24 for 24: an alternative hip-hop retrospective
January 6, 2025
MATT OLIVER’S CHOICE ALT HIP-HOP ALBUMS FROM 2024
Blockhead – Mortality is Lit! (Future Archive)
Doctor Zygote – Beats to Use (B/C)
Jon Phonics – Say Less (B/C)
Nappa – Midnight Music (First Word)
Spectacular Diagnostics – If You Feel Like You Lost a Soul (Blah)
2024 saw a string of contrasting instrumental projects putting MPC-pushing fingers to pursed lips. A classic of drum machines and synths becoming sentient and boom bap being capitalised by AI, helmed by Jam Baxter cracking his knuckles on the album’s introduction, ‘Beats to Use’ by Doctor Zygote nods heads by the pendulum of luminous pocket watch. Each drug-named beat is an electro-fied exercise of 8-bit-ish skitters, of hot wiring, implied mania, lab techs knowing too much and late 90s data crunching, daring rhymers to break its gaze. Of similar rear view mirror unease, Nappa’s ‘Midnight Music’ fiends for shadowy, shivering, silver screen set pieces to twitch curtains by. Again, it’s all about what might be lurking around the corner – the setting this time a once grandiose country mansion now dilapidated and ripe for retribution the moment the clock strikes 12 – with added summoning of Aim’s ‘Demonique’,a well-placed Billy Ocean sample, and effective artwork marking the veteran UK producer as a master of the dark arts.
One for headphones to kill outside noise with, Jon Phonics’ prophetic ‘Say Less’ makes a quick-fire dash through the scruff of the streets sound comfortable and leisurely: a trip hoppy set of jazzy, drum-heavy loops and quick edits getting straight down to brass tacks and sparking gritty aromas and emotions. Just as slimline and equally never found fighting the clock, Spectacular Diagnostics (like Phonics, doubling up in 24 with the collaborative ‘Appetites’ LP), administers a series of psychedelic episodes on ‘If You Feel Like You Lost a Soul’, symptoms ranging from light-headedness to jaded paranoia to Return-of-the-DJ flashbacks with Marcus Pinn on the cuts, as the Chicagoan hits the sampler square in the chops. Back in instrumental mode after last year’s Monolith Cocktail-recommended ‘The Aux’ NYC’s Blockhead – another double 2024 releaser (‘Luminous Rubble’) – declares ‘Mortality is Lit!: a roaming 67 minute adventure primed for existentialism, but as much about what brightness lies on the other side of Alice’s looking glass – plus, its pot-pourri of styles and tempos puts audio-visual potential at its nimble fingertips.
Brother Ali & unJUST– Love & Service (Travelers Media LLC)
The quiet commentator watching the world like a hawk with his not-mad-just-disappointed demeanour, Brother Ali continues his customary pinpoint accuracy of observation, as regards to why ‘love is for all’ isn’t a universal truth. Showing a sliver of chagrin on ‘The Collapse’ and going in on ‘Manik’ (“want me to lose consciousness and choose violence I guess”), is the sort of simmering annoyance that made up him sticks from Minneapolis and relocate to Istanbul. Producer unJUST provides rolling funk with global lineage wading through deeply crated mothballs, and collages recalling when foreign sound sources were pie in the sky (appropriately, the album was conceived in a modern, fibre-optic way). Wise yet understatedly caustic through politics and oppression, and with ‘Cadillac’ a classic storyteller made more provocative by Ali’s poker face, nothing gets past ‘Love & Service’. Better yet, Brother Ali has another album readied for 2025.
Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Volume 1 (Lorna Vista)
Old skool giants in tandem – no, not Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre – eliciting one of those what if, state-of-the-game propositions before purism started getting shouted down. The wordplay/namechecks of opening track ‘Dreamin’’ put the album in a great position from which it never flags. Rhyming with a soft grin throughout, spirituality that elder statesmanship allows at the front of on ‘We’re On Our Way’ and ‘Wise Up’, Common knows that the soul overlaps and fitting of individual puzzle pieces will always just be, with Pete Rock’s MPC ESP giving the Chocolate Boy Wonder status a holy glow. The effortlessness of everything makes it sound as if ‘The Auditorium’ was constructed all in one go – no throwaway tracks, both in 14-strong quality and length (everything’s a ‘proper’ minimum of 3 minutes 45). The original what-if quickly wonders why ‘The Auditorium’ didn’t happen earlier; let’s hope ‘Volume One’ does actually mean there’s more to come.
Conway the Machine – Slant Face Killah (Drumwork Music Group)
The lasting observations of ‘Slant Face Killah’ are of when the beats react to Conway’s gangster focus that’s gun barrel straight (“I don’t care who we gotta score on, as long we win”), by forcing the needle to wobble out of the groove in a warped vinyl disorientation like your life flashing before your eyes. These pretty irresistible stomps, releasing the wrath, retribution and weight-stacking with rhymes getting by through force of conviction that re-up when comfortable in his lane (you can’t hate lines like “the G.O.A.T. rapper, Mount Rushmore should be resculptured with four of me”), have the effect of Conway as an iced out Pied Piper that you can’t help but fall in with. The more subtle beats don’t do the album justice, but there’s enough raw power and star studded assists (Method Man, Joey Bada$$, Ab-Soul, Swizz Beats, Alchemist) to cause a stampede.
Dead Players – Faster than the Speed of Death (High Focus)
The ultimate in odd couple-buddy cop algorithms, Jam Baxter and Dabbla as Dead Players tell modern folk tales with an intricacy that can be unceremoniously reduced to a one-fingered salute. Which is what makes ‘Faster than The Speed of Death’ such a thrill; it may sound like a James Bond lampoon, but two of the UK’s finest rhymers – sub-Lock Stock, slovenly scholastic meets rat-a-tat rambunction – are about finding the most exacting ways of dumping you on you backside both physically and mentally. Either that, or they’ll simply aim a boot to your groin (“I wouldn’t give me a millimetre of wiggle room if I was you”). Theirs is a telepathy able to simultaneously intertwine threads and go for self (the syllable symmetry of ‘Gasoline Sazerac’), swerving and serving GhostTown’s productions that soundtrack fables landing on your doorstep and ruthless flails through unsettling, voodoo-splashed landscapes (in no small part to its conception in Mexico). Compelling storytelling in geezer patter: ‘Dead Players, all the wins are genuine”.
Desert Camo – Desert Camo (Old Soul)
“This ain’t commercially packaged, I don‘t quote for a quota” – all you need to know about ‘Desert Camo’. Dusty and arid this is not, with Utah’s Heather Grey producing autumnal windows into the mind, loving funk and soul restorations possessing a wind-in-your-hair freedom, leaving itself open to bracing gusts (such as the rippling disquiet of ‘Sun Lord Mixtape’ and ‘Eyes & Ears’) that infiltrates the idyllic scenery. Pulling his Californian collar up, Oliver the 2nd on the mic counteracts and complements as stoical and softly cynical, never found looking gift horses in the mouth – the rustle and crumble of grounded leaves under a size nine boot, if you will. Quelle Chris and Nolan the Ninja guest on an album that for all its after hours pointers of easing you down, is one to equip yourself with when nothing’s gonna get in your way.
Essa & Pitch 92 – Resonance (First Word)
We’ve heard nowhere near enough of Essa pka Yungun in recent years, one of the UK’s comfiest and most natural on the mic and whose classic ‘The Essance’ received a twentieth anniversary re-up last year. Riding with Pitch 92 (Sparks’ ‘Full Circle’ and Pablo’s Maker’s ‘Paper Planes’ in 2024) on production, Essa’s effortlessness on the mic and verbal spaciousness – a place for every word, and every word in it’s place – creates a friendly familiarity that a) makes you think you’re being performed for personally, and b) makes the hip-hop album for those that think they don’t like hip-hop. Soulful, grown joints such as ‘Right Now’ and ‘That’s The One’ lead the vibe that ‘Resonance’ has plenty of live band potential, where egos are left at the door, confidence is consummately managed (“an album of the year contender” is all in good taste), and crowdpleasing stories like ‘Sweet’ come correct. ‘Resonance’ = right for heavy rotation.
Gangrene – Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (ALC Records)
Alchemist and Oh No reconvening appears to have slightly slipped under the radar in 24, or rather, oozed from the sewer from which previous albums ‘Gutter Water’, ‘Vodka & Ayahuasca’ and ‘You Disgust Me’ metastasised. As expected it’s worst fears realised with sludgy boom bap, Godfather/Untouchables-isms and B-movie flexes on ‘Dinosaur Jr’ framing the fires of its two titans selling you the seediest of underbellies. Alchemist as ever is at pains to explain psyches in that rushed-yet-strident tone of his, with Oh No’s piloting flying close to off the handle. Not horrorcore per se despite titles such as ‘Oxnard Water Torture’ and ‘The Gates of Hell’, but hitmen who want to make your exit memorable – ‘Watch Out’ has the nerve to flip Slick Rick’s ‘The Show’/Inspector Gadget theme – as they fine-tune the colours of the fever dreams they occupy (even offering a diversion tactic on the peaceful ‘Cloud Surfing’). An album that’s the correct call.
Juga-Naut & Mr Brown – Relative to Craft (We Stay True)
New personal bests in 2024 from Juga-Naut having also released the mustard ‘Bem II’ LP, ’Relative to Craft’ is another blessing of liquid wordplay with personality pushing past hooks, connection of ideas/“dictionary rap”, more riches of pop culture references (as well as making the seemingly mundane pop and sparkle) and that characteristic ostentatiousness and gentlemanly muscle (“display the grace and decorum of a true G”) indicative of a local Nottingham boy done good (“the tastemaker, the gatekeeper, the bricklayer, the mick-taker”) whose successes you can’t begrudge, still seeking due respect from those who haven’t cottoned on yet. Mr Brown’s production on ‘Relative to Craft’ is dapper funk and soul with a faint hint of threat, parping horns and romantic strings, befitting of one of the UK’s best decorated, getting lower and more dimly lit on the pukka ‘Camel Coat’ but otherwise showing that life is good. Simply, bespoke UK hip-hop.
Lupe Fiasco – Samurai (1st & 15th)
When Lupe Fiasco is on song he immediately re-enters the thinking of the planet’s best emcees. ‘Samurai’, a loosely conceptual half hour about a battle rapper’s theology (with an interesting inspiration part of its backstory), is Lupe totally at one with the mic as if he has the hip-hop game on a string. Top to bottom production from Soundtrakk is funk and soul for lush and humble lazy days, that perhaps not immediately helpful to bars taking out competition, let Lupe roam free (‘Cake’), theorise clearly, tell stories with a sweet suppleness recalling the joy of ‘Kick Push’ from all those years ago, and pluckily just do his thing. It’s the classic leg sweep of setting you up for attacks you don’t anticipate, but this is never an aggressive album that’s more about the honour than the body count, an immersive experience to pick the bones from on every listen.
Marv Won – I’m Fine Thanks For Asking (Mello Music Group)
The Detroit day-to-day chronicled by Marv Won (“the urban legend, smart enough to know that words are weapons”), determines “life is a movie that has a mask and gloves”. Narrative flair commenting on domestic violence and ‘Roc Nation Brunch’ starting as a jokey namecheck, before encouraging empowerment over a flip of ‘It Was a Good Day’, means the album title’s readymade ambiguity become autobiographical (struggles necessitating a reassuring, everything’s-gonna-work-out interlude), and perhaps a nod to underrated status. Resolutely under no illusion, within the first two tracks he’s hinted at personal vulnerability (not confessional as such, more this-is-me statement of fact) ahead of unloading by any means necessary, though Marv Won’s burdens are quick to rein him back in. Never far from being grounded by his beliefs (though the legitimate reasons of ‘Nosy’ raise a laugh), it’s a rich album (better than fine, in fact) with an occasional rough seam.
Midnight Sons – Money Has No Owners (Chong Wizard)
Zilla Rocca and Chong Wizard advise you to invest in this laidback-and-kicking-it LP with People Under The Stairs fingerprints all over what is a touchstone for true skool beats and rhymes, crowned by an impossibly, perfectly placed Mobb Deep sample on ‘Marathon Man’. While it’s undeniably in the entertainment business (the sunny ‘New Boss’; Rocca eschewing hip-hop’s champagne dreams with quips about his Bandcamp sales), listen-on-listen it’s a tougher, broodier nugget than it lets on. The demeanour throughout remains for top-down travels, but as the Wizard weaves old soul samples for when the temperature starts dipping, a shift in mood, wit and securities, such as on ‘Men Never Take Advice’, is only a scratch of the surface away in the album’s second half. ‘Money…’ comes out bouncing like a bad cheque, but leaves you with more food for thought: should be a perfect showstopper on stage.
Mopes – Deadowbrook (Strange Famous)
Pitching somewhere between Scooby Doo mystery, GhostFace caper and certificate 18 slasher, Mopes dares a bunch of emcees to venture to ‘Deadowbrook’ on an entertaining splatter rap concept. Giving it some heavy metal devil fingers thumbing through a comic book, Mopes’ Halloween soundtrack, with beats mixing fake blood and seas of claret, inspires some great tag-teaming between Strange Famous’ finest investigators, whose knees you can hear knocking together, or who are prepared to dive straight into the belly of the beast (“kill or be killed…it’s a stake through the heart and crucifix in the fist”). The album’s essence is this mix of performance: matter-of-fact, everyday weirdness stands beside delusions, conspiracies and paranoia. Buck 65, BlackLiq (totally reading the script on ‘Sneakerbox’) and Sage Francis lead the out-of-towners with pitchforks and flashlights, but everyone’s who’s summoned plays their part in mythologising the ‘Deadowbrook’ legend.
Moses Rockwell & Plain Old Mike – Regular Henry Sessions (HipNott)
Plain Old Mike is on the beats, Moses Rockwell is on the mic, and the ‘Regular Henry Sessions’ are an inventory of good old-fashioned hip-hop basics and quality control. Their ease of approachability is full of 60s/psych/funk samples, Homeboy Sandman/Open Mike Eagle-style deliveries, self-deprecation (“betting on my last good braincell…I hope that our tape sells”), car-chase cool (‘Duck Sauce’), and the feel is that their mission statement is to rock up wherever, and knock it out the park with a mix of no pretention and almost downplayed craft. ‘Regular Henry…’ sneaks its way out of the New York underground so as to get you checking their passport and contending claims that they “live on a prayer and sleep on a knife’s edge”, but you can’t front on this dynamic duo genuinely enjoying one another’s creativity.
Pastense – Sidewalk Chalk, Parade Day Rain (Uncommon Records)
A model representation of scything hip-hop from a lapsed future, made loud from blacklisted drum machines, sleazy synths where rats have gnawed through the wiring, and producer Uncommon Nasa backsliding to 90s indie ideals. The unflinchingly gruff pessimist Pastense walks through the rubble he may or may not have created, voice raw from trying to make himself heard in the backfire of civilization falling, the star of a disaster movie where’ll there be no redemptive sequel (“today was better than yesterday, but still I’m fearful” likely a big hit in tattoo parlours across the world). Though ‘Broken Statues’ sneaks in some funkiness, ‘Journey Back to Reality’ wholly reflects Pastense’s mindstate of “aint no future in your frontin’”, rarely coming up for air as his list of grievances dips over a horizon of corrupted neon. An unwieldy, angle-grinding behemoth to submit to.
Revival Season – Golden Age of Self Snitching (Heavenly Recordings)
Blasting out of Atlanta – “the way I be coming in like the intro music from Jaws” – and with an eclectic mindstate bringing GA brethren OutKast to mind (there’re bits of Death Grips and clipping in there too, while sharing label space with Kneecap makes sense at the home of Doves and Baxter Drury), Reveal Season begins as a thoroughly bracing experience. Jonah Swilley’s production encourages sharp intakes of breaths amidst shards of 4×4 punk rock beats, ramped up funk and reverb, and Brandon Evans’ livewire rhymes look for a crowd to dive into bare-chested while wearing out the stage (“I’m going in cos I don’t know no different”). ‘Boomerang’ and the gangster ‘Chop’ herald the album’s second half doing more ‘hip-hop’ jams, getting their Beastie Boys in the basement with bass pedals on. First time listening, you never know where it’s headed, but every subsequent listen is still a joyride.
Vincent, The Owl & Nick Catchdubs – 100 Proof (Fool’s Gold)
Only eight tracks and 22 minutes long, as per their previous collaborative parameters, but featuring some of the year’s most straight-up neck snaps and brags bringing home the bacon, ‘100 Proof’ is the ultimate shoulder-high ghettoblaster parade for soon-to-be-shook subway patrons. Meyhem Lauren, Chris Crack and Fatboi Sharif are along for the ride as Jersey City’s Vincent, The Owl – loudmouth, but only so everyone can hear – goes all in with flying show-n-prove colours and nostrils flaring like a prize bull, threatening to go haywire on ‘Bruv My Luv’ and ‘Venti Valente’, complete with a call-n-response hook that’s daft enough to sound completely in context but also old skool-appreciative. Catchdubs catches fire with the knowledge of what’s unpolished and to-the-point, pushing kicks and breaks through brick walls for front rows to bang their heads in unison. The set up is throwback, and the reward is a knackered rewind button.
Vitamin G & Mr Slipz – Prophet of Doom (High Focus)
Potent UK umbrage taken by Mr Slipz’ spectrally-dipped beats that knock all the way through with Oriental-themed, way of the warrior lineage (a default setting maybe, but one that a lot of producers get wrong), and Vitamin G’s brim low, fuck around and find out-rhymes that achieve Zen in dismissing all comers (peaking on ‘From The Drop’). The undeviating consistency reflects the pair’s dedication to working to a hard, pre-ordained, after dark gameplan, with a glance of neo-soul (another default that can go either way) not found lagging thanks to Vitamin’s potency, and naturally providing a more introspective route (‘Vulnerable Youngens’) for the album to follow and a different shade of darkness to chase. Both walk through the valley of the shadow of death and come out smelling of roses, with ‘The Internet’ featuring Jehst and Farma G as succinct an address of modern living as you could wish for.
Wish Master & Kong the Artisan – His Story (Noel & Poland)
Cappo collaborator Kong the Artisan came up trumps in 2024 with J Littles on the ‘Massa’ LP and with Guilty Simpson (who features here) for ‘Giants of the Fall’. The very deliberate stylings of Bristol’s Wish Master leave a big mark on KTA’s slick, slinky, sticky backdrops that can prick the atmosphere and plunge everything into darkness at the drop of a hat. WM follows suit, the sort of boss mode flow allowing itself time to think, that’s so sure of itself and can fill a room with the view that nothing has to be complicated. ‘His Story’ can be broken down into two acts: the retrospective, opening title track is a curveball, as when followed by ‘Masterpiece’ with the ever abrasive Datkid, everything becomes smoked out and tinted, Further along the line, Wish Master values taking a reflective moment, as if to not take his crown-wearing privilege for granted. Shout to Delia Smith on ‘Let’s Have It’ as well.
Your Old Droog – Movie (Rem-U-Lak Records)
“I’m spitting life sentences, you a slap on the wrist”: either Your Old Droog has been a master of keeping fans on tenterhooks down the years with his series of mini-albums, or a fully-realised 17-track piece (complete with easy-to-ignore skits), is worthy for its shock value. Unlike the critically acclaimed TV series that then flops at the box office, everything’s here from scene one – the punchlines and putdowns (the wince-inducing ‘What Else?’), the adlibs, the namechecks, the cockiness, the cold-veined stories (‘Roll Out’), and the seamless transition towards more compassionate material (‘I Think I Love Her’, ‘Grandmother’s Lessons’, the clever angle of ‘How Do You Do It?’) completing/confirming his performance circle. Owning the funk and mobster movements lead by Harry Fraud and Madlib on production, “Bob Dylan without the harmonica…y’all ain’t nothing but mall cops or hall monitors” is a silver screen superstar.
Honorable mentions; Cappo – Starve; LIFE Long & Noam Chopski – In The Day of the Night; Mark Ski – Recless; MegaRan & Jermiside – The Lure Of Light; Muja & Dub Sonata – Break the Stereo; OldBoy Rhymes – The Sane Asylum; Philmore Greene – The Grand Design; Seez Mics – With SFR; Sly Moon – No Gamble No Future; and Vega7 the Ronin – Kawasaki Killers.
Most Loved and Enjoyed Highlighted Albums of 2024: Part Two: M – Z
December 16, 2024
Part Two of the Monolith Cocktail’s most loved and favourite albums of 2024 lists: from M to Z. Put together by Dominic Valvona and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
Picking up on where we left off with Part One of the Monolith Cocktail’s most enjoyed and loved albums of 2024, Part Two continues to list all entries in alphabetical order, starting with M. So without further ado, here is the concluding spread of chosen albums – although anything we reviewed during the year should be considered a winner in that regard.
M_____________
Felix Machtelinckx ‘Night Scenes’ (Subexotic Records)
Chosen Dominic Valvona, reviewed originally by Graham Domain/Review
“The new album from Belgium singer, songwriter and producer Felix Machtelinckx is a strange album. In part electronic, it has an ethereal dreamlike quality where the music seems distant and the vocals sound as though they have been beamed through space from a distant galaxy.
Night Scenes is an intriguing album that is hard to define, but one that grows in definition, depth and subtle beauty with each play. It might prove to be a contender for album of the year.” GD
Marcelo D2 & SambaDrive ‘Direct-to-Disc’ (Night Dreamer)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Transforming choice tracks from his back catalogue of solo albums, put out between 1998 and 2013, the influential and acclaimed Brazilian rapper Marcelo D2 replaces the samples, breaks and scratching for a live, reactive Latin-jazz and samba trio.
As part of the championed ‘direct-to-disc’ series overseen by the Night Dreamer label, the South American hip-hop legend laid down ten performed tracks backed by the brilliant SambaDrive direct onto vinyl at the Haarlem Artone Studio in Holland. With no cuts, no edits, as little interference as necessary, these recordings sound near spontaneous, in the moment. The attitude, the passion, the crammed-in flow and more peppered lyricism is still very much on show, only now lilted towards a jazzier and Latin-fuelled backing that balances the urgency and freewheeling of the rapping with something more pliable, dissipating, funky and stylishly cool. Marcelo D2 & SambaDrive have created something very special; not so much an improvement as an alternative fruitful vision of Samba-rap. “ DV
Luce Mawdsley ‘Northwest & Nebulous’ (Pure O Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Over several years now the former Mugstar guitarist Luce Mawdsley has progressively shorn the more predatory slurred spoken-word mise-en-scenes and lurid, sleazy torturous self-harm from their music; gradually removing the “verbasier” programmed-like demonic effects from their voice and freeing themselves from a circled abyss of sonnets.
An holistic record that rescores the English scenery and places held near for Luce, the unfolding stages are both beautifully conveyed and hallucinatory in equal measure; a retold fairytale without any prompts, and without a human cast; a window in on the enchantments but also non-hierarchical, non-binary and free nature of the wilds and geography: a metaphor for Luce’s struggles to find an identity that feels natural, safe and unburdened. One part classical, one part Americana, and one part folksy (a touch of the Celtic too) there’s still a very modern twist to what we may identify as the familiar: imagine Prokofiev on an acid trip, or Ry Cooder in an English pasture laying down breadcrumbs for Hampshire & Foat.” DV
The Mining Co. ‘Classic Monsters’ (PinDrop Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Continuing to mine his childhood the London-based singer-songwriter Michael Gallagher once again produces a songbook of throwbacks to his formative adventures as a kid growing up in Donegal in Ireland.
His previous album almanac, Gum Card, touched upon a silly fleeting dabble with the occult, but this latest record (his sixth so far) is filled with childhood memories of hammy and more video nasty style supernatural characters, alongside a whole host of “weirdos”, “freaks” and “stoners”.
Once more back in his childhood home, frightened to turn the lights off, checking for Christopher Lee’s Dracula and the Wolfman under his bed, yet daring himself to keep watching those Hammer house of horror b-movies, Salem’s Lot and more bloody shockers, Gallagher links an almost lost innocence with a lifetime of travails, cathartic obsessions and searching desires.
I’m still astounded by the lack of support for his music or exposure, as Gallagher’s The Mining Co. vehicle is worthy of praise, airplay and attention. Hopefully it will be sixth album lucky for the Irishman.” DV
Hannah Mohan ‘Time Is A Walnut’ (Egghunt Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Geographically settling long enough to pen this solo songbook offering, but anything but settled emotionally, the former And The Kids vocalist-songwriter Hannah Mohan attempts to process the break-up of all break-ups.
Mohan rides the roller coaster of a drawn-out break-up with quirkiness and vulnerability, turning tortuous heartache into one of the best and most rewarding songbooks of the year. Mohan may have let her soul sing out, as she comes to accept an emotional turbulent period of stresses and anxieties and pain. But whether she’s finally pulled through the other side or not is up to you the listener.” DV
Jamison Field Murphy ‘It Has To End’ (Tomato Flower)
Chosen by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea/Review
“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.” BBS
N______________
NCD Instigators ‘Swimming With Sharks’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Chosen by BBS/Review
“The NCD Instigators were Tony, Brendan, and Desi Bannon, three brothers from Newcastle County Down in Northern Ireland who decided to form a band in the 80s together after many years of playing in various other bands. They took their love of metal, prog, folk and rock and home recorded several albums for their own pleasure, burning them onto CDRs to give to friends and family and playing the occasional gig.
There is just something quite magical about this album, and it is sad that now it is only being released years after the fact and that Tony (bass and vocals) is no longer with us, having passed away in 2020. Hopefully this release will ignite some long overdue interest in this underground lost great band from Northern Ireland.” BBS
Neon Kittens ‘It’s A NO Thing’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Chosen by BBS/Review
“The Kittens have a magic and their own sound: The guitar wizardry of Andy G (In a ideal world David Bowie would not be dead and Andy would be his guitarist songwriter partner) and the spoken, I am going to shove my stiletto shoe heel into your yearning heart, vocal coolness of Nina K. The Neon Kittens are one of those rare bands; we need them more than they need us.” BBS
Neutrals ‘New Town Dream’
Chosen by BBS/Review
“This is splendid stuff, an album of supreme guitar jangle, of well written and catchy songs about life in a small town that at times musically reminds me of early Wedding Present and The Pastels with such wonderfully British lyrics; although I wonder when “Travel Agents Window’s” was written as he mentions buying a bag of chips for 50p, when was the last time you managed to buy a bag of chips for 50p? Maybe life in this small town isn’t as bad as the Neutrals think. I do love this album though. I love the romance of everyday life songs, like little mini-Kitchen sink dramas filmed in grainy black and white. This is quite a gem of an album.” BBS
Not My Good Arm ‘Coffee’
Chosen by BBS/Review
“They take Rock ‘n’ Roll, Ska, Punk and Soul and tie it up and skin it alive whilst berating it with the sort of political soulful joyful nous that hasn’t been heard or witnessed since the Mighty Dexy’s Midnight Runners held the Top Of The Pops viewers enrapt with their explosion of attitude and musical good taste back in the early 80’s. Yes indeed, Coffee is a Northern indie soulful romp of an album by a band that I can imagine being a hell of a good night out to watch and by the looks of it gig on a very regular basis. So, keep your eyes scanned as they may be coming to your locality soon. I understand you can pick up a copy of Coffee on CD from their gigs, as by the looks of it they’ve not yet updated their bandcamp: probably too busy putting the fun into funk.” BBS
O_______________
OdNu + Ümlaut ‘Abandoned Spaces’ (Audiobulb)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Drawn together on what proves to be a deeply intuitive union for the Audiobulb label, the Buenos Aires-born but NY/Hudson resident Michel Mazza (the OdNu of that partnership) and the US, northern Connecticut countryside dweller Jeff Düngfelder (Ümlaut) form a bond on their reductive process of an album, Abandoned Spaces.
Tracks are given plenty of time to breathe and resonate, to unfurl spells and to open-up primal mirage-like and psyche-concocted soundscapes from the synthesized and played. And although this fits in the ambient electronic fields of demarcation, Abandoned Spaces is so much more – later on in the second half of the eight-track album, the duo expresses more rhythmic stirrings and even some harsher (though we are not talking caustic, coarse or industrial) elements of mystery, inquiry and uncertainty.” DV
Berke Can Özcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson ‘It Was Always Time’ (We Jazz)
Chosen by DV/Review
““It Was Always Time”, and it was always meant to be, for the telepathic readings of both creative partners in this project prove synchronised and bound, no matter how far out and off-kilter their experiments of curiosity go or take them.
The Turkish polymath drummer and sound designer Berke Can Özcan and his foil the Brooklyn-based baritone/alto saxophonist and flutist Jonah Parzen-Johnson, have worked together before, namely on the former’s Lycian atavistic geographical infused and inspired Twin Peaks album, last year.
But before even that, back in the April of 2022, Parzen-Johnson found himself boarding a flight to Istanbul to perform a one-off gig with Özcan. Incredibly the two had never met until thirty minutes before going on stage for a soundcheck. The gig must have proved a creative, dynamic success as both musicians have now come together under the equal billing of this new album, recorded for the Helsinki-based hub We Jazz.
From the dubby to tribal, the esoteric to cloud gazing, Berke Can Özcan and Jonah Parzen-Johnson play out their fears and joys across an exciting album of possibilities and expressive, erring on the heavenly at one point, feelings. A fruitful combination that will endure, and hopefully reconvene in the future.” DV
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Pastense Ft. Uncommon Nasa ‘Sidewalk Chalk, Parade Day Rain’ (Uncommon Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Continuing to attract and surround himself with like-minded curious, inventive artisans of prose from the underground leftfield hip-hop scene, the Long and Staten Islands’ rapper and producer/beatmaker Uncommon Nasa now facilitates Pastense’s return with a post-pandemic opus of metaphysical, cosmological unravelled consciousness alchemy.
With no let-up in the quality of the expansive lyrical metaverse, tech comes in conflict with the forest’s birds and nature’s fight for survival amongst the concrete and chemically poisoned wells of so-called progression on an artistically simulated and stimulating canvas of thoughts and connectivity.
Pastense, in partnership with Nasa, creates a most excellent mind-expanding universe, and in doing so, one of the year’s best hip-hop albums: this is an artist and record worth championing.” DV
Ivo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille ‘Embracing The Unknown’ (Mahakala Music) Chosen by DV/Review
“A true “cross-generational” (with two of the participants born in the 1930s) coming together of avant-garde, freeform and hard bop talent, the ensemble quartet of Ivo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille “embrace” experiment. You could call it an extemporized gathering, with no prior arrangements and not much in the way of dialogue.
Making the abstract seem even more so, yet somehow conveying mood, emotions and self-expression, this descriptive and totally improvisational master class in free-thought-jazz somehow captures the internal struggles and reflections of the mind during an age of high anxiety, rage, divisiveness and unease.” DV
James P M Philips ‘Spite, Bile & Beauty’ (Turquoise Coal)
Chosen by BBS/Review
“Punk, folk, rock and a medieval becoming strangeness all collide to bring us another album of psychedelic whimsy from the head and heart of James P M Phillips: an album of joy, sadness, humour and pain. Whether it be the quite wonderfully disturbingly jagged “My Head Is Full Of Rats” or the quite beautiful folk strum of “My New Friend”, James has his own unique way of making music and writing songs; dipping his own original thought patterns into a hybrid of musical genre hopping eccentricity.” BBS
Poppycock ‘Magic Mothers’
Chosen by BBS/Review
“The whole album is joy. I love the mix of jazz, folk and psychedelic pop: alas, if only the last Zombies album was as enjoyable as this.” BBS
Pound Land ‘Live At New River Studios/ Worried’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Chosen by DV, but reviewed originally by Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
“This new album by Pound Land is a double whammy of an affair. The first side recorded live, captures the band without guitar but with a rather fetching squelching punk rock synth suppling the health out of the watching masses. Pound Land are of course a punk and post punk rock outfit of political magnitude. A band that captures the atmosphere of living in this divided land we call the United Kingdom and make a hell of a fine racket while capturing the atmosphere as the live side of this cassette magically proves. The second side is taken up by the thirty-one-minute track, “Worried”, which is a fine sonic journey of sadness, horror and experimental splendour that takes in dub, punk, and electro soundscapes; a dream of a nightmare track that really needs to be heard by all.” BBS
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Revival Season ‘Golden Age Of Self Snitching’ (Heavenly Recordings)
Chosen by DV
Totally missed at the time by us (well, we did feature ‘Chop’ on the February edition of the Monthly playlist), this incredible union between Brandon “BEZ” (B Easy) Evans and beatmaker/producer Jonah Swilley is so “now” it hurts. A synergy that captures the times it was forged in, Golden Age Of Self–Snitching crafts electronic dance music both dystopian and club, hip-hop, 2-Step, the kind of fusions that TV On The Radio used to generate, locked beats and breaks and dub into a commentary on societal change, protestation and revolution. An essential flow of concentrated angst, frustrations and observation criminally overlooked, and which should make every end of year list of there was any real justice in this god damn forsaken world. DV
Kevin Robertson ‘The Call Of The Sea’
Chosen by BBS/Review
““The Call Of The Sea” is the fourth solo album from Kevin Robertson, a man who is also one of the vocalists/guitarists from Scottish guitar band The Vapour Trails. And here we have him once again showering us with sublime melodies. Melodies that are wrapped in Byrdsian like guitar jangle and vocal harmonies that have just stepped from scratched vinyl copies of ye olde mid-sixties beat boom collectables stopped for a cup of the finest Earl Grey with late 80’s early 90’s Scottish indie guitar wunderkinds’ Teenage Fanclub and Superstar while scribbling on postcards to send their love to those old scouse reprobates Shack and The La’s and the Coral.” BBS
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Salem Trials ‘View From Another Window’ (Metal Postcard Records)
Chosen by BBS/ Review
“The Salem Trials are clinically rambunctious. They are never further than being an arm’s length away from genius. They have their own sound: their own model of post-punk if you like. They take all the usual subjects (The Fall, Wire, Gang Of Four, the Blue Orchids and Subway Army) and mix them with a no wave sound coming from the streets of New York in the late 70s early 80s. They release albums constantly – this is actually the first of 2024 though, and fits in nicely with the army of their previously released albums.
Andy still being the inspired guitarist that he is, riffing like a cross between Keith Richards, Tom Verlaine and Brix Smith with a army of admirers gathering in her Dis guarded nightwear, and Russ still being the nutter on the bus wearing the splatter ballistic cop t-shirt and spitting feathers at the naked chickens queuing up outside to be the first in line for the latest modern contraption while he is creating art at its best out of the fuzzy felt of yesteryears clowns hats. You really have to love the Salem Trials.” BBS
The Salisman Communal Orchestration ‘A Queen Among Clods’ (Cruel Nature Records)
Chosen by BBS/Review
“I love the psychedelic otherworldliness of SCO. I love the way the lead vocalist phrases his words. He sings with the soul of an sad imperfect empathetic angel, you actually believe in what he is saying, “[If I Wasn’t ]So Godam Blue” is so goddamn beautiful, and with some pretty wonderful lyrics: “remember those days when I pissed in the street, well that is not my style anymore”. Pure heartbreak poetry at its best. The following track “Rum Punch” is as equally beautiful, a psych country-tinged beauty full of sadness and pathos.
I really do love this album SCO have the perfect blend of magic and tragic, and “A Queen Among Clods” is defiantly one of the most impressive and heartfelt original sounding albums I have had the pleasure to write about this year. A true stunner.” BBS
Sly & The Family Drone ‘Moon Is Doom Backwards’ (Human Worth)
Chosen by DV/Review
“A wrestling match on the barricades between the forces of Marxism, Populism, the consumer culture, nepotism, and encroaching forces of a technological dystopia, the collective forces of this group provide a reification-style soundtrack to the crisis of our times. Often this means escaping via a trapdoor to beyond the ether, or, to off worlds and mysterious alien landscapes. But we’re always drawn back into the horror, stresses and contorted darkness of reality; a sonic PTSD manifested in industrial noises from Capitalism’s workshop.
Poltergeist’s jamming activity, fizzles of sound waves and transmissions from the chthonian, ghost ship bristled low horns and higher pitched shrieks, bestial tubular growls, cymbal shaves, disturbances in the matrix, a short melody of pastoral reeds, drums that sounding like a beating. This is the sound of Moon Is Doom Backwards; pushing and striving to score this hideous age through the cerebral and chaotic.” DV
Juanita Stein ‘The Weightless Hour’ (Agricultural Audio)
Chosen by DV/Review
“And perhaps it all comes to this, that after twenty-five years in the music business as both the frontwoman of the Howling Bells and as an established solo artist Juanita Stein has finally found the strength of her own voice and creative force. Stepping out from behind the safeguards of noisy rock to find that silence resonates deeper and further, Juanita erases everything but the most vital, emotionally receptive and connective elements from her music to produce a sagacious, confident (despite the fragility and vulnerability in places) songbook of personal memories.
The Weightless Hour is the perfect album from a great voice and songwriter, who’s now able to find that distance from the events of the past and a new sense of reflected candidness and honesty in motherhood. Juanita’s true self and strength opens-up, the noise diminished for something far more powerful. Not so much defiant as confident. A definite album of the year.” DV
Mohammad Syfkhan ‘I Am Kurdish’ (Nyahh)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Like an ascending stairway, or flowing and resonating with evocative melodious magic, lute stirring ruminations sweep over Arabia and surrounding regions; referencing anonymous, collective and some original-penned compositions and dances to Islam’s ‘golden age’ of fairytale (‘A Thousand And One Nights’); Kurdish pride in the face of repression (the title-track of course) and its peoples’ struggle for independence and respect (‘Do Not Bow’); lovelorn enquires (‘Do You Have A Lover Or Not?’) and the missed daily activities, interactions of life back home in Raqqa. Across it all the hand drums tab, rattle and roll; the cello arches, weeps and bows in sympathy; and the bouzouki lute swoons and rings out the most nimble and beautiful of ached and more up-tempo giddy tunes.” DV
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The Tearless Life ‘Conversations With Angels’ (Other Voices Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Both a transference of souls from the now cremated – or laid to rest, depending on your choice of metaphorical ritual death – Vukovar plus a host of orbiting “other voices”, the make-up of The Tearless Life remains relatively, and intentionally, shrouded, obscured.
Taking a while to materialize, The Tearless Life’s debut opus is both the announcement of new age, but also a bridge between this latest incarnation and the former Vukovar invocation – they are in essence, a band that continues to haunt itself. Old bonds remain, sound wise and lyrically, but with a new impetus of murky, vapoured, gossamer, mono and ether effected solace, tragic romanticism, pleaded and afflatus love, spiritual inspired yearning and allegorical hunger.
Talking to angels, conversing with both the seraph and the fallen, the daemons and spirits of the alchemist’s alternative dimensions, the group transduce the writings of that most visionary seer John Dee, the opium eater Thomas De Quincey, William Blake, and the far more obscure Samuel Hubbard Scudder, who’s 19th century, fairy-like, Frail Children of the Air: Excursions Into The World Of Butterflies publication of philosophical essays lends its title to a song of tubular airy manifestations, distortion, wisped spiralling piques and beautified touching emotional anguish.
Conversations With Angels is epic; the first step in, what I hope, will be a fruitful conversation to divine enlightenment, curiosity, psychological and philosophical intelligent synth-pop.” DV
TRAINING + Ruth Goller ‘threads to knot’ (Squama Recordings)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Two connective forces in the experimental, inventive contemporary jazz scenes combine their experiences and art on this sonic and musical hybrid.
There’s enough threads, nodes and junctions in between to feed off, but both partners in this knotted tension and more spiritual, lofty, airy and aria-like ether Linda Sharrock “ah’d” fusion of influences and prompted sparks of inspiration read each other very well. Directed by, and riffing off, the “Exquiste Corpse” parlour game so beloved by the Surrealist movement, the trio of players expand beyond the jazz idiom into shadow worlds, the mysterious, supernatural, cosmic and near industrial.
Pretty much out on the peripherals of jazz, ascending, flexing, rasping, soothing and breathing iterations and more untethered expressions of freeform music, TRAINING + Ruth Goller fashion organic fusions from a process that promises the wild, tumultuous, wrangled and strange, yet also provides the melodic and dreamy.” DV
Twile (featuring Laura Lehtola) “Hunger Moon” (Cruel Nature Records)
Chosen by BBS/Review
““Hunger Moon” is an album that combines folk, trip-hop, electronica and magic, and weaves together a tapestry of undiluted majestic swoonincity that has not been heard since the Portishead debut album “Dummy”.
Hunger Moon really does not put a foot out of place as it flows and hooks you into its warm strangeness, cradling you and sweeping you up to a safe place where dreams are free to play and cast shadows over your deepest thought and emotions. Eight tracks to soundtrack you as you come down from your highest high. Truly magnificent.” BBS
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Various ‘Athos: Echoes From The Holy Mountain’ (FLEE)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Context is vital: history essential. For the publishing house/record label/curatorial/ethnologist platform FLEE has spent a year unravelling, digging and excavating and researching their grand project dedicated to the Athos monastic community.
No one quite puts in the work that FLEE and their collaborators do, with the scope and range of academia wide and deep. Musically, across a double album vinyl format there’s a split between those artists, DJs and producers that have conjured up new peregrinations influenced by the source material, and a clutch of recordings taken in the 1960s and in recent times of the Daniilaioi Brotherhood Choir, Father Lazaros of the Grigoriou monastery, Father Germanos of the Vatopedi and Father Antypas – there’s also attributed performances to the Iviron and Simonopetra monasteries too.
As an overall package however, Echoes From The Holy Mountain is a deep survey of a near closed-off world and all the various attached liturgical and historical threads. FLEE reawaken an age-old practice, bringing to life traditions that, although interrupted and near climatically hindered, stretch back a millennium or more. No dusted ethnographical academic study for students but an impressive and important purview of reverential dedication and a lifetime of service, this project offers new perspectives and takes on the afflatus. Yet again the platform’s extensive research has brought together an international cast, with the main motivation being to work with tradition to create something respectful but freshly inviting and inquisitive. The historical sound, seldom witnessed or heard by outsiders, is reinvigorated, as a story is told through sonic exploration.” DV
Various Artists ‘I’m Glad About It: The legacy Of Louisville Gospel 1958 – 1981’ (The Louisville Story Program/Distributed Through Light In The Attic) Chosen by DV/Review
“When Ben Jones, one of the many voices of authority and leading lights of the Louisville gospel legacy, enthuses that the talent at every Black church during the golden years chronicled in this ambitious box set was akin to witnessing and hearing “ten Aretha Franklins at every service”, he’s not boasting. Jones’ contributions, as outlined in this multimedia package’s accompanying 208-page full colour booklet, lays down the much unrepresented story of a thriving, enduring scene. Alongside a host of reverent members of the various Evangelist, Pentecostal, Baptist and Apostolic churches, artists, instigators and custodians, his informative, animated and passionate words draw you into a most incredible cross-community of afflatus bearers of the gospel tradition. For the Louisville scene was and continues to be every bit the equal of its more famous and celebrated rivals across the American South. And that Aretha quote is no exaggeration, as you will hear some of the most incredible voices and choirs to ever make it on to wax, or, in some cases, make it onto the various radio stations and TV shows that promoted this divine expression of worship. 83 songs, hymns and paeans of assurance, great comfort, tribulations and travails from a gospel cannon of pure quality, moving testament and joy.
‘I’m Glad About It: The legacy Of Louisville Gospel 1958 – 1981’ is an unprecedented example of just how to display and facilitate such a multifaceted project of documentation and archive – in the package I received there were links to a brilliant visual timeline and archive of some 1000 songs recorded by 125 different gospel artists. A labour of love and recognition, taking over three years to put together, The Louisville Story Program has not just set out to preserve but also equip the communities they serve with a genuine platform which can be added to overtime. But importantly, they’ve brought in a number of inspiring voices to help build a concise story of legacy and continued influence of the city and gospel music in general – Ben Jones citing Drake and Kayne unable to find a beat that they didn’t hear in church.” DV
Various ‘Congo Funk! – Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshaha/Brazzaville 1969-1982)’ (Analog Africa) Chosen by DV/Review
“A tale of two cities on opposites sides of the same river, the Congo, the latest excursion for the Analog Africa label celebrates and showcases an abundance of dynamite, soul and funk tracks from the two capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
Congo Funk in all its many variations is put under the spotlight, with an outstanding set list of fourteen tracks (whittled down from a container’s worth of singles) that will enthral and educate in equal measures. Essential dance floor fillers await.” DV
Various ‘Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora 1980-93’ (Soundway Records) Chosen by DV/Review
“The first decade of the new millennium proved a fruitful period for (re) discovering Africa’s rich dynamic and explosive music heritage, with both (through their various Afro-funk and Afro-psych compilations) Soundway Records and Analog Africa (in particular their influential African Scream Contests) spoiling connoisseurs and those with just a curiosity alike to sounds rarely heard outside the continent. The former’s original five album Ghana Special spread was one such indispensable collection from that time; a perfectly encased box set survey of one of Africa’s most important musical junctions. Now, unbelievably, a full twenty years later Soundway have followed up that “highlife” triumph with a second volume; moving the action on into a new decade. Ghana Special part two is a refreshing map of the diaspora fusions and hybrids that spread across Europe during a time of movement and turmoil from Ghana’s hotbed of influential stars and musicians. In highlighting the stories and journeys of Ghana’s émigrés, and in introducing us to those sounds, movements that remain either forgotten or just not as celebrated, Volume 2 will become as indispensable as the first.” DV
Various ‘Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition’ (FLEE)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Broadening the scope, the guest list of collaborators stretches the imagination; often completely uncoupled from the source material. All together in one bumper package of ethnomusicology, it makes perfect sense, futuristic alternative planes and visions of a forgotten – mostly passed down orally – tradition. This is a document and testament to the hardiness, perseverance and survival of a culture massacred, exiled and incarcerated, the remnants of a culture almost lost in time, but proving to be very much alive and intriguing to our ears. FLEE and their collaborators, aiders have put together a brilliant, thorough piece of musical research that bristles and wafts with a bounty of possibilities.” DV
Various ‘Wagadu Grooves: The Hypnotic Sound Of Camara 1987-2016’ (Hot Mule)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Shedding light on a rarely told story, the latest showcase compilation from the Paris label Hot Mule unfolds the backstory and “hypnotic” sounds of Gaye Mody Camara’s iconic label; a story that encompasses the West African Soninke diaspora and legacy. The entrepreneur turn label honcho and umbrella for those artists both from the mainland French migrant community and from across swathes of what was the atavistic kingdom of the Soninke ethnic groups’ Wagadu, Camara, through various means and links, helped create a whole industry of music production in Paris during the 80s, 90s and new millennium. The sound is always amazing, and the voices commanding, a mix of those inherited Griot roots, the club, pop and caravan trial. Most importantly Wagadu does have that eponymous ‘groove’ of the title: the ‘hypnotic’ bit too.” DV
Violet Nox ‘Hesperia’ (Somehwerecold Records)
Chosen by DV/Review
“Building new worlds, futuristic landscapes and intergalactic safe havens, and leaving vapour trails of laconic, hypnotizing new age psy-trance mysticism, a message of self-discovery and of resistance in their wake, Violet Nox once more embrace Gaia, Greek and Buddhist etymology and astrology to voyage beyond earthly realms.
Referencing mythological starry nymphs, a sun god’s charioteer, Agamemnon’s granddaughter and scientific phenomenon as they waft, drift and occasionally pump through veils of ambience, trance, dub, EDM and techno, the Boston, Massachusetts trio (although this core foundation is pliable and has expanded its ranks on previous releases) of synthesists and electronic crafters Dez DeCarlo and Andrew Abrahamson, and airy, searching siren vocalist and caller Noell Dorsey, occupy a dreamy ethereal plane that fits somewhere between Vangelis, Lisa Gerrard, Mythos, Kavinsky, Banco de Gaia and ecological revering dance music.” DV
Virgin Vacations ‘Dapple Patterns’
Chosen by DV/Review
“From a multitude of sources, across a number of mediums, the concentrated sonic force that is Virgin Vacations ramp up the queasy quasars and the heavy-set slab wall of no wave-punk-jazz-maths-krautrock sounds on their debut long player. With room to expand horizons the Hong Kong (tough gig in recent years, what with China’s crackdowns on the free press and student activists; installing authoritarian control over the Island) ensemble lay out a both hustled, bustled and more cosmic psychedelic journey, from the prowling to the near filmic and quasi-operatic -from darkened forebode to Shinto temple bell-ringing comedowns that fade out into affinity.” DV
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Tucker Zimmerman ‘I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True’ (Big Potato Records)
Chosen by DV
Whilst living in idyllic seclusion in Belgium during the 1970s, the venerated but underrated idiosyncratic US-born troubadour/singer-songwriter Tucker Zimmerman left the door ajar to friends (namely Ian A Anderson & Maggie Holland) and the like to spin a collection of unburdened, unpressured homegrown recordings. The results, unsurprisingly magical, halcyon and unassumingly poignantly poetic. The first ever release for ‘I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True’ is as revelatory as much as it is sublime, felt, intimate, boosting a reputation and clamour for an overlooked maestro. DV
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The Monthly Playlist For June 2024
June 28, 2024
CHOICE TRACKS FROM THE LAST MONTH, CHOSEN BY DOMINIC VALVONA/MATT OLIVER/BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA
That was the month that was: June 2024. Representing the last 30 days’ worth of reviews and recommendations on the Monolith Cocktail, the Monthly Playlist is our chance to take stock and pause as we remind our readers and followers of all the great music we’ve shared – with some choice tracks we didn’t get room or time to feature but added anyway. Thanks to Dominic Valvona for curating, and for choices from Matt ‘Rap Control’ Oliver and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
Homeboy Sandman ‘Win Win’
Pastense & Uncommon Nasa ‘The Ills’
Party Dozen ‘Wake In Might’
The Lazy Jesus ‘Smok’
Sis ‘Mother’s Grace’
Yea-Ming And The Rumours ‘Ruby’
Neutrals ‘The Iron That Never Swung’
Hungrytown ‘Another Year’
Herald ‘Hydrogen Tide’
PAV4N, Sonnyjim, Kartik, M.O.N.G.O., Pataka Boys ‘Bappi Lahiri’
Sans Soucis ‘If I Let A White Man Cut My Hair’
Fat Francis ‘BCMW’
The Bordellos ‘Tastes Like Summer’
Swiftumz ‘Fall Apart’
SCHOOL ‘N.S.M.L.Y.D’
E.L. Heath ‘Cambrian’
Beak> ‘The Seal’
Jennifer Touch ‘Shiver (Robert Johnson)’
Ocelot ‘Sun Silmillia’
L’etrangleuse ‘Les Pins’
QOA ‘LIPPIA ALBA’
Mark Trecka ‘Spirit Moves In An Arc’
Cas One ‘No Deer Hunter’
Bill Shakes ‘Don’t Be A Menace To Blackburn While Drinking White Lightning On A Council Estate’
Guilty Simpson, The Alchemist & Kong The Artisan ‘Giants Of The Fall’
Depf & JClean ‘Wasted’
Ivan The Tolerable ‘Cedars’
Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club ‘Tetraktys’
Staple Jr. Singers ‘Walk Around Heaven’
Head Shoppe ‘Parque De Chapultepec’
The Nausea ‘Nil Inultum Remanebit’
Saccata Quartet ‘Oh OK’
Simon McCorry & Wodwo ‘By Spores’
Neuro…No Neuro ‘Story Time’
Cumsleg Borenail ‘Todays Facade For New Environment’
Joey Valence & Brae Ft. Danny Brown ‘PACKAPUNCH’
NightjaR Ft. Pruven, Vast Aire & Burgundy Blood ‘Piano Heights’
Your Old Droog ‘Roll Out’
Conway The Machine, Method Man, SK Da King & Flee Lord ‘Meth Back!’
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