Monolith Cocktail Blog

PLAYLIST/Dominic Valvona

Let me first wish everyone, new and old readers/followers alike, a happy new year. And thanks for all your continued support in what are the most tumultuous and anxious of times. For my part, with what little comfort I can give, I’ll still bring you all the best, experimental, and diverse sounds during 2022: through reviews, columns, playlists and the like.

The Monolith Cocktail Social is one of two long-running playlist series on the blog. Running in tandem with the Monthly Revue, which represents all the new music both I and the MC team have been listening to and writing about during the month, the Social is a cross-generational, eclectic imaginary radio show, where anything goes: featuring tracks from the last 50 or more years.

It’s also my chance to show off my own tastes, records from my collection, and to both celebrate those albums reaching anniversary milestones and pay tribute to recent artists and figures we’ve lost during that month.

The first playlist, volume #62, of the year features 50^th anniversary treats from Archie Shepp (the title-track from his 1972 album Attica Blues), Cymande (the much sampled ‘The Message’ from their self-titled ‘72 special), Paul Simon (‘Armistice Day’ from the self-titled ‘72 album), Aretha Franklin (a beautified cover of ‘The Long And Winding Road’ from the soul deity’s Young, Gifted And Black album), Cluster (‘Für Die Katz’ from the Kosmische travellers ’72 album Cluster II), Neu! (‘Hero’ from the self-titled ’72 album), Popol Vuh (the venerable ‘Kyrie’ taken from the divine stylers ’72 album Hosianna Mantra), and Annette Peacock (a idiosyncratic version of ‘Love Me Tender’ from her ’72 I’m The One album).

There’s also recent(ish) tracks from Fake Fruit, Large Plants, Jeff Parker, Family Portrait dotted amongst goodies from Kaleidoscope, The Gods, Caetano Veloso, Eddie Hodges and Biff Rose: 35 tracks in all.

Listen how you like, but when compiling these playlists I do work out a particular order: a journey for the listener.

Those tracks are full are:

Archie Shepp  ‘Attica Blues’
Kaleidoscope  ‘Chocolate Whale’
Quella Vecchia Locanda  ‘Dialogo’
Muito Kaballa Power Ensemble  ‘Don’t Go Too Far’
100 Proof Aged In Soul  ‘Backtrack’
Fake Fruit  ‘No Mutuals’
Large Plants  ‘La Isla Bonita’
Cymande  ‘The Message’
Innovations  ‘Put A Little Away’
Los Dangers  ‘No Te Quiero Más’
Sophie Knapp & Dungen  ‘Desert Moon’
The Gods  ‘Eight O’clock In The Morning’
Jeff Parker & The New Breed Ft. Ruby Parker  ‘Soul Love’
Paul Simon  ‘Armistice Day’
Hamilton Leithauser & Kevin Morby  ‘Virginia Beach’
Family Portrait Ft. Julian Lynch  ‘What Does It Take’
Aretha Franklin  ‘The Long And Winding Road’
Annette Peacock  ‘Love Me Tender’
Caetano Veloso  ‘Lost In The Paradise’
Parasites Of The Western World  ‘You Must Be Joe King’
Between  ‘Tape’
Steauna De Mare  ‘Ork Style’
Cluster  ‘Für Die Katz’
The Holydrug Couple  ‘Arcatina’
Tibetan Miracle Seeds  ‘Nectarine Dreams’
Gianfranco Plenizio  ‘Afyon’
Slag Boom Van Loon  ‘Poppy Seed’
Neu!  ‘Hero’
Phantom Payn Days  ‘Screen Idol From France’
Branko Mataja  ‘Tamo Daleko’
Popol Vuh  ‘Kyrie’ Eddie Hodges  ‘Shadows And Reflections’
Biff Rose  ‘Take Care of My Brother’
Marina Allen  ‘Sleeper Train’
Female Species  ‘Tale Of My Lost Love’

Hi, my name is Dominic Valvona and I’m the Founder of the music/culture blog monolithcocktail.com For the last ten years I’ve featured and supported music, musicians and labels we love across genres from around the world that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to buy us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail to say cheers for spreading the word, then that would be much appreciated.