Our Daily Bread 595: Axis: Sova, Daiistar, Simon Waldram, A Savage…
October 10, 2023
THE INIMITABLE BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA DELIVERS HIS VERDICT ON A NEW HAUL OF RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH – all releases available now unless stated otherwise
___/SINGLES\___
Daiistar ‘Parallel’
(Fuzz Club)
Daiistar is sadly pronounced as DayStar and not Dai Star, as how good would that be to have a psychedelic Welsh Elvis to come and lead us Pied Piper style to the dangers of rock ‘n’ roll. But what we have instead is a rather fetching journey back to the halcyon days of the early 90s, with baggy beats and The Darkside type guitar riffs [hands up those who remember the Darkside?]. In fact, watching this video made me think of Sunday evenings and Snuff TV.
Once again a fine track that fills me with a sense of nostalgia from those good eggs at Fuzz Club Records. I do not hold a grudge, but they turned down the chance to release The Bordellos ‘Bring Me The Head Of Justin Beiber’ single: I bet it keeps them awake at night.
Axis: Sova ‘I’m A Ghost’
(Drag City)
I like this single because it reminds me of The Cars. The funny thing about that, being I am not actually much of a Cars fan. So why do I like this? Maybe because it has a drum solo of sorts, which you do not hear much these days; not that I am a fan of drum solos or drums even, but I still find it appealing in this short foray into the American new wave sound of the early eighties.
Twin Coast ‘Wake Up Older (We Will)’
Twin Coast, a young noise/shoegaze band from Chicago, has just offered up this two-track download single. And very good it is too, all melody and feedback and performed with a joyous abandon that I also enjoyed and found very heartwarming. And which took me back when I was young and had an abandon that was joyous. In fact it took me back to the days when I used to enjoy a bit of shoegaze and would annoy my fellow record shop workmates with my playing of Smashing Orange and Ultra Vivid Scene and the first Mercury Rev album. Yes indeed, fine days. And Twin Coast seems to be a fine band/duo.
Simon Waldram ‘Mary Magdalene (Walton-on-the-Hill)’
A brand new single from Simon Waldram, who is a fine singer-songwriter. Over the years he’s released a number of fine albums, and this, the excellent beautiful ‘Mary Magdelene’, is no different; a lovely psych folk ballad that is worthy of Stephen Duffy in his Lilac Time guise: and there can be no higher compliment believe me. A song and a songwriter to hold close and cherish.
bigflower ‘The Right Way’
There is something cinematic about the widescreen outpourings of bigflower. They are just really suited to be featured on some blockbuster or another, and I am sure in time a director will stumble over the bigflower Bandcamp page and have a field day. ‘The Right Way’ is no different; another excellent dark slice of moody guitar alt rock from Ivor.
A Savage ‘David’s Dead’
(Rough Trade Records)
I really like this single by A Savage. It’s like a lo-fi-ish Brit pop song, with elements of Blur and the old mid nineties shenanigans and suchlike: a song that explores the past both lyrically and musically in a very English way. You can almost hear the rain on the pavement as the music plays, and Mr A Savage sadly bemoan to himself how he misses the days of sitting in the cafe [which is now a vape shop] reading the music weeklies and wondering what the weekend ahead brings. A nostalgic treat.
__/THE ALBUM\__
Snowcrushed ‘Snowcrush’
Snowcrushed’s A Frightened Man debut album was one of my fave albums of 2021; an album of beguiling atmospheric found sounds ambient gems. But on Snowcrush he’s gone on an alternative music journey of post-punk, Goth and Darkwave, and on occasion lo-fi folk – the excellent ‘Cowardice’ sounding like someone has taken Kurt Cobain’s tortured soul and spread it on Johnny Cash’s toast, which he ate before recording the American Recordings series of albums: A truly dark wonderful song. Although nothing else on the album quite matches up to the brilliance of ‘Cowardice’, which is no slight as not many other tracks I have heard this year matches up to it, the rest of the album is still full of unsettling dark gems.
Our Daily Bread 451: Big Stir, Sid Bradley, James Henry, Occult Character, Simon Waldram…
June 9, 2021
Reviews Roundup/Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
The cult leader of the infamous lo fi gods, The Bordellos, Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea 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. His most recent releases include the King Of No-Fi album, a collaborative derangement with the Texas miscreant Occult Character, Heart To Heart, and a series of double-A side singles (released so far, ‘Shattered Pop Kiss/Sky Writing’ and ‘Daisy Master Race/Cultural Euthanasia’). He has also released, under the Idiot Blur Fanboy moniker, a stripped-down classic album of resignation and Gallagher brothers’ polemics.
Each week we throw whatever sticks at the inimitable music lover, and he comes up with this…
James Henry ‘Pluck’
29th June 2021
James Henry it seems is a scouser residing in London, and is rather fond of writing and recording fine power pop delight nuggets that recall Squeeze and Jellyfish, Mathew Sweet (with a touch of XTC) about them. And he succeeds in splaying my living room with an aural sun, which warms the very cockles of this pop loving soul. Pluck is an album that has everything one wants in a mature pop album: melodies, catchy guitar riffs, handclaps and harmonies, and well written lyrics, which is always a plus point as I often find albums in this genre are quite often let down by lyrical clichés. But I can happily report that is not the case here.
‘Afterthought’ and ‘Currently Resting’ also bring mid 60s Beatles to mind with some beautifully chiming 12 string guitars; and over the twelve tracks on this album you can hear the mid 60s pop influence gently seeping through. So anyone who has never gotten over the fact that Rockpile never made a second album should seek out this fun filled album of joyous melody.
Simon Waldram ‘So It Goes’
4th June 2021
If buying an album of sublime modern day psych folk with a touch of indie pop is on your bucket list well I am here to help. For what we have here is an album of well-crafted heartfelt songs of the aforementioned.
The album gently kicks off with the lovingly atmospheric Nick Drake like ‘You’, which is followed by a beautiful melodious ‘I Miss The Sun’, a song worthy of Grant McLennan in the halcyon days of The Go Betweens, which is then followed by a piano ballad, ‘Don’t Worry’. Three tracks in and all beautifully written and performed and different to the one previous, and that is what is so annoying about this album. No not annoying because it’s an album of pure excellence, but for the fact that Simon is not ‘Better Known’ than he is. For songwriters with his talent and heart should be clutched to the music lovers’ collective bosom and cherished. There is no reason at all why this album should not be a huge success: it has radio friendly indie songs – ‘Boats In The Sky’ should be all over the radio -; it’s perfect indie pop – the wonderfully entitled ‘The Wild Wandering Of Wildebeest’, but for the “They don’t give a fuck” chorus that might cut down on radio play for that particular little gem of a track.
Not everyone can record a 8 minute plus song of bewitching guitar jangle without it getting a bit boring but Simon pulls it off with what I think is the centrepiece to the album, ‘Windswept’, which any Red House Painters fans might want to lend an ear to.
So It Goes is an album that deserves to finally give Simon Waldram the recognition he deserves, as I do not think I have heard a better album this year, and this could well be his 16 Lovers Lane.
Sid Bradley ‘Child Of The Sea’
(Guerssen) 16th June 2021
What we have here my little ragamuffin Annies, is an album of lost and found studio recordings from the American songwriter Sid Bradley, recorded between 1971-79. And what a hugely enjoyable listen it is as well. The opener ‘Child Of The Sea’, is a track of pure hippy funk, with its hep cat hip swaying basstastic riff inducement of enlightenment that has one nostalgic for the days of the Age Of Aquarius, and as the album proceeds down its merry path, one is dragged smilingly to lose itself in psych folk pop of ‘Nothing Is Easy’ – a gem worthy of the Wickerman soundtrack -, or the pop delight of ‘To Be Your Friend’ – imagine the Monkees with Keith Richards standing in for a song or two. An album recommended for all lovers of 60s /70s guitar pop rock indeedy.
Big Stir Singles ‘The Tenth Wave’
(Big Stir Records) 12th June 2021
This album is such an enjoyable listen. Once again a comp of the weekly download singles, A and B-sides, released by Big Stir Records in the months of October and November of 2020. And each track is a perfectly formed slice of pure pop; each one blessed with a charm that really cannot be praised highly enough. Each track, each band having their own sound own form of magic, from the wonderful take of John Cale’s ‘Paris 1919’ by October Surprise (which I actually prefer to the original) to the prog psych of Whelligan ‘Rabbit Hole’.
There is not a bad track among the twenty-two on the comp and is difficult to pick a favourite, so I will not bother in doing so. But Big Stir records should be congratulated in finding so many wonderful artists and songs to release to such high standards on a weekly basis, and I would recommend any music lover who has not yet had the pleasure to enjoy the ever growing cannon of pop magic released on that label to give this fine compilation a listen and then go back rediscover their other fine releases.
Occult Character ‘Bluzzed’
3rd June 2021
Occult Character has a double album due out soon on Metal Postcard Records, but before that Mr Occult has released this fine 8 track album of short acoustic songs, which act as short accurate snapshots of people and life: like an hour or so sat in the bar people watching.
Occult Character has the rare lyrical talent of picking out the small features about life and its inhabitants and making it both funny and at times heartbreakingly accurate. ‘Super Spreader Yeh!’ is a gem, a wonderful short humorous attack on some people’s attitude to Co-vid: “4000 people die a day but we got to twist the night away”. As I’ve said in past reviews of Occult Character, he is indeed the closest thing the USA has to Woody Guthrie, and is only a matter of time before he is discovered by the likes of Rolling Stone and such major publications.
REVIEWS ROUNDUP
Words: Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea
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. Each month we end him a deluge of new releases on his virtual desk to see what sticks.
Toxic Chicken ‘Uncomfortable Music’
21st July 2019
I don’t apologise for writing another review of Toxic Chicken, as this is his 3rd LP in as many months, and this like the other two is a work of pure maverick pop genius: and not just because there is a four second track called ‘Brian From The Bordellos’ on it!
This LP has everything that I love about the magic and joy of music. It has humour and a madness that at times reminds me of the great Syd Barrett and the wonderful White Noise Electrical Storm LP. It is eccentric pushed to the extreme. Songs with the subject matter of eating politicians and love songs for cats and for Mother Nature and what is bad about England, but that track only being under two minutes long does not quite manage to list everything.
Uncomfortable Music is certainly an enjoyable and rewarding listening experience, and at times, the subject matter does live up to its title. But this album is a pay-what-you-want to download, so is well worth a listen. Another great album from a great artist: And I mean artist. And the track ‘Little Snail’ is the best dance track I have heard all year.
Snapped Ankles ‘Stunning Luxury’
1st March 2019
The whirring and exciting sounds of post punk circa 2019 coming at you like a extravagant wholemeal piece of chiffon scarred alternative disco meat; the sound of Devo fucking the brains and beats out of the B52s whilst the horny ghost of Mark E Smith watches on making cutting asides whilst stomping on the hopes and dreams of the not yet born love child of David Byrne and Lena Lovich.
This LP is one big extravagance of dark dance and post punk joy, the sort of album to soundtrack your wildest night out ever: sordid clubs, cheap drinks, hanging out with girls and boys who really should know better, the best musical electro porn one could ever hope to gorge oneself on.
Stunning Luxury is dirty, it is funky, it is experimental, it is blistering rock ‘n’ roll. A luxury indeed. One that should be enjoyed by all.
Anton Barbeau ‘Berliner Grotesk’
(Beehive Records / Pink Hedgehog Records) 19th July 2019
There is a dark playful melancholy I love about this LP, not the weeping into your hanky kind, or, the “oh I feel so sorry for myself kind”, but the, “I am middle aged and looking back at my life through the good and bad the happy and bad” kind. There is hope in the future kind, the kind of melancholy that Martin Newell thrives at writing. Even the cover of the Beatles ‘Love Me Do’ is enriched with a sadness the original misses; this version overcomes the familiarity by transforming it into a slightly electro reggae beauty.
But not all is sadness and tears there is also fine pop of the power variety: the sort Jellyfish so excelled at releasing. The Bowie Mott and the Fabs influences of course shine bright bringing a lovely old time Englishness that is so often ignored in modern music of today. This LP is a finely crafted pop album, with enough quirks and twists to make it a very enjoyable listen.
Simon Waldram ‘Into The Blue’
27th July 2019
Simon Waldram made one of my favourite LPs from 2016, the wonderful self released Insolation, an LP that dipped and swayed, taking in JAMC one minute and the next, beautiful swathes of psych folk. This, his new album, Into The Blue, takes off where that album left off, but is a slightly more subdued affair: Songs of darkness, love, depression and hope merge into a quite beautiful collection.
In these days when the acoustic guitar has taken over the electric, sales wise, there is certainly a market for LPs of softly strummed melancholia, and Simon does it far better than most; bringing to mind at times, the beautiful slowcore shimmer of Low (especially on ‘Breaking Waves’), at other times, recalling the magic of the Go Betweens and The Smiths.
The highlight for me though is the beautiful psych folk instrumental ‘Sea Turtles’: a few moments of total bliss.
Into The Blue is a fine LP and with the right backing and a bit of luck could well fight its way to the top of the overcrowded melancholic brigade, and could find favor on many late night radio shows. An album of real beauty and sadness and hope.
Moody Mae ‘Throwing Rocks at John E. Road’
2nd July 2019
Indie pop from Sweden is on the whole a wonderful thing indeed, and this EP/mini LP from Moody Mae keeps within that wonderful remit. Beatles like ‘Martha My Dear’ piano, lovingly could not give a toss female vocals, ba ba bas and lofi psychedelia join forces to force music lovers to nod their heads and grin like grinning idiots. And to think that this was recorded in 2005 and has taken 14 years to see the light of day. I think it may be time for Moody Mae to reform and record a full length waxing. For when a band has the gift of pure pop wonderment it is a shame not to share that wonderment with the less fortunate. A treasure of a release.
Radio Europa ‘Community Is Revolution’
(Wormhole) 19th July 2019
It seems like a weekly event that Wormhole Records release a new underground LP of chilled out darkness. This weeks release is by Radio Europa and is an LP of chilled out darkness with the odd offering of a glimpse of light appearing through the cracks of the drawn heavy curtains called life: The beam of light showing the particles of dust exploding and hovering around the thoughts of insolvent tomorrows and the broken promises of yesterday.
Gentle soft spoken vocals lilt into the wave of dark synth and drum beats that blanket you in the warmth of the cold that whispers sweet nothings whilst grinding a worn down stiletto heel into your vacant soul.
Community Is Revolution is an album to soundtrack these uncertain times; an album to close your eyes and let the music sweep over you and take you to the dark recess of your mind where devils and angels juggle with the happy/sad of your life.
bigflower ‘Night And Day’
13th July 2019
Another week another fine free to download single from bigflower. An explosion of post punk guitars do battle with horns and a bass riff so mighty it would make Jean Jacques Burnel want to call it a day and to take up flower arranging. When oh when are this mighty band going to be picked up by some label. For this is far to a fine a track to slip under the radar yet again. Blogs, djs of the alternative variety should be ramming this down people’s throats instead of some acoustic guitar charlatan whining on about how twee their girlfriend’s vagina is [like they have saw their girlfriend’s vagina! They saw an egg box and let their imagination take hold]
Bigflower are one of the most exciting underground bands around at the moment and we at the Monolith Cocktail will keep ranting on about their majestic take on modern life until the less with-it blogs catch on. Blogs, djs, record labels for God sake get your fingers out.
Why Sun ‘Frugte’
14th June 2019
Softly strummed guitars and deeply crooned vocals kick start this beautiful five track EP of softly strummed guitars and deeply crooned vocals; songs that bring the joys of Galaxie 500 and the Wild Swans oozing into my mind, and lovers of those bands and the many bands of that ilk should enjoy this. So give it a listen especially if you are hung-over or on the verge of doing fuck all.
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