BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Hello Cosmos ‘Black Gloss’
Single (Cosmic Glue) Out Now
Black Gloss is a Fall-like frenzy of Glam stomp post punk attitude; a song that one can imagine getting many plays on Dandelion Radio and receiving platitudes from various music blogs. Even this one.
John Howard ‘Can you Hear Me Ok?’ (Prof Stoned Remaster)
Album (Think Like A Key Music) Released 30th January 2026
Can You Hear Me Ok? was supposed to be the follow up to John Howard’s Kid In A Big World on CBS records in 1975 but for some strange reason was never released, which I will put down to major label foolhardiness, which is a common thing and has never changed and has helped the music business turn into the shambles it is today. But I digress.
Anyone who is familiar with the music of John Howard may already have heard or even own a copy of this fine album as it was released a number of years ago on CD. But it’s well worth giving this, the remastered version by Prof Stoned, a listen or indeed a purchase as it brings all the eloquence and style and downright talent and charm of the lovely John into a marvellous technicolour splendour: like in the Wizard Of Oz where Dorothy is transported from the grey black and white Kansas to the magical multi-coloured land of Oz, which means maybe we should start calling The good Prof Stoned Wizard Stoned.
Anyone who has not had the divine pleasure of hearing John’s music before should maybe give up an hour or so of their life and lose themselves in the pure 70’s pop piano balladry as I feel there is always room in one’s life for a well-crafted pop gem and this album is full of the darlings.
The Legal Matters ‘Lost At Sea’
Album (Big Stir Records) 27th February 2026
Ah, lets Bad Finger boogie shall we. Let’s cut some rug and roll turf and make shapes like it’s a pop frenzy of nobodies understanding. Oh, dearie me, this album is fun. It is seventies guitar pop covered in a Beatlesque stature of a stolen Cheshire cat’s smile.
Lost In Sea is a fine pop album, so good it could have been Jellyfish’s third or a time travel delight of being emitted from your transiter radio stuck on BBC radio one in their golden decade of the seventies when all their DJs where nonces but had great taste in music. Yes, you could picture this playing in the background whist Dave Lee Travis slapped his sectaries backside whilst dressed as Aladdin on his way to star in a Pantomime wondering which lucky young lady he will be able to pull out of the audience to rub his magic lamp.
Lost At Sea is an album made to be played on the radio, and an album to be added to your collection and filed alongside your Bad Finger and Cheap Trick CD’s unless of course you file alphabetically, and it won’t be anywhere near those.
Neon Crabs ‘This Puppy Can See The Frog’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 27th February 2026
This Puppy Can See The Frog is an album that is only available on ltd cassette from Cruel Nature Records, and by the time you read this review it could be sold out. I have already bought my copy, so “na na na na na” to you. So, I am one of the lucky owners of this artefact of art punk joy and it makes me think I wonder who else will have this ltd treasure in the collections and if so, will they appreciate the special madness they hold under their roof. Will they marvel at the Stooges riffs, the whooshing cold metallic synths and post punk attitude that party together on this fine debut album; an album that has a certain drop dead cool and dark humour – imagine if you will that Mark E Smith was American and a cartoon super hero scientist that wore a psychedelic lab coat and read the Washington Post with eyebrows arched and wandered through the day with a steady stream of The Banshees and Wire and Killing Joke and the Stooges being fed into his brain by a microchip implanted to give him his superpower of aiming his lyrical pop shots with the accuracy of a paid assassin. That is what this little spool of cassette boxed frenzy is to me. And to you if you have bought one.
Occult Character ‘Silver Fork Stories’
EP (Half Edge Records) Released 30th January 2026
Occult Character, yes, I know I reviewed a single from this eccentric Texan Gentleman last month but that was released on Metal Postcard Records and this 5 track EP is released on Half Edge Records. It is another fine release so deserves a little acclaim thrown once again his way, and acclaim thrown in the direction of Half Edge records who are savvy and brave enough to release this eccentric darkly comic experimental montage of musings from the modern-day Woody Guthrie. And as the world gets stranger and darker by the day, thank God for artists like OC soundtracking these difficult and horrific times.
Salem Trials ‘Tell’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) Released 27th January 2026
The Salem Trials are back with another 5 track EP of post-punk genius. The wonderful madness of this duo is for all to see or hear. They have a wonderful live cool that would have Tubeway Army reaching for fake fur coats. They hold a complete fascination with me, like watching Giant Haystacks eating a vat of soup with a dessert spoon. They walk the tricky tight rope of experimental and commercial post-punk perfectly. “Spit & Soldier” is quite marvellous, sounding like John Cooper Clarke fronting the Fall – and why did that not ever happen?! “Tell” is just simply marvellous.
Rusty Santos ‘Psycho Horses’
Album (Self-Released) 19th February 2026
Rusty Santos is a great name. A name that will stick in your mind in fact – I receive so many albums sent to review that a name like Rusty Santos leapt out and I thought is this an album of old country music that my dad used to play in my youth. Well, it is not but it is a rather lovely album of American alt folk with a sci-fi undercurrent of whooshing synths and throbbing bass – imagine Elliot Smith guest starring in an episode of Space 1999 or a lo-fi David Bowie just pre his Hunky Dory days. Yes, it is that good, and Rusty Santos is defiantly a name to review for so many reasons.
Vlimmer ‘Aufbeiber/ Young Folks’
Single (Blackjack Illuminist Records) Released 6th February 2026
Yes Vlimmer,everybody’s favourite dark wave messiah from Germany is back with two more sad (in a good way) tracks of dark beauty and mistrust. Like a harmonic Valentines card from a slightly spooky uncle who resolves to put the world right by manoeuvring his angular thoughts onto his delipidated garden shed walls where he keeps treasure troves from his ex-wife who left him: for his idea of a good time was not to everyone’s taste. Two tracks that could bring a tear to a stuffed ferret.
White Fence ‘Your Eyes’
Single (Drag City) Available Now
I like this single. It has a laid-back lackadaisical charm which is very becoming, and I also like that for the first twenty seconds or so it is going to be a cover of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’: which is no bad thing. I also remember my band The Bordellos getting compared to White Fence in a review years ago, and I never got around to giving them a listen and now I have, and they are very good so will have to investigate further.
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Fran Ashcroft ‘Truth Love And Justice’
Single – 28th January 2026
This is a fine single, a song of wistful tinged country jazz; an arch eyebrowed swipe at Trump and his ICE goons; a song of revolt and revulsion; a resigned whisper of acid dropped venom moanfully performed as the sun goes down on a once great nation as the ghost of Roy Rogers quietly weeps.
Comet Gain City Fallen Leaves’
20th Anniversary Reissue Album – (Tapete Records) 13th February 2026
I love this album. It’s probably one of my most played albums over the last twenty years or so. It’s an album of wonderful lyricism, beautiful melodies and a heartfelt angst, and as any who knows the music of my band The Bordellos, I do love mentions of pop culture in the lyrics.
Comet Gain are one of those special bands (I call the Go Betweens Syndrome) that really deserve to be heard by a wider audience, and you never know maybe a well-deserved reissue of this magical bewitching collection of beautiful beat poetry will help do the trick. I also may add that Draw A Smile On An Egg and The Ballad Of A Mixtape never fail to give me goosebumps no matter how many times I hear them.
Knight’s Ferry ‘The Autumn Leaves On 14th Street’
Single – (Teeth) Out Now
Knight’s Ferry supply us with a cultured jingle-jangle of a guitar indie pop sweetie that was so all-encompassing of my late teen years. Yes, C86, a longtime ago I know but guitar jingle-jangle never grows old, it just grows melancholic with age and teases the memories of how good and bad those days where. Yes, life is indeed like a 7-inch single with a hand drawn label.
Minor Dents ‘Sitting With The Fish’
EP – (Rose Hill Records) Released 23rd January 2026
Minor Dents’ Sitting With The Fish EP is an example on how to make interesting and bewitching music. Jazz, psych and krautrock combine to make an EP of delightful curveballs songs – you do not know what is going to happen next -; songs that have a smooth undercurrent of sex and sophistication.
Minor Dents are obviously a band that does not think invention is a dirty word, and think that music lovers are all brain dead lager drinking Fred Flintstones wannabes who love nothing better than listening to the paint by numbers so called Alt Rock /indie guitar tedium that currently inhabits my inbox.
Occult Character ‘Her Name Is Terrible’
Single – (Metal Postcard Records) Out Now
With the current shitshow in America, Occult Character is by far one of the most important artists in the US Underground today. Her Name Is Terrible is an inventive, short, mad as bonkers single as one could ever wish for.
All you can say about Occult Character is he sounds like no-one else but himself. I am sure it is only a matter of time before one of the big hitters in the music business will discover the genius of the man and get his music out into a wider audience.
Reine des Lezards ‘Lady Coca-Cola’
EP – (Metal Postcard Records) Out Now
The subsonic discordant blast of a no-wave fantasy, the Lady Coca Cola EP is a demonstration on the value of the underground. Let’s be honest, you are very unlikely to hear this on primetime national radio and that is a bad thing as experimental fervour is a fervour that needs experiencing at least once in your life. So, I am afraid to say that this three-track ep will go unheard by your friendly neighbourhood milkman unless he is down with the angular tomfoolery of Dandelion radio. And so his whistle will not be heard whistling this gem of angsty experimental punk rock blowing on the breeze on a cold winter’s morning, which is a sad thing indeed.
Kevin Robertson ‘Birdy In The Window’
Single – Released 16th January 2026
I am both a fan of Kevin Robertson and Scott Robertson, who have both released some fine guitar music over the last few years, both solo and in their mutual various bands. They are Father and Son, and once again I do like bands/duos that feature the father/mother and their offspring because there to me always seems a melancholy and madness and obvious communication that carries over into their art.
Birdy In The Window is a fine introduction to their forthcoming album, a song that has one thinking of Teenage Fanclub, Buffalo Springfield, Mathew Sweet, and is rather lovely indeed.
Schizo Fun Addict ‘Pasteline Dream’
Single – (Fruits de Mer) Out Now
‘Pasteline Dream’ is both a taster for the new Schizo Fun Addict album and a limited-edition lathe-cut 7-inch single release on Fruits De Mer in March. And what a fine single it is too. All shimmering and jangling guitars ala early Stone Roses and those Scottish indie darlings The Pastels, with a wonderful slight whiff of the B52’s girls’ dreamlike magic. ‘Pasteline Dream’ is a wonderful way to start a New Year as it is the first new song I heard in 2026 and hopefully the musical magic will continue all throughout the oncoming year.
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End of the Year Revue For 2025: Part Two: N to Z
December 15, 2025
Choice Highlights From The Last Year Part Two
In case you missed Part One of this illustrious list, here’s a recap.
I said I wasn’t going to do it this year. And this may be the last. But here is the second part of a comprehensive revue listing of choice albums (some extended EPs too) from 2025 that we returned to the most, enjoyed or rated highly. See it as a sort of random highlights package if you will.
As usual a most diverse mix of releases, listed alphabetically – numerical orderings make no sense to me unless it is down to a vote, otherwise what qualifies the placing of an album? What makes the 25th place album better than the 26th and so on…
Whilst there is the odd smattering of Hip-Hop releases here and there, our resident selector and expert Matt Oliver has compiled a special 25 for 25 revue of his own, which will go out next week.
Part One: A to M can be perused here
N……………
Neon Crabs ‘Make Things Better’ (Half Edge Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Noir & Superior, Che ‘Seeds In Babylon’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Novelle & Rob Mazurek, Alberto ‘Sun Eaters’ (Hive Mind Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Nowaah The Flood ‘Mergers And Acquisitions’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
O……………
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Picked by Dominic Valvona
P…………….
Philips Arts Foundation, Lucy ‘I’m Not A Fucking Metronome’
Reviewed by Brian Bordello Shea here
Phill Most Chill & Djar One ‘Deal With It’ (Beats House Records)
Picniclunch ‘snaxbandwitches’
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Pound Land ‘Can’t Stop’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Q……………..
Querci, Cosimo ‘Rimane’ (Quindi Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
R………………
Robertson, Kevin ‘Yellow Painted Moon’
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Rose, Sophia Djebel ‘Sécheresse’ (Ramble Records/WV Sorcerer Productions/Oracle Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Rumsey, Andrew ‘Collodion’ (Gare du Nord)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
S……………….
SAD MAN ‘Art’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Salem Trials ‘Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Sanders, Pharoah ‘Love Is Here – The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings’
(Elemental Music Records) Picked by Dominic Valvona
Schizo Fun Addict ‘An Introduction To…’ (Fruits der Mer)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Schnitzler, Conrad ‘RhythmiCon’ (Flip-Flap)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Scotch Funeral ‘Ever & Ever’
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Silva, Maria Elena ‘Wise Men Never Try’ Review
‘Wise Men Never Try Vol. II’ Review by Dominic Valvona
Širom ‘In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper’
(Glitterbeat Records) Picked by Dominic Valvona
Sleepingdogs ‘DOGSTOEVSKY’ (Three Dollar Pistol Music)
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Soft Speaker ‘Rippling Tapestries’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Sol Messiah ‘War of the Gods’ Picked by Dominic Valvona
Staraya Derevyna ‘Garden Window Escape’ (Ramble Records/Avris Media)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Stewart, Macie ‘When The Distance Is Blue’ (International Anthem)
Review by Dominic Valvona
T………………..
Teamaker, Marc ‘Teas n Seas’
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Theravada ‘The Years We Have’ Picked by Dominic Valvona
Toivanen Trio, Joona ‘Gravity’ (We Jazz)
Reviewed by Dominic Valvona here
Tomo-Nakaguchi ‘Out Of The Blue’ (Audiobulb Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Tortoise ‘Touch’ (International Anthem X Nonesuch Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Toxic Chicken ‘Mentally Sound’ (Earthrid)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Trupa Trupa ‘Mourners’ (Glitterbeat Records)
Info/Singles Review Feature by Dominic Valvona
U…………………
Uhlmann, Josh Johnson, Sam Wilkes, Gregory ‘Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes’
(International Anthem) Review by Dominic Valvona
Ujif_notfound ‘Postulate’ (I Shall Sing Until My Country Is Free)
Review by Dominic Valvona
V………………….
Various ‘TUROŇ/AHUIZOTL’ (Swine Records w/ Fayuca Retumba)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Various ‘Wagadu Grooves Vol. 2: The Hypnotic Sound Of Camera 1991 – 2014’
(Hot Mule) Review by Dominic Valvona
Vexations ‘A Dream Unhealthy’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Violet Nox ‘Silvae’ (Somewherecold Records)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Voodoo Drummer ‘HELLaS SPELL’
Review by Dominic Valvona
W…………………..
Wants, The ‘Bastard’ (STTT)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Warda ‘We Malo’ (WEWANTSOUNDS)
Review by Dominic Valvona
West Virginia Snake Handlers Revival ‘They Shall Take Up Serpents’
(Sublime Frequencies) Reviewed by Dominic Valvona
Winter Journey, The ‘Graceful Consolations’ (Turning Circle)
Reviewed by Dominic Valvona here
Y…………………….
Yellow Belly ‘Ghostwriter’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Review by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
Young Mothers, The ‘Better If You Let It’ (Sonic Transmissions)
Review by Dominic Valvona
Z……………………..
Zavoloka ‘ISTYNA’ Picked by Dominic Valvona
For those that can or wish to, the Monolith Cocktail has a Ko-fi account: the micro-donation site. I hate to ask, but if you do appreciate what the Monolith Cocktail does then you can shout us a coffee or two through this platform.
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
Mute Swan Photo credit: Pat Hickman
Bad Trips ‘Nothing But Trouble’
Album 17th November 2025
I enjoyed this album: it’s experimental, it’s noisy, it’s peaceful, and at times it reminds me of Jimi Hendrix jamming with The Surfaris in a wind tunnel, and at other times of “I Hear A New World” by Joe Meek, but if being performed by Skip Spence. It really is a wonderful creation of sound art. Those out there who are old enough to remember the kids tv show The Clangers can imagine this would be playing at their local hop or discotheque. Nothing But Trouble is indeed a fine and rewarding listen.
Oliver Birch ‘Betty’
Single
OOOh Betty the Donkey has done a Whoopsie on the carpet…well, there is always one… Yes, sadly this has nothing to do with Betty the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Ave Em or maybe it does. Maybe Oliver Birch has an alter to the paragon of 70s sitcoms other halves and Betty is the chosen one, and he has written this Oar like homage to her. Yes, it does remind me of Skip Spence or maybe even a Jeff Buckley demo, which is no bad thing.
Robert Callender ‘Rainbow – The Anniversary Concert’
Album (Think Like A Key) 14th November 2025
After over 55 years since the release of Rainbow, the cult classic psych ragga-rock album from 1968, Robert Callender decided to perform the album live for the first time. And here we have that performance, captured in all its wonderful mystical glory, released by Think Like A Key records.
This live performance has a quite lovely warmness and intimate magical quality that draws the listener into the song cycle, and has one lose themselves in the same way you can lose yourself in Van Morrisons Astral Weeks or The Beach Boys Pet Sounds as Rainbows shares the same uniqueness and one off-ness of those two classics. Rainbow is a beautiful blend of ragga, psych, rock, pop and jazz, and this live recording is one of pure oneness and love.
The Cindys ‘S-T’
Album (Breakfast Records/Ruination Records) 7th November 2025
The Cindys debut album is an album recommended to all those who have a soft spot for late 80’s/90’s alternative guitar bands. As I was listening, the Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, House Of love and even the Frank and Walters all came flooding back. The Cindys are a very good band who may one day be a great band who knows. I am of such an age when I have heard all this so many times before, but The Cindys do it all very well and have quite a lovely quirk in their lyricism which I heartily approve. Believe me, without putting a curse on the poor blighters, they could well be ones to watch.
Mute Swan ‘Hypnosis Tapes’
Single (Hit The North Records / Wooden Tooth Records)
I like this. It has a rather nifty nagging guitar line and rather lovely melody line. Dare I say Mute Swan could be ones to watch as they had me hunting out my Ultra Vivid Scene albums and had me stroking my memories from my mad year of 1991. Everyone has a lost weekend of high art and hedonistic tomfoolery and if the Mute Swans had been around in that musically great year, they, I am sure, would have helped soundtrack it.
My Violence ‘Isabella Rossellini’
Single (Starfish Records)
If you release a single named Isabella Rossellini it has to be dark, sultry and beautiful. And this fine pop song has indeed all those boxes ticked; a suave, blissful floating artful drift of pure pop melancholy.
Neon Kittens ‘21 Minutes of Adventure’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) Released 21st October 2025
The latest Neon Kittens album is upon us and anyone who loves the other litter of releases should add this post-punk gem to their collection. And anyone who has so far not heard their previous releases, 21 Minuets Of Adventure is a fine introduction. The lead off track “No Free Hugs” is a Tubeway Army like forage into the cold clinical extremities of post-punk sexual shenanigans and a nod and a wink and the house on the hill is truly yours. For The Neon Kittens carry a dark sinister humour in the lyrics that equally match the joyful dry dripping sarcasm of Andy Goss and his fretwork mastery, and both the music and lyrics intertwine beautifully to soundtrack living in these confusing and troubled times. The Neon Kittens is the aural equivalent of sitting opposite a beautiful girl on the train and wondering what she is thinking about as she licks her fingers after finishing her sherbet.
The Noisy ‘The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat’
Album (Audio Antihero) Released 24th October 2025
The Secret Ingredient Is Even More Meat is a fine indie alt-pop album; an album filled with candy floss dreams of fame sex and a melancholy nostalgic lust of fallen whispers.
The stony ground has never felt so waver thin, soft. It has never tasted so sweet cherry lipped. The Noisy have taken 60s girl group want, lust and ambition and wrapped it in a 21st century blanket of glitz and glamour, and managed to keep the old fashion ideals that sex does happen but will only take the one foot off the floor when the curtains have been drawn.
In an ideal world the singles taken from the album would be being played all over the radio. “Grenadine” is one of the finest pop singles of 2025 and the album is filled with fine pop songs like this, which makes it a fine and essential pop album, and in this day age a fine and essential pop album can make a difference to your life and mental well-being.
Occult Character ‘Her Guts My Graveyard’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) Released 29th October 2025
Another song you won’t be hearing on the radio or reading about in your favourite blog, unless your favourite blog is the Monolith Cocktail, which if it is the case I would like to compliment you on your good taste, also if you do indeed read the Monolith Cocktail you will in fact have read about Occult Character and know he is a man who makes weird and wonderful alt pop music combing hip-hop and folk and pop and weird sci fi soundtracks – a little like Beck I suppose, that is if Beck at birth had been breast fed hallucinatory drugs.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart ‘Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan’
Single (Slumberland Records)
What a great title for a song, but it was a great cardigan it must be said. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have immediately put themselves under pressure: Does the song do justice to the cardigan? I am happy to report it does, and it is a fine indie pop romp of joyful proportions. And I am sure Kurt would heartedly agree if he was still with us.
Shitnoise ‘Charades’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 17th November 2025
“It’s all rock n roll” as the old saying goes, and that is a perfect phrase to describe this wonderful mish mash of post punk, grunge, metal, thrash and yes probably many other genres and probably some they don’t yet have a name for – my daughter described something as pastel goth the other day: what the bloody hell is pastel goth? So maybe this has a bit of pastel goth in it who knows. It is certainly unhinged and deranged in the best possible way, and we all need a bit of music that slips from the lips to the hips and adds some sanity into our lives, and if not, you are dead from the waist down and from the shoulders up, so basically you are a torso.
Our Daily Bread 644: The Cords, Fat Concubine, Ali Murray…
August 4, 2025
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
The Cords ‘Fabulist’
Single (Skep Wax Records) Released 22nd July 2025
‘Fabulist’ is a fine jingle-jangle indie pop rush of pure young person want; a sonic three chord extravaganza of the sound of young Scotland relishing the first flush of summer romance; a song to make an old man sit and weep at the loss of his youth and memories of the days when C86 was where it was at.
Fat Concubine ‘Empire’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) Released 12th September 2025
Empire is the sound of falling out of a nightclub worse for wear, staggering the dark cold streets, queuing in a chippy and ordering something with chips and covering it with gravy or curry sauce or both and then sloppily eating it spilling it all down your going out clubbing clothes while standing in someone else’s sick as you wait for a taxi not to show up. It is getting home and fumbling with your key to get into your abode and wondering both where did you put your phone and where on earth is the tv remote. You then pass out on the settee as your cat alternates nesting your chest and gently pawing your face. It’s great to be young.
Headless Kross/Poundland
Split Album (Cruel Nature Records) Released 12th September 2025
I have to admit to being a pop music lover. I’m a man who’s reduced to a quivering wreck by the sound of Billy Fury singing a song by Jimmy Campbell; a man who has to wipe a tear from his eye when a blast of 70’s pop nostalgia sneaks unexpectantly from the radio/tv. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love the sound of sludge rock, a little metallic evil blackness to avail itself to my inner soul. Nor does it mean I cannot get excited by one of the most important bands in the UK at the moment, that being Poundland doing what they do best in soundtracking the state of the UK with its pounding experimental punk rock attitude and noise, but with the right amount of melody to make it commercially viable to the general public: and the more people who get to hear their blast of wanton grinditude the better the good old jolly UK will become.
This split album by Headless Kross and Poundland delivers both the charming brooding sludge-like metal of Headless Kross and Poundland doing what they do best. And if you are so inclined to have a step away from middle aged men wanting to be Roger McGuinn, then this could well be worth your time and trouble and cash.
The Last Of The Lovely Days ‘No Public House Talk’
Album (Gare du Nord) Released 19th August 2025
This debut from The Last Of The Lovely Days is a rather lovely jangly guitar pop beast of an album; an album that once again evokes not just the golden days of indie pop but also has a rather fetching undercurrent of 60’s girl group panache – just like those two fine bands from the 80’s, The Shop Assistants and The Primitives, did so well. Songs that deal with the never grows old subject of love lost and found. And these fine songs are wrapped lovingly with charming melodies and hooks that will linger and help your day be a much more enjoyable experience.
Ali Murray ‘The Summer Laden’
Album Released July 1st 2025
It makes a rather pleasant change to receive an album from an artist from Scotland that doesn’t sound like Teenage Fanclub. Not that I may add, I have anything against Teenage Fanclub, I find them rather spiffing, but a change is as good as a rest or so they say.
The Summer Laden is in fact a rather lovely pop album of breezy mostly mellow pop songs. Indeed, it is “Laden” with the sound of summer, and has a melodeon sway that is quite bewitching, and could be Celtic cousins with that Welsh wonder of verse and catchy chorus, Armstrong (Julian Pitt).
Occult Character ‘Butterfly’
Single (Metal Postcard) Released 24th July 2025
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” Muhammad Ali once famously said, and that would be a perfect description of this short new track by Occult Character, funnily enough called ‘Butterfly’, as it floats with an uneasy synth pop sway fluttering away in an eccentric manner, pulling one in with its gentle experimental charm only to be knocked out by the sucker punch of the dark brooding lyrics.
Oopsie Daisies ‘As If’
Single (Metal Postcard) Released 18th July 2025
Synth pop boogie at its finest. Yes, a song of charm and home recorded warmth that could have easily emerged from a demo tape from a budding new romantic dreamboat from the early 80s; a song that fills me with a quirky nostalgia of the days when there were three weekly music papers as well as the pop twice weekly No 1 and Smash Hits pop glossies. And it could well have been featured in all five: maybe not Sounds, As If would maybe a little too on the frivolous side for them.
Scotch Funeral ‘Ever & Ever’
Album Released 30th July 2025
If rumble tumble grunge fuzz-soaked guitar is heaven to your ears, then this fine album by Scotch Funeral is for you; an album of true indie rock ‘n’ roll. “New Found Happiness” is a melody pop punk delight worthy of Ash in their glory years; the closer, “In Dreams“, is a fine mishmash of Daniel Johnston like poetry and Nirvana like grunge; and “She’s A Writer” could have stepped straight off a K records compilation album. If Scotch Funeral were on K Records or a similar label of such acclaim, they may well get the attention they deserve, for they have that special something you cannot quite put your finger on that separates them from 99 per cent of all the other indie punk pop rock ‘n’ rollers out there. Ever & Ever is certainly an album that deserves your attention.
Alexei Shishkin ‘Tiki Taka (2006)’
Track taken from the upcoming Album, Good Times (Rue Defense) Released 5th September 2025
Is this the best song recorded about football or soccer for our American readers? I think it could well be. It has a wonderful semi slacker psych vibe; it’s like being drunk and on your settee hazily watching the beautiful game unfold until you lose your will to live or you’re too drunk to reach the remote. A song of laidback excellence.
The Striped Bananas ‘Vampire of Mine’
Single Released 25th July 2025
Psych Grunge now there’s a thing for you. Imagine if you will that Kurt Cobain had worn velvet pantaloons and love beads and had hooked up with a disco dolly from a Matt Elm film in a nightclub scene instead of Courtney Love and appeared in an episode of the Banana Splits. Nirvana could well have sounded like this. A fine and dandy cartoon pop song, in fact two fine cartoon pop songs as the B-Side ‘Venus Die Trap’ is pretty nifty as well.
Tiberius ‘Sag’
Single (Audio Antihero) Released 18th July 2025
I thought for the first twenty seconds of this fine single that it was Lloyd Cole causing a commotion, but then it soon shifted into a Jeff Buckley guitar alt rock melodramatic bombast, the kind that hasn’t been heard since the days Buffalo Tom walked the earth. And while I am mentioning other artists, I will mention Oasis, not because it sounds like them, but because it doesn’t and that is another point in its favour believe you me.
Tugboat Captain ‘Pest Control’
Single
‘Pest Control’ is a fine slice of extremely British boutique pop art; a singalong song of arch darkness; a calling card into an exclusive quaint drinking club frequented by Neil Hannon, Ray Davies and John Howard, and every playlist must include Shorley Wall by Ooberman. This track has been culled from their album Dog Tail, and maybe worthy of further investigation.
The Monthly Playlist selection of choice music, plus our Choice Albums 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. All entries are displayed alphabetically.
Our Monthly Playlist continues as normal, with tracks from April (and a few from the end of March) chosen by me, Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
Those Choice Albums____
Ayarwhaska ‘Dendritas Oscilantes’
(Buh Records) Review
Jonah Brody ‘Brotherhood’
(IL Records) Review
The Corrupting Sea ‘Political Shit’
(Somewherecold Records)
Manu Dibango ‘Dibango ‘82: La Marseille December ‘82’
(WEWANTSOUNDS) Review
Nana Horisaki ‘Scoppi’
(Kirigirisu Recordings)
iyatraQuartet ‘Wild Green’
Review
Pidgins ‘Refrains of the Day, Vol. 2’
(Lexical Records) Review
Pound Land ‘Can’t Stop’
(Cruel Nature Records) Review
Michael Sarian ‘ESQUINA’
(Greenleaf Records) Review
Conrad Schnitzler ‘RhythmiCon’
(Flip-Flap) Review
Sleepingdogs ‘DOGSTOEVSKY’
(Three Dollar Pistol Music)
Toxic Chicken ‘Mentally Sound’
(Earthrid) Review
The Playlist____
Joe Probet ‘Landslide’
Penza Penza ‘Carl Wilson’s Morning Routine’
Homeboy Sandman & yeyts. ‘Thanksgiving Eve’
Blu, August Fanon, Kota the Friend & R.A.P. Ferreira ‘Happy’
Aupheus w/ Kool Keith ‘It’s My Space’
Ukandanz ‘Yene Felagote’
Lamat 8 and Tartit ‘Afous Dafous (Yoga Flow)’
Manu Dibango ‘Waka Juju Part 3’
Michael Sarian ‘Glory Box’
sleepingdogs ‘sell fish’
Kannaste4 ‘Ups and Downs’
Your Old Droog & Edan ‘The Glitch’
Anarchitact, Myka 9, N ‘Daddication Pt. 1’
The High & Mighty, The Alchemist & Your Old Droog ‘The Rose Bowl’
Masai Bey & Kitchen Khemistry ‘Transit Authority’
Dr. Syntax & Palito ‘Sprung’
Claude Cooper ‘Happenings’
Batsauce ‘Murmurate – Instrumental’
Ammar 808 ‘Ah Yalila’
Kin’Gongolo Kiniata ‘Bunda’
Jonah Brody ‘The Ancestors Are Taking Workshops’
iyatraQuartet ‘Wild Green’
Wolfgang Perez ‘Preludio A Un Suicida’
Pidgins ‘Results Oriented’
Briana Marela ‘Vibrant Sheen’
Hectorine ‘Everybody Says’
The Pennys ‘Say Something’
Bernardo Devlin ‘5:45’
Ayarwhaska ‘Desasosiego2000’
Occult Character ‘New Mothball Empire’
VESCH ‘Who the Hell are You’
SUE ‘Get Over It’
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
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions
The Pennys
Ayarwhaska ‘Dendritas Oscilantes’
Album (Buh Records) 11th April 2025
This album is noisy. It is chaotic. It is fun. It has an experimental vigour that should be applauded. The first track is called “XXX Speed Grindcore” and lasts 52 seconds and is the kind of thing John Peel would fill in 52 seconds of his show with. There are guitar riffs aplenty, ones that would make Billy Childish weep with joy. There are off-kilter vocal forays into electronic noise, feedback aplenty and the sound of someone clearing their throat. If this is what Peruvian Punk Rock sounds like please send me a Box Set.
NOTE: Presently no examples of the music available until release. Visit the Buh label bandcamp page.
The Conspiracy ‘Rainbow Prism’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) 13th March 2025
There is an old British psychedelic magic about ‘Rainbow Prism’ that should be celebrated by the current ever expanding psych fraternity. And the only reason I can think of why it isn’t, is because they have not heard it. For it has all the great qualities of British psych, and if this track was released on say Fruits De Mer Records, The Conspiracy would be all over Record Collector and Shindig and getting airplay from late night BBC 6 music: attention The Conspiracy deserves.
Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera ‘Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera (Remaster Reissue)’
Album (Think Like A Key Records) 25th April 2025
What we have here is not a new band. No, I have made an exception to the rule of only reviewing new music to review this wonderful reissue of the Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s self-titled, and only, album from 1968 (I think) reissued on the wonderful Think Like A Key Records.
It is quite a marvellous album full of mellotrons, sitars and screaming like psych rock guitars and a quite marvellously busy bassist that has to be heard to be believed. This is really a must have for any fans of 60’s psych or music lovers who want to get the aural feel of life in late 60’s swinging London.
NOTE: Presently no examples of the music available until release, but you can find or order the album here
Occult Character ‘Party Heaven’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) 4th April 2025
Party Heaven is an eight-track mirage of deranged emotional psychosis; a Party Platter of unhinged outpourings of electro-punk. Yes, Occult Character is back with eight short tracks that confuses and delights in equal measure; songs that captures the ugliness of modern life, painting a dark picture but with a huge pink lipstick smile scrawled all over it. Madness and Magic at its most extreme.
The Pennys ‘Say Something’
Track/Video
A song of pure sweetness and sadness; a lovely jangle guitar Odyssey of lo-fi home recorded indie bliss. A track worthy of the golden days of jangle pop when Subway supplied darn fine tooting slices of indie pop melancholy and not overpriced sandwiches. Album to follow this summer.
Poundland ‘Can’t Stop’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 28th March 2025
You can lose yourself in a abattoir of current events, open the newspaper, open twitter or X or whatever it is called nowadays, read the news listen to the news watch the fucking news and you are overcome, overwhelmed with the sinking feeling of life in its most horrible reality. In this time of being on the brink of world war 3 and lost in the everyday mundanity of the 9 to 5 life or the hoping to get onto the mundanity of the 9 to 5 life just so you can get away from your bloody job coach and the latest nonstarter of training course you have to attend, its only three buses there and three buses back and there is a chance no matter how slight that they will keep you on in a full time position as a general dogsbody until they discard you when a much more viable and cost cutting option comes along. Poundland are the soundtrack to this life; they are the suppliers of the modern British folk song but not the hey diddly dee bounce your child on your knee with your finger in your ear type folk song, they are writing about street life for the everyday working class. They write songs about the everyday experience. They write about how the littlest thing can make a difference – like how the thought of the flapjack in your pocket can lift the mundanity of your working day – and the banality of tv, but not set to acoustic guitar and fiddle but the dense sound of noise or the simple drumbeat and the confusion, the feedback of the distorted guitar and bass: lo-fi punk at its best.
Poundland are one of the finest and important bands in the UK today, and capture the essence of true life in Britain in 2025 in all its ugly lack of glory.
Smellsofwitches ‘Bride of Fistula’
Single 28th March 2025
Brides Of Fistula is the debut release from new Wigan outfit, the wonderfully named Smellsofwitches. And it is a strange fish of a track, all experimental improvised glory but with a marvellously warm texture and feel. It may not have a melody that one can hum along to but is all the more fascinating and bewitching for that very reason.
SUE ‘Get Over’
Single
This is actually rather good, a throwback to those days of flannel shirts and The Late Show being dedicated to those pesky grunge bands from the good old US of A. And indeed, this track by Sue would not be out of place on that show: all angst vocals and heavy guitars. This could do very well, or would have 30 odd years ago.
Toxic Chicken ‘Mentally Sound’
Album (Earthrid) 16th April 2025
Let’s be honest, the only thing musically mentally sound about the great Toxic Chicken is the title of this album, as we in the know all know Toxic is one of the great musical eccentrics that live in the underground occasionally releasing mostly instrumental forays into the psych of electronica. And this wonderful album is an aural stroll through a strange Forrest as the sun goes down. Tracks that bewitch and amuse, entertain in equal measure. Songs that trip and drip through the mind, a relaxing frenzy of the old adage that a bird in the bush is a better than the bird in the freezer, or something similar that really is not too similar at all, and that is the perfect description of the works of The Toxic Chicken. For it sounds like electronica; it feels like electronica; but there is just something there that makes it much more. It has a slight dark ember of a twisted foray into the thinking of a musical maverick; an index into the mind of the closest thing the world of electronica has to Syd Barrett. Mentally Sound is indeed extremely sound but in the most magically unsound way.
Vesch ‘Passport’
Album (Incompetence Records) 11th April 2025
Art-Punk Cabaret is how Vesch describe themselves, and I’m not going to argue with that. For what we have is an enjoyable foray into a land where Xray Spex and The Teardrop Explodes and Lena Lovich rule the radio, as at different times the band remind me of all three. Maybe late seventies post punk and early eighties pop is what is in vogue in Russia at the moment, as that is where Vesch hail from.
Passport is an album made up of off-kilter and extremely enjoyable unusual inventive pop music. It may not be to everybody’s taste but is certainly to mine.
Our Daily Bread 636: Eamon The Destroyer, Cats Of Transnistria, John Howard, Yellow Belly…
February 4, 2025
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
bigflower ‘trip d’
Single Released on the 31st January 2025
‘Trip D’ by bigflower is a cavernous atmospheric journey of yearning and sadness; three plus minutes of guitar solitude with a quite wonderful nagging riff. Once again Ivor Perry showing us why he is rated one of the finest guitarists to emerge from the 80’s Manchester scene.
Cats Of Transnistria ‘Horror’
Single (Soliti Recordings) Available Now
Horror is anything but horrible, but an atmospheric gem of Goth-y dream pop, awash with succulent 80’s keyboards and dreamy vocals. It’s as if the last 40 years been nothing but a dip in the shower with the Man From Atlantis.
Chaos Emeralds ‘Passed Away’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
Not to be confused with the Nashville Pop duo of the same name as this, Chaos Emeralds are anything but a pop duo but a rather excellent lo-fi sludge Indie rock duo with the occasional stray into both shoegaze and goth. “Count Me Out” reminds me of very early Psychedelic Furs before they went all Hollywood on us and polished up their prettiness in pink. At other times it reminds me of early 80’s Cure and Smashing Orange, which is not to be confused with smashing an orange, which is a messy and pointless exercise and The Chaos Emeralds are anything but pointless and messy, they are a fine band with a rather wonderful atmospheric sound.
The Conspiracy ‘White Winter Coats’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) 21st January 2025
I am a fan of The Conspiracy. I love their Englishness, and this excellent track really does not disappoint, it’s all seventies Bowie and Mid 80’s Julian Cope and what Syd Barrett might have sounded like if he was not a troubled soul. This is a taster to their forthcoming album, an album I will no doubt tell you all about in the coming weeks.
Eamon The Destroyer ‘Radio Sessions’
EP (Bearsuit Records) Released 21st January 2025
What we have here is an acoustic six track EP of songs recorded for two radio sessions in 2024: and mighty fine they are as well. The songs work well in acoustic form – is there such a genre of folktronica (ED: yes, there is), because if not Eamon The Destroyer has discovered it.
The Wickerman soundtrack, Momus and Leonard Cohen collide in a not so frenzy-like pleasure of subtle sly nods and winks whilst feeding Bagpuss illicit halogenic expressions of drugs gone by whilst showing thumbnail sketches of could and should have Beens. This really is a stunning six track EP of pure epic beauty.
John Howard ‘For Those that Wander By’
Album (Think Like A Key) 14th February 2025
“For Those That Wander By” is an album of sublime eloquence, an album that is steeped in songwriting craft and God-given talent. An album that features eight songs co-written by John Howard and poet Robert Cochrane, set to be released on Valentines Day, which by accident or design is extremely apt. For the album is quite a beautiful thing indeed. It is steeped in a lush wave of warmth, sadness and melancholy.
This is an album that draws on the experience of life and the passing of time; a dream world of haunting memories and ghosts from your past that caress and comfort you in the knowledge, as the old saying goes, that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all, and the skeletons in your closet are taken out daily and slow danced with under a full and rich moon.
John Howard is, as we all should know, one of England’s great musical hidden treasures, and this album coming exactly 50 years after his debut, the quite marvellous “Kid In A Big world”, goes to show that John has not lost any of his vocal capabilities. If anything, he is singing better now than he ever has, producing an album that Elton John would sell his children to be able to produce. An album of pure magic.
The Men ‘Po Box 96’
Single (Fuzz Club) Available Now
Fuzzy punk grunge with wah-wah guitar solo all in less than two minutes. If you like the sound of that give it a listen, if not give it a listen anyway: it takes longer to open a can of corn beef.
The Model Workers ‘Disaster Punk’
Album – Released 28th January 2025
I really know very little about the Model Workers apart from they are a pretty good three-piece punk band, or pop punk to be more precise: more early Green Day but with a bit more balls than say the Sex Pistols, a band that took me back to the days when my then 15 year old daughter used to text me every Tuesday to remind me to pick up that week’s copy of Kerrang and at the time that mag and its accompanying tv channel was filled with bands of this ilk and like. The Model Workers are indeed very good and I can quite easily imagine “Red Rose” or the extremely catchy “Sorry Again” popping up on the channel or the wonderful Dead Kennedy’s like “Surf Storm”, which is my favourite track on this mighty enjoyable seven-track mini album.
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) Released 21st January 2025
Next Year’s Model is sadly not a reworking of the genius Elvis Costello and The Attractions album from 1978, although it does have a 16 second track called Elvis Costello among the seven extremely short tracks that make up this release. Occult Character is of course someone I write about very often in this blog as I like him very much, and he releases an awful lot of music, and this is another off the cuff experimental dementia music ridden foray into the diseased mind of the good old USA. And I love it.
PS: Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ made last month’s choice selection of releases.
Salem Trials ‘Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) Released 24th January 2025
Any album that kicks off with a track that sounds like Magazine covering Television Personalities, How I Learned To Love The Bomb soundtracking Russ spewing juicy gossip to a man he can only see whilst standing in one of the only remaining red telephone boxes left in The UK. And not even a nice part of Britain…we will say the red telephone box by the town hall in St Helens, it stinks of piss and decay but has a lost nostalgic beauty; a one-off memory of exciting times and rushed conversations, which is the perfect description of this wonderful post-punk album.
“Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground” could well be the Salem Trials best album yet, which is pretty much high praise as all The Trials many albums are pretty good indeed. One day Cherry Red Records will release a CD boxset of The Salem Trials and it will be hailed as the complete collection of one of Britain’s finest guitar bands.
Yellow Belly ‘Ghostwriter’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
The shimmering glisten of the beautiful awakening of the first summer steps of the handwritten rhyme. The melody of the clouds casting dark shadows of the night pulling dream like caricatures of memories past. The haunting bewitching soundtrack to the forever young in your mind. Yellow Belly dives deep into the subconscious and slowly teases the sadness and delight, offering the hope of the gentle and the meek, being the beacon of light that slowly emits the slow electronic drumbeats of yesterday, the vocals encapsulating the art that is found in all great pop music, the heart rendering yearning of the modern songbird or the memories of Julee Cruise floating through the speaker of your old radio kidnapping your beating heart and holding ransom to the melancholic wishes of yesterday. Yellow Belly’s Ghostwriter is an album touched with the dark hand of beautiful heartache and a bewitching stillness that is totally entrancing.
The End of the Month Revue: Playlist & Choice Album Releases
January 30, 2025
THE MONTHLY PLAYLIST SELECTION PLUS A NEW FEATURE IN WHICH WE CHOOSE OUR CHOICE ALBUMS FROM THE LAST MONTH.
Something a little different for 2025: a monthly review of all the best music plus a selection of the Monolith Cocktail team’s choice albums. Chosen this month by Dominic Valvona and Matt Oliver from January’s post.
The 32 tunes for January 2025:
Noémi Büchi ‘Gesticulate Elastically’
Cumsleg Borenail ‘Topological Hausdorff Emotional Open Sets’
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets ‘March on for Pax Ramona’
Hifiklub & Brianna Tong ‘Angelfood’
Divorce ‘Pill’
Trinka ‘Navega’
Gnonnas Pedro and His Dadjes Band ‘Tu Es Tout Seul’
Rezo ‘Molotov – The Sebastian Reynolds Remix’
The Winter Journey ‘Words First’
Saba Alizadeh ‘Plain of the Free’
Miles Cooke & Defcee ‘zugzwang’
Eric the Red & Leaf Dog ‘Duck and Dive’
Harry Shotta ‘It Wasn’t Easy’
Kid Acne, Spectacular Diagnostics & King Kashmere ‘AHEAD OF THE CURVE’
Damon Locks ‘Holding the Dawn in Place (Beyond Part 2)’
Talib Kweli & J. Rawls ‘Native Sons’
Emily Mikesell & Kate Campbell Strauss ‘Recipes’
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi & Boom.Diwan ‘Utviklingssang – Live’
Nyron Higor ‘Me Vestir De Voce’
Ike Goldman ‘Bowling Green’
Elea Calvet ‘Filthy Lucre’
Expose ‘Glue’
Neon Kittens ‘Enough of You’
Occult Character ‘Tech Hype’
Dyr Faser ‘Physical Saver’
Russ Spence ‘Phase Myself’
The Penrose Web ‘Hexapod Scene’
Park Jiha ‘Water Moon’
Robert Farrugia ‘Ballottra’
Memory Scale ‘Afternoon’s Echoes’
Joona Toivanen Trio ‘Horizons’
Timo Lassy Trio ‘Moves – Live’
Choice Albums, thus far in 2025
So, for an age I’ve been uneasy with the site’s end of year lists: our choice albums of the entire year posts, which usually take up two or three posts worth, such is the abundance of releases we cover in a year. I’ve decided to pretty much scrape them going forward. Instead, each month I will pick out several albums we’ve raved about, plus those we didn’t get time to review but think you should take as granted approved by the Monolith Cocktail team. Some of these will not be included in the above playlist. Each album is listed alphabetically as I hate those numerical voting validation lists that our rivals put out.
Cindy ‘Saw It All Demos’ (Paisley Shirt Records)
Reviewed by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea here
Cumsleg Borenail ‘A Divorced 46 Year old DJ From Scunthorpe’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Dyr Faser ‘Falling Stereos’
Picked by Dominic Valvona
Expose ‘ETC’ (Qunidi)
Reviewed by BBS here
Farrugia, Robert ‘Natura Maltija’ (Phantom Limb/Kewn Records)
Reviewed by DV here
Kweli, Talib & J Rawls ‘The Confidence Of Knowing’
Picked by Matt Oliver & DV
Locks, Damon ‘List Of Demands’ (International Anthem)
Reviewed by DV here
Mikesell, Emily & Kate Campbell Strauss ‘Give Way’ (Ears & Eyes Records)
Reviewed by DV here
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Picked by DV
Philips Arts Foundation, Lucy ‘I’m Not A Fucking Metronome’
Reviewed by BBS here
Toivanen Trio, Joona ‘Gravity’ (We Jazz)
Reviewed by DV here
Winter Journey, The ‘Graceful Consolations’ (Turning Circle)
Reviewed by DV here
ZD Grafters ‘Three Little Birds’
Reviewed by DV here – technically released digitally the end of last year, but vinyl arriving sometime in February
For those that can or wish to, the Monolith Cocktail has a Ko-fi account: the micro-donation site. I hate to ask, but if you do appreciate what the Monolith Cocktail does then you can shout us a coffee or two through this platform.
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
PHOTO IMAGE: THE TULIPS
In Alphabertical Order::::
Armstrong ‘Future In The Present Tense’
Single (Self-Release)
Armstrong usually deal in producing quite beautiful pastoral pop, and to be honest Julian Pitt (aka Armstrong) has a god given talent for writing quite sublime melodies, and “Future In The Present Tense” has all the usual heavenly pop wonder he usually releases. But this time he has swapped the acoustic guitar for a synth and instead released a sublime synth pop single, one you could imagine buzzing around the charts in the early to mid 80’s. Once again naggingly catchy and rather beautiful.
Aiden Baker/Jack Chuter/Ryan Durfee ‘Laika World’
Album (Cruel Nature Records)
“Laika World” was made as a tribute to Laika the soviet Space dog, the first animal to ever orbit the earth, on November the 3rd 1957. How many other animals have since orbited the earth I do not know: I suppose if you have the burning need, just Google it.
This album is a strange sonic but relaxing adventure of floating in space ambiance, a totally relaxing and dreamlike set of instrumentals that is all reverb guitars and floating soothing synths and the far in the distance echoes of drums and tinkling keyboards with the occasional treated and cut up vocal, which on “Night Capsule Demand” sounds like a countdown to entering heaven.
“Laika World” is an excellent and rewarding listen, and is the ideal accompaniment for when you need that time to yourself to drift off into semi consciousness and enjoy your own thoughts.
bigflower ‘The King’
Single (Self-Release)
Another new track from bigflower; there really is no stopping the man. “The King” is a sonic escapade of ambient guitar and swamp jazz, a song that deals with having a dream of entering Graceland and finding Elvis dead on the floor; an atmospheric musical tale of ethereal sorrow and tragedy set in a mist like state of transient bliss and soft focus solitude.
Bloom De Wilde ‘The Circular Being’
Album
I love the muse and the music of Bloom de Wilde. It has a tender all-consuming innocence and hope that calmly plays Rock Paper Scissors with a wistful sadness and melancholy.
Bloom writes songs that offer hope against all the odds; songs that embrace the eccentrics and outsiders, all the underdogs in life. Maybe that is why I feel a connection to her music and at times find myself totally engrossed with her beautiful tapestry of pop, jazz, folk and psychedelia, which she has woven with great love and skill to make great art.
Bloom is a fine songwriter, which may sometimes be overlooked due to the wonderful eccentricities of her personality and is a quite an accomplished and original lyricist, as this fascinating eleven song album of love, hope and magic shows.
Empty Cut ‘Allens Cross’
Album (Cruel Nature Records)
Allens Cross is a leftfield album of derision and distorted beauty, music that incorporates electronica, hardcore, dub, jazz and industrial shoegaze and punk rock to quite magnificent affect. At times reminding me of the latter work of the Godlike genius of Scott Walker, and at other times like Throbbing Gristle – sometimes difficult to listen to but ultimately always rewarding.
There is a darkness and granite slab graininess that celebrates the everyday mundane life but fascinating in its unique perspective on their childhood growing up in Birmingham that inspires this fine album. “Fidget” is Black Sabbath like in its heaviness and desolateness, and “Spleen” is a sludge heavy dose of modern-day psychedelia with whirring synths and cut up spoken samples. All eight tracks on Allens Cross take you on a fascinating aural trip, and it really is a journey worth taking.
Ex-Vöid ‘Swansea’
Single (Tapete Records)
What we have here is another enjoyable romp of indie guitar rock. Yes, more of it. But unlike a lot of the indie guitar rock I’m hearing lately “Swansea” has a melody and fine Dinosaur Jnr like guitars, quite lovely male female vocals, which are almost folk-like but not in a way of old tin whistles and feeding the whippet the last of the bacon kind of way. I suppose this just gives it something slightly different feel to the other 1001 indie rock tracks I’ve heard this week. One that floats to the top like a becoming jellyfish with a sting in its tale. [if Jellyfish had tales].
Fun Facts ‘Apartment Rock’
Album 22nd November 2024
There is a lovely warm heavenly wonkiness to this album I very much appreciate, it has a certain dreamy like pop/psych experimental charm that comes on like Stereolab discovering the age of Aquarius in the local bar where hipsters hang out. Yes, it has the same slightly off kilter but straight-ahead pop that I so admire the great Schizo Fun Addict for. They have the same love of melody, and supply music that could soundtrack an angel licking ice cream from a cone whilst you wait in the dying embers of the day for your future true love to walk by and catch the glint in your eye and return it with honey wrapped heartfelt kisses. A fine album of pure blissful pop music.
Jamison Field Murphy ‘It Has To End’
Album (Tomato Flower) 11th November 2024
Ah yes this is more like it. At last, an album with warmth, soul experiment and beauty. Just when I was beginning to think that it was a thing of the past James Field Murphy turns up with this home recorded gem, an album that combines all the things I love about the magic of music: songs with melody, “That Boy” could well be an outtake from The Beach Boys Smiley Smile album, and “It has To End” has a wonderful bonkers McCartney feel to it [remember McCartney was the most experimental of all the Beatles], and this track combines pop with experimental to a beautifully short and wistful degree. “Hate” is another beautiful song; yes indeed, a hate that is alright to love and love it I do. I love the tape pops in the background: you really cannot beat recording on tape.
It Has To End is a rare thing, an album you do not want to end. It’s an album I will be returning to on a regular basis over the coming months as James manages to balance off pop/psych beauty with experimentation perfectly.
John Howard ‘If There’s A Star/ Little Prince’
Single 8th November 2024
I love the music of John Howard as it is just so elegant and eloquent. There is a timelessness to his songs; he writes songs that could have graced the stage in the days of Coward and Berlin, or, in the days of Ray Davies or even McCartney in his genius Ram days, or, in even more recent times, Neil Hannon who waved a stylish wand over the lads and birds debauched Brit Pop era whist arching his eyebrow and sipping a dry sherry.
John Howard has the same qualities of all these genius composers and with this fine single he supplies us with two short and sweet pop songs of baroque poptitude that most of us really do not deserve. If only life was like a John Howard piano ballad.
Humdrum ‘Every Heaven’
Album (Slumberland Records)
Humdrum must have a death wish, or a band with a massive amount of confidence. I mean, fancy calling yourselves Humdrum and then making an album of out and out pure jangle. Yes, need I say more. We all know what it sounds like, nothing that really steps out of the indie pop jangle. But it is a fine jangle album, at times reminding me of a jangly Cure but without the uniqueness of Robert Smiths voice: actually, the instrumental “Every Heaven” could well be a Cure backing track.
Yes, the usual influences; I’m sure every member of Humdrum have the complete collection of Sarah Records 7-inch singles and every edition of the C86 Boxset and own a Pastels badge. But that is what we love about jangle bands, their out and out passion for jangle. And this album I’d recommended for all those jangly guitar fiends.
Neon Kittens ‘Trick’
EP
The Neon Kittens are back with a 4-track EP to celebrate Halloween with four horror themed songs. The EP is called “Trick” and it is actually a bit of a treat for myself and the ever growing army of Neon Kittens fans. The obstreperous guitar wizardry once again all tangent shapes of misguided ridicule and delight taunt and encourage the ice cool aloofness of the no wave Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward into some quite deliciously salacious tales of horror and misadventure.
The Neon Kittens are not just a band worthy to write home about but are actually worthy enough to leave home just so you can write home about them.
Occult Character ‘Don’t Come To Mars’
EP (Metal Postcard Records)
The second October-released EP from Occult Character is here, and as I wrote in the review of their earlier Swifties EP, he is not always the easiest of artists to listen to but always fascinating. Once again these three tracks are not just fascinating but also highly enjoyable, especially the dark comedic and spot on lyrically “Cyber Cult” and “Jupiter Cellphone Survey”. All three tracks on this EP capture all the madness and darkness of modern life. Occult Character is an artist I recommend that you the listener get acquainted with.
The Tulips ‘Stars Dream Of You’
Single
“Stars Dream Of You” is a rather beautiful little pop song; a lovely sedate musical stroll down the winding paths of the totally besotted. Yes, a song that captures the first throes of love and yearning; a song that will remind you what it is like to feel that special feeling once again.
Author of this spread, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea and his lo fi cult maverick band, have recently released a clutch of “Lo Fi Misses” , via Metal Postcard Records, on both Bandcamp and Spotify.
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