The End of the Month Playlist Revue for May 2026
May 29, 2026
Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music from the last month. Picked by Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver & Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
The Track list is as follows:
Sub Hop Collective ‘Hundred and One’
Konono No1 ‘Volta’
Sunk Giants ‘Radio Problems’
Party Dozen ‘Special Unit’
Occult Character ‘Anti-Human Hate Machine’
Spirit Level ‘Forest Lagoon’
Khalab & Baba Sissoko ‘Denifurla’
Dumama ‘No Abiding City’
Cocanha ‘Forabanda’
Stik Figa & Heather Grey ‘All Is Fair’
The Allergies ‘Dig It Up’
7X3=21 & Pruven Ft. Masai Bey & Fred Ones ‘Woven Fabric’
Black Milk ‘Crash Test Dummy’
Meiko Kaji ‘Tokyo Nagare Mono’
Farma G & Relense ‘The Circus’
Juga-Naut ‘Scratch The Surface’
Whait/More Eaze/Wendy Eisenberg ‘Suffer Less’
Yazz Ahmed ‘A Moment To Be Free’
J Scienide ‘Stay Tuned’
Von Pea ‘The Goof’
Termanology/Royal Flush/Dru Hoffa ‘Angel Whispers’
Vic Spencer/BlaQ Chidori/J Wade/Aakeem Eshu/Lil Kydd ‘The Becomers’
A-F-R-O ‘The Hangman’
The Bordellos ‘Hop To It Bunny Girl’
Thomas Dollbaum ‘Pulverize’
Kyivite ‘test cylinder’
Neuro…No Neuro ‘Doubting’
Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Opus Kink ‘The Sweet Goodbye’
Double Francoise ‘Allumer’
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘A Universe That Has No End’
Upupayama ‘Mystic Chords of Memory’
Lunar Bird ‘Sinderesi’
SUO ‘Lightening Strikes’
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BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Arab Strap Photo: Luke Bovill
Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Single (Rock Action Records)
If I was young and one of these influencer types you see popping up on YouTube and such, being all jolly and hip and now and current and suchlike, I would describe this as a bit of a banger and not mean old car or sausage but a bit of a toe tapper, one to cut some rug to; a record in the bygone age of when Morrissey had something to say; a record that would have dented the bottom half of the Hit Parade as indie crossover singles tended to do. Ahh…those were the days, of Gallup chart machines and record shops. And this song would have been good enough to visit your local record store and part with your penis. I meant to write pennies but I will stick with penis as it could even be good enough to part with your penis, unless you don’t have one which would mean having to borrow someone else’s to part with, and if you did, what compartment in the till would you put it? The notes or change compartment? The mind boggles.
Double Francois ‘La Poursuite’
EP (Freaksville) 15th May 2026
La Poursuite is a rather lovely thing indeed. 5 tracks of pure French pop from the synth pop of Allumeur to the lovely acoustic summery jazz Trop Ou Paz Assez and the blissfully sweet romance of the love duet Un apres- midi a Paris which features the wonderful Benjamin Schoos. Yes, five wonderful tracks that will soundtrack the oncoming summer; songs to lick ice cream and drink wine whilst trying to look cool in ill-fitting flannel trousers.
Filalete ‘Frequencies Of The Soul’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 16th June 2026
I will be completely honest, me writing about modern classical is like asking the incredible Hulk to successfully reenact the final meeting scene in Brief Encounter: it is not going to end well.
Modern classical is a musical genre I have only occasional dipped into, mostly when I have been sent some new music to review. But I am a human being for god sake! And have emotions and fallibilities like most others, so can appreciate beauty and soul and feeling. And those three things are in abundance with this rather lovely album and has me thinking there are far worse ways of me spending my Sunday afternoon than being totally moved by the outpourings of instrumental piano emotional grandeur.
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Sci Fi Hi Fi’
Album Released 7th May 2026
Well, what’s not to like about an Sci Fi themed album with songs concerning planets and space and aliens and ray guns. It’s all twanging guitars ala The Ventures and suchlike and whooshing sci fi synths and Monochrome Set like vocals. Sci Fi Hi Fi has a wonderful eccentricity and includes many rewrites of Incense and peppermints, which believe me can only be a great thing.
Occult Character ‘The Zodameta Working’
EP (Subvert)
This is rather wonderful, the new EP by Occult Character is a splendid three track EP of pure bonkers experimental pop/dance part Eurovision, part Welsh Male voice choir, part satanic black mass. The Occult Character never fails to astound and surprise with this quite hypnotic three track gem.
Opus Kink ft The New Eves ‘The Head Tree’
Single
I quite enjoy the madness of this track. Imagine if you will Sam and The Womp getting together with Nick Cave to perform a track about hanging a witch, the kind of thing one really does not hear much about these days on the radio: That’s if you still listen to the radio, nowadays it’s all curated playlists and suchlike. I know that makes me sound like I am old enough to remember the days when they used to burn and hang witches but maybe it’s because I am.
Schizo Fun Addict ‘Desolate Ecstasy’
Album (Fruits de Mer) 10th June 2026
The world needs a new album by Schizo Fun Addict, it honestly does. The tragic thing about this is that the world does not realise it yet as they are criminally undervalued. The perfect pop band, just like The Beatles and The Beach Boys (in the 60s and 70s) and the Velvet Underground are perfect like Orange Juice (another criminally undervalued band), The Smiths and first few albums by the B52s where perfect.
SFA have a wonderful sense of adventure and inner spirituality that all the finer artists and, indeed, people do. In fact, there really should be a Schizo Fun Addict cartoon (Hanna-Barber get on it please). The world is a mess, more of a mess than I have known in my near 60 years on this planet, so we need Schizo not just to soundtrack these times but also give us an escape route from life for the 35 minutes that this gem of an album plays. The radio and mags and blogs in an ideal world should be all over this album.
Desolate Ecstasy is a pop fantasy. It is the lighted up pave stones of Billie Jean. It is the mop top headshake. It is the aural image of Otis Redding falling to his knees and begging for a little tenderness. The band bring all the magic and danger and sexiness of the last 60 years or so of Rock ‘n’ Roll because they still believe in the magic.
The album kicks off with the single “Pasteline Dream”, a guitar jangling pop beauty that brings the sound of the early Stone Roses being fronted by the girls from The B52s. Jayne Gabriel and Ilona Virostek voices blend perfectly: they have that perfect blend of heavenly sass that all the best 60s girl groups have and again on “The Scent Of Heather” the sound of the BJM being fronted by the Shangri-La’s – perfect heavenly sass psych pop.
Desolate Ecstasy is one of those albums when it really is impossible to choose your favourite track as it constantly changes depending on your mood, and because all the tracks are quite special. “Coming To You” is a rather hypnotic and beautiful mellow gaze of a dance track that once again highlights both the spirituality and sensuality of the girls’ vocals, a song that takes me back to the days of the Manchester Acid scene when the Hacienda was many a peoples place of worship: “Coming To You” is an aural E of togetherness. “The Line Is Gone” is a somewhat darker beast of a track, one that highlights the genius of guitarist and producer Rex John Shelverton; a song drenched in fury and guitar twang in equal measure, the sound of the priest in the Exorcist driving the Demons out of Linda Blair by playing her The Ventures greatest hits. “Strange Theatres”, at the time of writing my current fave from the album, is a wonderful baggy like dirty pop gem of a track with sleazy bass and groove drums of Daniel Boivin and Jet Wintzer sounding like he has been possessed by the spirit of Sean Ryder chanting “let the people all die”: a truly dark and hypnotic listening experience I tell thee. So Desolate Ecstasy is quite wonderful and could be the best Schizo Fun Addict album yet and probably already my favourite album of the year. I have just realised I have not mentioned the track “Cathedral Sunshine”, a song so perfect that JAMC could have written it when they were very special…And that is very good indeed.
The End of the Month Playlist Revue for April 2026
April 30, 2026
Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music from the last month. Picked by Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver & Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
The Track list is as follows:
Lone & Juga-Naut ‘Throw The Ember’
Horse Lords ‘Brain of the Firm’
Thrust The Mask & Mai Mai Mai ‘VULTURES’
Da Flyy Hooligan & Guilty Simpson ‘GUILTY VERDIX’
Rapswell, SQ & Dood Computer ‘Steampunk!’
Blu & Exile Ft Rome Streetz & ICECOLDBISHOP ‘Crumbs’
Tangients ‘Void’
Opus Kink ‘Come Over, Do Me Wrong’
Yazz Ahmed ‘Dawn Patrol’
Nduduzo Makhathini ‘Imvunge KaNtu’
Rave At Your Fictional Borders ‘Spoonbill’
Sulaf ‘Naada’
Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang ‘Awaken The Insects’
Morita Vargas ‘La Llave’
B Dolan Ft. Widowmaker ‘Wilhelm Scream’
Deeq ‘True Intentions’
The Gatekeepers Ft. Henry Kaiser ‘The End of Man’
The Conspiracy ‘Dungeness’
Ex Norwegian ‘I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight’
Frog ‘All The Things You Got’
Stephane C Cotti ‘Sunkissed Nina’
King Kashmere & BVA ‘I Smoke’
Andreas Tschopp ‘The Poetry of the In-Between’
The Three Seas ‘Prithibi’
Shye Ben Tzur, Johnny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express ‘Shemesh’
Lisa Kohl, Macie Stewart & Whitney Johnson ‘cough | laugh’
HOWL, Fran & Flora & Erin Robinsong ‘Weed Canticle’
Xqui ‘Dead City’
Carol Maia & Jeremy Gustin ‘Aloe’
Your Brother’s Keeper & Gary Bartz ‘Cauldron’
Monthly Playlist: April 2023: Circe, Micall Parknsun, Suki Sou, Carla Boregas, Ammar 808…
April 27, 2023
CHOICE MUSIC FROM THE LAST MONTH: TEAM EFFORT
The Monthly Revue playlist of 2023; a choice selection of tracks from the last month on the blog. Curated by Dominic Valvona with Matt Oliver on the Rap Control once more, and music from reviews by our latest recruit Gillian Stone plus Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea, Graham Domain and a returning Andrew C. Kidd. Expect to hear the unexpected as we leave you with this 45 track selection before we go off on a May sabbatical (well half of May, be back around the 15th with a packed schedule of choice music).
TRACKLIST//
Altın Gün ‘Çıt Çıt Çedene’
Ammar 808 Ft. Belhassen Mihoub ‘Yarima’
Les Abranis ‘Achethkhi’
Orti, Mayorga y Chiriboga ‘Muñequita Blanca’
Tuzeint ‘Mujer Divina’
United Grind Ft. Gamechangers ‘Doin This All Night’
King Kashmere & Alecs DeLarge ‘Most Blunted’
Neon Kittens ‘Loving Your Neighbour’s Wife’
Opus Kink ‘1:18’
Gabrielle Ornate ‘Delirium’
H. Hawkline ‘Plastic Man’
Land Of OOO ‘Matthew’
African Head Charge ‘A Bad Attitude’
Swans ‘Paradise Is Mine’
The Oldest Voice In The World ‘Talysh Mountain Border’
La Faute ‘The Crown’
fhae ‘Love You’
Alice ‘Triste et tout seul’
foil ‘Don’t Look’
Ali Murray ‘Spirit Of Unknowing’
Khotin ‘Lovely’
MultiTraction Orchestra ‘Reactor One’
Tobias Meinhart ‘Luna Park’
Deca & Ol’ Burger Beats ‘Blight’
Prastense & Shortrock Ft. Uncommon Nasa ‘A Broken Letter’
Micall Parknsun ‘Back’
Your Old Droog ‘Pronouns’
Illinformed Ft. Eric The Red ‘Doctor’
Silver Moth ‘Sedna’
Escupemetralla ‘Several specimens of ruminant animals with large udders chewing grass in a Cambridge meadow’
Sweeney ‘High School Damage’
Ale Hop & Laura Robles ‘Son de los diablos’
Cornelius Corvidae ‘Silver Flower’
James Howard ‘The Reckoning’
Draag ‘Mitsuwa’
Mike Cale ‘Slow Club’
Suki Sou ‘Petrichor’
Issei Herr ‘Aria’
Carla Boregas ‘A Cidade doe Outros’
Simon McCorry ‘Halcyon Fire’
CIEL ‘Somebody’
Tomato Flower ‘Destroyer’
Cindy ‘Earthly Belonging’
Circe ‘Riot Of Sunlight’
Chloe Gallardo ‘Bloodline’
The Inimitable Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Perusal Of New Releases
SINGLES
Fruit Bats ‘We Used To Live Here’
‘We Used To Live Here’ is a bittersweet lament full of sadness and hope. A nostalgic waltz through the past, a memory, a snapshot set to a country/folk beat; a stroll of beauty we all take in our lives. A lovely song, which I am very much taken with.
The Conspiracy ‘Venus’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Chunky Kinks-like guitar riffs sends one off to the adrift of nostalgic England; a place where chunky Kinks guitar riffs go when all hope of rock ‘n’ roll future dies. That is what I love about The Conspiracy: they are so bloody British. They take the past and wrap it in a warm post-punk pop guitar feel; a place where strangers meet and discuss the early albums by Cleaners From Venus and how XTC demos are always better than the finished article. Yes indeed, I love The Conspiracy one of the many great current British bands not clogging up the airwaves.
Opus Kink ‘1 : 18’
(Nice Swan Records)
I do like Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. So I see no reason not to like this, as they take all the early Bad Seeds charm – if charm is the word – and cover it with some youthful enthusiasm. Nothing I haven’t heard before, but Opus Kink does it pretty well. Plus for some reason I approve of a record label called Nice Swan Records. And there really is not much more to add.
CIEL ‘Somebody’
The sound of perfect guitar pop that is what the Ciel single is. Less than two minutes of jangly guitar, power pop hooks and pop punk attitude. A song so sweet it will rot your teeth, and because it is so short something we need not worry about. A lovely little gem of jangly power punk pop delight.
Tomato Flower ‘Destroyer’
Another short single. This must be the new thing, releasing singles less than two minutes in length. A thing that I hope to see more of, especially as this wonderful piece of pop buffoonery, a unhinged little gem of disposing the milk bottle in the grey area of wagstaffs once flowing blond locks, is a triumph. It has an uneasy easy feeling about it; the kind of song people who enjoy their nightmares the next morning might hum to themselves while looking through the situations vacant column knowing they do not want to work for any company willing to employ them. Tomato Flower are a band to watch out for, in a good way.
Cindy ‘Earthly Belonging’
The sound of a Summer jangle delight, at just under one and half minutes long it doesn’t give you time think about anything really. Just gives you time to wonder whether the album will be filled with such pop joy. And of course pop joy at any length is always welcome, and I look forward to the album (Why Not Now?).
Chloe Gallardo ‘Bloodline’
(Taxi Gauche)
Awwwww this is really beautiful. A really lovely sad song full of self doubt and regret. And when the young lady sings “I’m fucked up” it makes me want to give her a hug. Any song that succeeds in bringing out my natural fatherly instinct should only be applauded, for it proves Chloe Gallardo has the gift of writing from the heart and has plenty of empathy and soul. She also wraps it in a melody so beautiful it is like a discarded bubblegum wrapper blowing in a strong.
ALBUMS
Lemon Twigs ‘Everything Harmony’
(Captured Tracks) 5th May 2023
The Lemon Twigs are masters of taking influences from the masters of pop and rock and weaving blankets of musical warmth and reflection from them; whether it be the Beach Boys on ‘Corner Of My Eye’, The Carpenters on ‘Any Time Of The Day’, Simon And Garfunkel on ‘When Winter Comes Around’, Big Star on ‘What You Where Doing’…the list goes on as the album goes on. And plays and unwinds, each track casting shadows of former rock ‘n’ roll greats, and each track reminding you how special and magical classic pop music can be.
Everything Harmony is like listening to an amazing oldies radio show but never having heard any of the songs before. So take a trip in this musical time machine to go back and discover some quite wonderful new songs.
Unlettered ‘New Egypt’
I am indeed Slanted And Enchanted by this lovey 5 track EP of late 80s early 90s sounding alt rock; an invitation to revisit my youth and long for the days of John Peel and pubs shutting at 11pm, and myself being still young enough to care about these happenings. For New Egypt by Unlettered is a time box of sonic explosions a musical box of unease and bewildered fuzz bass whimsy; a 5 track wonder that takes the influences of JAMC and early Pavement and covers the tracks in a slightly tainted fairy dust of its own. And two of the tracks are available on a very ltd 7 inch single, which I am sure by the time you read this will be snapped up.
A word about the Author of these reviews::
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea joined the Monolith Cocktail team in January 2019. The cult leader of the infamous lo fi gods, The Bordellos, has released countless recordings over the decades with his family band of hapless unfortunates, and is the owner of a most self-deprecating sound-off style blog. Far too many projects, asides and oddities to mention, but his latest album is Songs For Cilla Black (released on Think Like A Key Music) threatened to trouble some online alternative chart for a week on Amazon – so things must be looking up.
Each week we send a mountain of new releases to the self-depreciating maverick to see what sticks. In his own idiosyncratic style and turn-of-phrase, pontificating aloud and reviewing with scrutiny an eclectic deluge of releases.
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