling everyone great and cool from Ivo Perelman to Evan Parker and Anthony Braxton. Both Leibovitz and Schoenherr combine elements of Zappa with Fred Firth and Bill Frisell, whilst Weedman sends out shimmered waves of cymbal, bounces seamlessly around the kit and provides the grooves in partnership with Folman-Cohen’s placed and flexing bass lines and noodles.
There’s a mix of action and the more hallucinatory: the sunny disposition of ‘Sunset Clause’ seesthem play around on the sunspots cast on the boardwalk; a dream imaginary release on ECM by tortoise perhaps. ‘Off Balance’ almost starts like a Floydian meets Pat Metheny mirage, whilst the opener ‘Limited Exposure’ has a real kick of late 60s West Coast rock meets jazz-fusion.
Both bent out and in shape, the band strike up a grooving and soulful exploration of ideas and spontaneous interactions. Van Pool will be well worth catching live in the flesh, which apparently is happening in June after a delayed set of circumstances prompted by Covid. Anyway, the album is available via their Bandcamp page, which I recommend you seek out.
___/The Monolith Cocktail Social Playlist Vol. 105___
The Social Playlist is an accumulation of music I love and want to share, with tracks from my various DJ sets and residencies over the years and both selected cuts from those artists and luminaries we’ve lost on the way and from those albums celebrating anniversaries each month.
In the latter camp we have the following anniversaries to mark:
Stax R&B super power duo Sam & Dave’s Hold On, I’m Comin’ LP is 60 this month.
Garage progenitors, the Nuggets kings of mid-sixties scuzz sike, The Seeds self-titled LP is also 60 this month and still sounding every bit as fucking powerful, freaked and fuzzed-up.
SPOTLIGHT: The Rolling Stones’ Aftermath is another 60th special this month, whilst Black And Blue is 50.
As a light-hearted chide at their rivals, The Rolling Stones, who’d just released Aftermath, when the Beatles were themselves stumped for an album title Ringo Starr chimed in with “After Geography”.
On a roll, literally, the Stones fourth studio album was a major artistic breakthrough. Wholly consisting of original material, the 14-song suite convinced the world of the band’s talent.
What’s not to like! Strutting punk number rock hits, Under My Thumb, sit side-by-side with the enchanting Elizabethan lamented, Lady Jane, whilst the epic rousing Out Of Time (covered brilliantly by Chris Farlowe) and ode to Nembutal-popping housewives, Mothers Little Helper, are two of the best songs the Stones ever put on wax. This is the Stones really breaking the mould and upping the ante as they strive to compete and go head-to-head with their Mersey rivals.
Rather than head back out onto the open road to promote It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, our effete troubadours continued to record whilst the going was good; much, as it turned out, to the exasperation of Mick Taylor who decided to call it a day.
The leading single from their back-to-back Musicland studios recorded album, Black And Blue – an LP remembered more for its initial S&M bruised and battered female model fronted campaign, than for the music -, ‘Fool To Cry’ has all the traits of a Philly soul balled, as reworked by Bowie on Young Americans.
Both this oozing sentimental number and the album had a gestation period before being released in 1976; tour commitments and the release of a compilation prolonged the wait.
During recording sessions, the band auditioned a wealth of guitar talent that included Harvey Mandel (Canned Heat for a while, and John Mayall) and Wayne Perkins (Alabama session man from the Muscle Shoals stable), as Taylor finally quit. Both made it onto various songs with Mandel playing on the final cut of Fool To Cry. Ronnie Wood, the former Faces lead guitarist and occasional stand-in for the Stones, eventually slipped into the permanent role; his baptism of fire being on the super group’s 1975 “Americas” tour (one that was fuelled “purely” by Merck’s pharmaceutical “grade A” cocaine, or so Richards claims).
Rumours run wild of course, but Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton were, at least, muted as possible replacements for Taylor, though a lack of collaborating evidence and scant details can only consider these choices as wishful thinking.
Easily the best track from the, largely berated LP (or as Lester Bangs surmised, “This is the first meaningless Stones album, and thank God!”), Fool To Cry is a more confident and mature record, which seemed ill at odds with their quasi-funky and lumbering black-rhythmic postulations and posing.
The Penguin Café Orchestra’s highly influential LP Music From…. is 50 this month.
And finally this month, Tokyo Police Club’s rambunctious millennial indie LP A Lesson In Crime is 20.
Obituaries wise this month, the multi-instrumentalist, Traffic co-founder, session man extraordinaire David Mason passed away in the last week. The CV is impressive to put it lightly: George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Wings, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell, and Cass Elliot. Read it and weep! He also fitted in a solo career, backed on his debut single’s B-side no less than by the visionary Family – Mason produced (yes, another string to the widest bow in music history) the much-forgotten band’s Music In A Doll’s House. Just the credits could fill this month’s post. But I’ve chosen a popular Traffic tune and one from his 1973 solo LP It’s Like You Never Left.
As the old trope and saying goes, you can’t libel the dead. I’m not willing to test that theory, but Afrika Bambaataa’s legacy is obviously and quite rightly now overshadowed by the numerous allegations of sexually molestation during his career as one of the leading or most famous icons and progenitors of Hip-Hop culture. Whether it was really one of hip-hop’s dirty secrets, numerous rappers and victims came forward a decade or more ago, and in recent times, with at least one case making it to the civil courts (a case Bambaata lost after failing to appear).
The former street gang tough turn Zulu Nation syndicated pioneer’s mark on the scene is undeniable; firstly, by convincing former gang members and adversaries to exchange aggression and territorial wars with the burgeoning loose culture of breakdancing, graffiti, rapping and DJing during the first golden age of the 70s; and secondly, by marrying the German precision of Kraftwerk futurism with that of Afro-futurism and New York’s emerging street trends to create Electro – although many on the West Coast would disagree, claiming they invented it years earlier. His presence and influence spread through a united message, leading to collaborations with as unlikely bedfellows as John Lydon and James Brown. Planet Rocking, his stamp on the generation X culture is undeniable; even with such dark heinous shadows cast.
Len Deighton died a while back, and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to mark his passing. In my estimates a far better writer than many of his spy, clandestine enterprise rich peers, and prolific with it. Read not only his Harry Palmer series but all his singular wartime riches too: Bomber, XPD, Goodbye, Micky Mouse and MAMista. Phenomenal loss to the world of publishing. But I leave you with John Barry‘s cerebral, spindled score to one of Deighton’s most influential and successful books and films, the Ipcress File.
The rest of this’s month’s playlist is handed over to an ever-eclectic, inter-generational number of tunes from the Flavour Crystals, Maitreya Kali and Craig Smith, Krumbsnatcha, If, Mike Hurst, The Frost, Pharoah Sanders, Eye Q, Bibi Ahmed and more….
That track list in full::::
The Seeds ‘Mr. Farmer’
Tokyo Police Club ‘Cut Cut Paste’
The Golden Palominos ‘Clean Plate’
Baby Cool ‘Everything’
Eye Q ‘Making Life Out Of Music’
Sam & Dave ‘Ease Me’
Krumsnatcha ‘Remarkable’
Afrika Bambaata & The Soulsonic Force ‘Renegades Of Funk (The Latin Rascals Remix)’
If ‘What Can A Friend Say’
The Rolling Stones ‘I Am Waiting’
Maitreya Kali & Craig Smith ‘Color Fantasy’
Traffic ‘Hole In My Shoe’
The Rolling Stones ‘Fool To Cry’
Penguin Café Orchestra ‘Zopf: From The Colonies’
Flavour Crystals ‘He Screamed as He Fell to the Soil’
Bibi Ahmed ‘Sef-Afrikia’
Steve Gunn ‘Shape of a Wave’
John Barry ‘The Ipcress File’
Pharoah Sanders ‘Little Rock Blues (Live Montreal ’84)’
Mike Hurst ‘Place In The Country’
The Beach Boys ‘Holy Man (with Carl Wilson Vocals)’
Floating Action ‘Diamond Store’
Dave Mason ‘Misty Morning Stranger’
The Frost ‘Black As Night’
Terreno Baldio ‘Despertar’
Peter Michael Hamel & Alexander String Quarter ‘String Quartet No. 3: II. Mu-ak’
Neon Kittens ‘Cocaine Lawyer’
Novelistme ‘Huh Huh Huh’
King Kashmere & BVA ‘I Smoke’
Time Zone (Bambaata and John Lydon) ‘World Destruction’
Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music and Choice Releases list from the last month.
We decided at the start of the year to change things a little with a reminder of not only our favourite tracks from the last month, but also a list of choice albums too. This list includes both those releases we managed to feature and review on the site and those we just didn’t get the time or room for – time restraints and the sheer volume of submissions each month mean there are always those releases that miss out on receiving a full review, and so we have added a number to both our playlist and list.
All entries in the Choice Releases list are displayed alphabetically.
Meanwhile, our Monthly Playlist continues as normal, with all the choice tracks from June taken either from reviews and pieces written by me – that’s Dominic Valvona – or Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea. Our resident Hip-Hop expert Matt Oliver has also put forward a smattering of crucial and highlighted tracks from the rap arena.
CHOICE RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH OR SO:
Armstrong ‘Handicrafts’
Review
Audio Obscura ‘As Long As Gravity Persists On Holding Me to This Earth’
Review
Francis Bebey ‘The African Seven Edits’
Jeff Bird ‘Ordo Virtutum: Jeff Bird Plays Hildegard von Bingen, Vol 2’
(Six Degrees Records) Review
Che`Noir ‘The Color Chocolate 2’
Dave Clarkson ‘Was Life Sweeter?’
(Cavendish House) Review
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A Boy’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review
Novelistme ‘Fabulous Nonsense’
Review
Nowaah The Flood ‘Mergers And Acquisitions’
Luiz Ser Eu ‘Sarja’
(Phantom Limb)
Various ‘TUROŇ/AHUIZOTL’
(Swine Records w/ Fayuca Retumba) Review
Voodoo Drummer ‘HELLaS SPELL’
Review
The Wants ‘Bastard’
(STTT) Review
Warda ‘We Malo’
(WEWANTSOUNDS) Review
THE PLAYLIST
Bedd ‘Messed up Your Head’
Dragged Up ‘Clachan Dubh’
John Johanna ‘Seven Hunters’
Vlimmer ‘Gleichbau’
Heavenly ‘Portland Town’
Novelistme ‘I Want You Here’
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A boy’
Juppe ‘Woozy’
Noura Mint Seymali ‘Guereh’
Francis Bebey ‘Agatha – Voilaaa Remix’
Anton de Bruin & Fanni Zahar ‘Running On Slippers’
Chairman Maf ‘Wild Turkey’
Lord Olo & TELEVANGEL ‘BEAT EM!”
Masta Killa Ft. Raekwon & Cappadonna ‘Eagle Claw’
Aesop Rock ‘Movie Night’
Oddisee ‘Natural Selection’
Nowaah The Flood ‘Protocol’
Ello Sun ‘River’
Luiz Ser Eu ‘O Sol Nas Suas Pestanas, Adora’
Elena Baklava ‘Kamber’
Jason van Wyk ‘Remnants’
Mary Sue & Clementi Sound Appreciation Club ‘Horse Acupuncture’
Evidence ‘Different Phases’
Vesna Pisarovic ft. Noël Akchoté, Tony Buck, Greg Cohen, Axel Dörner ‘Vrbas vodo, što se često mutiš?’
Itchy-O ‘Phenex’
Tom Caruana Ft. Dynas ‘Aisle 9’
C-Red & Agent M ‘Godspeed’
Scienze & NappyHIGH Ft. Benny The Butcher and Elaquent ‘Capt. Kirk’
Charles Edison ‘No Love Lost’
Parallel Thought & Defcee ‘Graduation Picture’
Fashawn & Marc Spano Ft. Blu ‘No Comply’
Che Noir ‘Blink Twice’
Saadi ‘Homo sapiens’
Charlie Hannah ‘St. Gregor the Good’
HighSchool ‘149’
Swansea Sound ‘Oasis v Blur’
The Wants ‘Data Tumor’
Tigray Tears ‘Wishing for Peaceful Times to Return’
Jeff Bird ‘Shining White Lillies’
The Good Ones ‘Agnes Dreams of Being an Artist’
Briana Marela ‘Value’
The Still Brothers & Vermin the Villain ‘Alright’
LMNO & D-Styles ‘Best to Lay Low’
The High & Mighty Ft. Breeze Brewin ‘Super Sound’
Slick Rick & Nas ‘Documents’
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 years both me and the MC team have featured and supported music, musicians and labels we love across genres from around the world: ones that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored, and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love or interest in. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to say thanks or show support, than you can now buy us a coffee or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
Nash Albert ‘Kingdom Of Love’
Album – 6th June 2025
Now then my dearies what do we have here…well, an album by Nash Albert, an artist I admit I’d never come across before, and his third album called “Kingdom Of Love”. It sounds to me like the kind of album that would have been released in the 1980’s by a major label pretending it was an indie. It has a mixture of 80’s rock bombast with a slight tinge of goth and folk and psychedelic goodness and AOR pop. And all in all an enjoyable listen for an album that could have been released anytime in the last 40 years.
Armstrong ‘Handicrafts’
Album – 1st June 2025
Armstrong (or Julian Pitt) as I have mentioned so many times in my past reviews of his work has a God given gift for melody that is rather quite a rare and marvellous thing, and one that really deserves to be heard by more people and hopefully these 43 songs that make up this double CD comp of his wonderful gift for melody will go some way to putting that right. For we have 43 slices of home recorded sunshine pop, from the Housemartins meets Joe Meek Pop Splendour of “Sunday Walking” to the seventies Bacharach and David late tv shine of “Cosmos World” fed through the mind of Brian Wilson circa “The Beach Boys Love You” sessions.
So many aural delights: “The Wonderful Sweetest Girl” is a fine 4 track wonder of lo-fi post punk jangle pop and “Yesterdays Over” is a rather sweet piano ballad worthy of the Zombies, or the mid to late sixties magic of the Hollies or the Smiths like “Let’s Be Decisive”. I could honestly just go on and on listing the tracks and writing about how beautiful and wonderful they all are, so instead of doing that I just advise you buy the CD, and you will not be disappointed.
Dragged up ‘Blakes Tape/ Clachan Dubh’
Single
Ah, more indie guitar rock to tempt me with. I admit, I get sent way too much indie guitar rock to listen to, but when it is as fun and as well done as this I really do not mind. What we have here are two tracks of sublime indie chuggery: is chuggery a word? And if so, have I spelt it right? Anyway, Dragged Up do it all very well and hopefully will find themselves on the BBC6 music playlists and maybe even one day finding themselves guesting on Jools Holland (if so, please kick him in the groin for me), as I find the distant whispers of the mainstream calling their name.
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A Boy’
EP – (Metal Postcard Records) 16th May 2025
Metal Postcard Records is becoming the record label to go to if you require some discordant post punk in your life. Not only do they offer us the Neon Kittens, The Salem Trials and the Legless Crabs but now their latest band of jagged angular post punk the wonderfully named Half Naked Shrunken Heads. This their debut ep is four tracks of Public Image Ltd /Bow Wow Wow extravaganza, experimental mixture of punk, dub and rather fetching kicking your heals downtown filthy art filled rock ‘n’ roll…. yes, another gem. One day Cherry Red Records are going to release a series of box sets of Metal Postcard releases and people will marvel how they never heard it first time around.
Heavenly ‘Portland Town’
Single – Digital Release 6th June 2025
The first new single from Heavenly in 20 years, and a fine single it is as well, all charming indie guitar strum and melody filled harmony bliss. A beautiful ode to Portland Town, a song that captures and enraptures and makes me want to pop on a plane with my guitar and busk away till my heart is content. A lovely summer single.
Majken ‘A Siren’
Single – (Sing A Song Fighter) 12th June 2025
“A Siren” is a rather beautiful atmospheric unusual ballad filled with rising sunsets and falling dew drop, a journey into the life and minds of a wistful muse. For Majken has a rare and sweet musical talent that emits warmth and tenderness.
Novelistme ‘Fabulous Nonsense’
Album – 10th June 2025
I like this album. Novelistme is obviously a talented songwriter and musician, and “Fabulous Nonsense” is a fine album made up of good songs and some fine melodies and some great guitar riffs; an album that will appeal to all lovers of indie rock legends GBV and Graham Coxan’s solo recordings. But there is a something that I have to mention, that I find the production and sound of the album just a little to clean and clinical for my tastes, and lacking a little warmth; the same problem I have with XTC, which is my problem and not Novelistme, and is the only thing that is stopping me loving the album, but really is a good listen.
Swansea Sound ‘Oasis V Blur’
Single – 6th June 2025
Oasis Or Blur, now that is a question that really needs to be answered even after all these years. Obviously, I am well known for my hatred of Oasis, so Blur is the obvious answer, and this lovely blast of indie is good fun with its Fall like riffage and radio friendly melody. If I was on jukebox Jury I would be holding up the Hit card…. I would probably be wrong, but it’s all good fun.
The Twirlies ‘Think That I Am In Love’
Single – (Café Superstar Recordings) 23rd May 2025
This single is a rather beautiful summery pop song. The word charming was indeed invented to describe this charming slice of indie pop. The Twirlies could well be a band worthy of further investigation; any band that can remind me of both the Zombies and Belle and Sebastian doing a summer shimmer is indeed a band worthy of further investigation. I Think That I Am In Love with this single.
The Wants ‘Bastard’
Album (STTT) 13th June 2025
There is something quite Go Betweens-ish about The Wants, but a more experimental Go Betweens, a more jagged angrier experimental colder sounding Go Betweens. I think it might be the Grant McLennan-like vocals. Although I could be completely wrong about this. If so, please ignore my opening sentence. It might be because my wife is listening to the Go Betweens in the other room and there might be a cross contamination of musical genius.
Anyway, I like this gang of post punk musical miscreants. They have a lovely 80’s psychedelic undercurrent to their sound that combines with the coldness of their post punk energy, and the whole album is an enjoyable emulsion into darkness and angular sadness. A fine album.
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Monthly Playlist Revue: September ’23: Flagboy Giz, Darius Jones, Vumbi Dekula, Rob Cave, Lalalar, Babel…
September 28, 2023
PLAYLIST SPECIAL/SELECTED BY DOMINIC VALVONA/MATT OLIVER/BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA
Each month the Monolith Cocktail distils an entire month’s worth of posts into a choice, eclectic and defining playlist. Due to the sheer volume of releases on our radar, we don’t always get the time or room to feature all of them. And so, the Monthly is also an opportunity to include those tracks we missed out.
Dominic Valvona, Matt ‘rap control’ Oliver, and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea put September’s selection together, which features New Orleans rap and bustle, émigré Russian post-punk, Fluxus imbued jazz and diaphanous vaporous ambience.
____/TRACK LIST\____
Flagboy Giz Ft. Spyboy T3 ‘Still Beat Cha’
Kurious, Cut Beetlez/Yahzeed The Divine ‘Mint Leaves’
Lucidvox ‘Don’t Look Away’
Flat Worms ‘Sigalert’
Public Speaking ‘Swollen Feet’
Guilty Simpson, Uncommon Nasa, Guillotine Crowns, Short Fuze ‘The Era That Doesn’t Know’
Donwill Ft. Rob Cave ‘Snob’
Apollo Brown, Planet Asia ‘Fly Anomalies’
Black Josh, Wino Willy, Lee Scott, Sonnyjim ‘E R M8’
Darius Jones ‘Zubot’
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra ‘The Space Dance Expirement’
Marike Van Dijk ‘Landed’
Trupa Trupa ‘Thrill’
Red Pants ‘Watch The Sky’
The Crystal Teardrop ‘By The River’
Connie Lovatt ‘Heart’
Mike Gale ‘Grumble Pie’
Yungchen Lhamo ‘Sound Healing’
Violet Nox ‘Ascent’
Vumbi Dekula ‘Afro Blues’
Anon (Parchman Prison) ‘I Give Myself Away, So You Can Use Me’
Blck.Beetl, Vermin The Villain ‘flowers.’
The Strangers, General Elektriks, Leeroy, Lateef The Truthspeaker ‘2222 (Go That Way)’
Dillion, Diamond D ‘Turn The Heat Up’
Napoleon Da Legend Ft. Crazy DJ Bazarro ‘Burning My Cosmos’
Ol’ Burger Beat, Gabe ‘Nandez Ft. Fly Anakin ‘Recuperating’
Smoke DZA, Flying Lotus Ft. Black Thought ‘Drug Trade’
Bisk, Spectacular Diagnostics ‘DIVE’
Declaime, Theory Hazit ‘Asylum Walk 2023’
Rob Cave, Thxk_u ‘Morning Prayers For Strange Days’
Dead Players, Jam Baxter, Dabbla, Ghosttown ‘Death By A Thousand Cocktail Sticks’
Marina Herlop ‘La Alhambra’
Aoife Nessa Francis ‘Fantasy’
Maija Sofia ‘Saint Aquinas’
Tori Freestone, Alcyona Mick, Natacha Atlas, Brigitte Beraha ‘Who We Are Now’
Charlie Kaplan ‘I Was Doing Alright’
Novelistme ‘I Need New Music’
Neon Kittens ‘I Was Clumsy’ Tony Jay ‘The Switch For The Light’
Graham Parker & The Goldtops ‘Sun Valley’
Lalalar ‘Göt’
Buildings And Food ‘Blank Slate Cycle’
Carlos Niño & Friends ‘Etheric Windsurfing, Flips And Twirls’
Richard Sears ‘Oceans’
Babel ‘Crush’
Louis Jucker ‘Seasonable’
Late Aster ‘Safety Second (Live)’
Rita Braga ‘Illegal Planet’
Paula Bujes, Alessandra Leão ‘Na Sombra Da Cajazeira’
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA DELIVERS THE VERDICTS ON A NEW HAUL OF RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH – all releases available now unless stated otherwise
THE SINGLES & EPS
Aoife Nessa Frances ‘Fantasy’
(Partisan)
‘Fantasy’ is a rather lovely thing indeed. A song of baroque darkness, this has a magical bewitching almost Beach Boys quality; a McCartney circa Ram quality I really like. Aoife Nessa Frances has a beautiful voice and is a fine songwriter, and ‘Fantasy’ is a fine song, which makes me want to hear more of the ladies quite wonderful music.
Neon Kittens ‘Sunburn On My Legs EP’
(Metal Postcard)
Just what this rain filled summer needs is a splash of post-punk sunshine from everybody’s favourite feline named act: the Neon Kittens. And of course the Neon Kittens do not disappoint. This three-track EP has all the sultry seedy glamour one expects from a Kittens release, all discordant guitars that have been wooed away from Bowie’s Scary Monsters album, offered the chance of a salacious dalliance with a younger and newer model, and will cast away all memories of the tat Bowie released in the eighties post Scary Monsters. Yes a three track EP that will not just put hairs on your chest but will also wax the parts that need waxing, leaving you all slinky and sexy for the sunbed that lies ahead.
Crystal Teardrop ‘By The River’
15th September 2023
The Crystal Teardrop‘s new single “By The River” is a bit of a psychedelic treat: all Bangles like harmonies and 1967 vibes. And could easily slip onto the Pandoras classic 1984 debut album Its About Time and no one would blink an eyelid. I love modern day psych when it is done well, and this is done very well indeed.
Juppe ‘Teardrops On Used Vinyl’
(Soliti)
There is something slinky and slightly sleazy about this song, which I enjoy. It’s pop music after all, and pop music should have at least one of the following S’s: slinkiness, sleaziness, sensuality and sprightliness. And this has two, maybe 3 of those. I can imagine being dressed like a Tiger and patrolling the house to this, which believe me can only be a good thing: like a young Elvis walking like a cat.
Charlie Kaplan ‘Gas Station Bathroom’
I have chosen to write about this track so obviously I like it, as I do not write about music that does not appeal, unless it is Oasis or post Syd Barrett Pink Floyd as they deserve all the public humiliation that can be heaped on them for their placid soggy lumpen pretence at rock ‘n’ roll. But this is not about them. This is about Charlie Kaplan and his rather lovely slice of Alt country; a slice from the same country pie Bob Dylan sang about on Nashville Skyline. But who cares, certainly not me. Anyway this is a rather fine single so give it a listen.
Novelistme ‘I Need New Music’
A song and subject matter that very much appeals to my good self, or bad self even – I am not as heavenly as I appear to be. Yes indeed, a rambunctious assault of melody that encapsulates all I love about indie/alternative guitar music: jerky, pointed, full of catchiness and charm. Novelistme are breath of fresh air in this current heatwave of smugness and ineptitude that currently resides in my email review pile. I indeed need new music like Novelistme. So please Jimmy can u fix for me to hear an album sometime [have I been cancelled yet?].
ALBUMS
Legless Crabs ‘American Russ’
(Metal Postcard)
What if Joan Jett was telling lies and she did not love Rock ‘n’ roll at all, and she was just playing at it to make her millions, and really she loved nothing better than to listen to the old sequence dance compilations – the Swing And Sway series say – or was really a closet Pat Boone fan and preferred his version of Long Tall Sally and not in a ironic way, and did not believe in the old adage that the devil had all the best tunes (which to be truthful is not true, as Cliff Richards Jesus single was one of the finest singles of the 1970s). If Joan Jett was indeed a fake I am sure The Legless Crabs could and would turn the leather panted one to the dark side. And I don’t mean the Dark Side Of The Moon as that is as rock ‘n’ roll as a defrosted box of Fish Fingers. I mean the dark side of rock ‘n’ roll, the side filled with feedback and Cramps like guitar riffs and both sexual frustration and sexual exploitation (in a seedy 70s porn like way). See, that is what I like about the Legless Crabs, they are rock ‘n’ roll in a seedy 70s porn like way.
Tony Jay ‘Perfect Worlds’
(Slumberlands) 15th September 2023
If you go to San Francisco be sure to wear dead flowers in your hair, for San Franciscan Tony Jay’s Perfect Worlds is a lovely dark album of lo-fi songs of loneliness and rejection and heartbreak; an album that will appeal to those who love the music of Sparklehorse or early Jesus And Marychain in their quieter moments. And will appeal to those among us who love to wile away the hours watching the sun set from your bedroom window, as people pass by unaware that music of great beauty is happening just above their heads; that concealed behind the walls there are people writing listening, getting it on, soundtracking the sadness and gladness in their lives. Perfect Worlds is the perfect album to soundtrack a not so just perfect life.
Graham Parker ‘Last Chance To Learn The Twist’
(Big Stir Records)
I wonder how many reviews Graham Parker has had over the years. I bet it must run into the thousands. I wonder if he collects them in a scrapbook? But how in these day of online blogs does one collect them together. He must have to print them off on his printer and then stick them in his scrapbook. That is the question that he should be asked in one of the thousands of interviews Graham Parker must still do. Just how much does he spend on printer ink and paper, as we know the price of printer ink is ridiculously high. Maybe he has it in part of the deal he does with the record label, that they must supply ink for his printer to print off the reviews. And just how big must Graham Parkers house be to hold all these volumes of review scrapbooks; unless he keeps them in storage. The mind boggles. And in all these reviews he has received over the years I wonder how many are good reviews. I expect a good 90 per cent will be good as Graham Parker is a fine songwriter, has always has been and no doubt always will be. And I think Last Chance To Learn The Twist is his 25th album. And after 25 albums we all know what you get with a Graham Parker album; a good mixture of soul, rock, pop, blues and well written and performed songs. And Last Chance To Learn The Twist is certainly no different, and fans of the man will not be disappointed. As an aside note, my old friend John who was a mod had a Parka and he used to call his coat Graham…always amused me.
Semiwestern ‘Semiwestern’
(Spirit Goth/ AudioSport) 13th September 2023
I like this album, even though I was slightly disappointed when discovering that the band did not live up to their name and was not a band with country influences. I was there all sat with my tasseled jacket and Flying Burrito Brothers suit trying my best to restage the album cover of the In The Gilded Palace Of Sin with my wife and two cats, and have you ever tried to dress a cat in Gilded Palace Sin suit, it is not easy believe me. But luckily my disappointment soon faded when the subtle My Bloody Valentine like grace of the opening track ‘I Never Mean What I Say’ started to drift from my laptop speakers. And the on further listen throughs, the following tracks took me on an alternative music journey; a journey that took in the sights and sounds of Granddaddy and The Cure and Ride and the sort of music you would hear from an American alt radio station in the early noughties. But sadly not a yee haw or round ‘em up partner, but one can not have everything.
rOZZ ‘United’
(Nub Music)
This is an enjoyable album. It has all the things I like about DIY music; it has a looseness, a poetic charm, a melancholy a fragility, and at times it sounds like it’s going to all come crashing down to floor in a paperweight frenzy of artistic endeavor.
rOZZ is an artist who I feel makes music because she has a burning need to. Not because it will make her look cool and be featured in a music blog. It has simply strummed guitars and an easy to play keyboards style, plus she has a quite lovely voice – like a Belgian Cerys Matthews -, and the songs have beautiful melodies. On the whole, this is a quite beautiful album.
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’
Monolith Cocktail Blog 