The monthly Digest includes a clutch of accumulated short new music reviews, the social inter-generational/eclectic and anniversary albums celebrating playlist and a piece from the Archives.
Before you read on, and if by the end of reading this column you’ve enjoyed this selection/the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, please consider donating to the Monolith Cocktail blog’s Ko-Fi donation account. We are pretty much a one-man show with no sponsors or affiliations, and have sworn to never use or platform AI artists or use this tool in our own writing or research. Curated in a manner, each post and column is entirely self-motivated and beholden to no one. Please enjoy this month’s Digest column from MC founder Dominic Valvona.
___/NEW MUSIC REVIEWS SELECTION___
(All entries in alphabetical order)
bu.re_ ‘seasons in migration’
(AKP Recordings) 21st August 2026
Lower-case absorbed observations and measures of the seasons, as distilled through a both softened and gently piqued dappled lens, the latest traversed set of recordings from the L.A. born producer and multi-instrumentalist bu.re_ builds upon a process, a foundation and methodology to produce near weightless evocations of a familiar and yet almost abstract visceral capture of the seasonal changes.
If we want to get technical and precise, the quartet of tracks on this latest release from AKP Recordings is actually built upon a 12-chord progression, divided into four groups of chords; each of one of which lines up with and reflects a particular phase in the yearly cycle of the said seasons.
Ambience, the new age and Japanese environmental music prove complimentary in capturing the unfurling buds of Spring to the arrival of light poured rains and the lasting, expansive and near nothingness of a “tundra” environment recording that shifts its subtleties over the course of a whole long form suite: starting with a sort of thrashing and sieving sound before developing into Suzanne Ciani and Fairlight CMI-like waves, snuggled and mizzle and airy saxophone purrs, expansive horizon gazing synthesized vistas, and the floated specks of crystallised pollen.
Marking perhaps deeper meaningful episodes in the artist’s life, a reification of feelings invoked by watching such phenomenon, each beautifully conveyed piece is brilliant in its mood music encapsulation of sweltering mirages, roll out of an environment waking from its winter stupor and sleep and the blowy breaths of the wind arriving from a cooler North.
Impressions of Ariel Kalma, my old pal John Lane (going under his A Journey of Giraffes guise I’m reminded of his own homage of a kind to Susumu Yokoto on the Kono album), David Casper, Park Jiha’s summery vibraphone twinkles, and on the static slow released and languidly sax-pipped ‘heat simmer’, Matthewdavid and a restrained, Pharoah Sanders. For across the synthesised and the bulb shaped notes that materialise and float from the electric piano, and over the amorphous soundings of the tubular and bamboo, bu.re_ also adapts both the sax and flute to swan, breathe, waft, flutter its feathery wings and near hallucinate.
Gathered samples from over the last six years are transduced and made evocatively touching, contemplative and inviting when combined with an apparatus of electronic and wind instruments, processes and effects. A most diaphanously touched and sincere mused form of the four seasons, bu.re_ manifests so much more than just the weather and the measuring of the Calander months as they leave their mark upon milestones and concerns of a deeper nature.
Enfo ‘Small Modernist House In Woodland Setting’
(Subexotic Records) 14th August 2026
Despite the personality, the life stories, travails and hopefully more joyful and escapist episodes embedded within this opus-like scale journey from Enofa, I’ve pretty much ignored the research and notes to let the sounds, sonics, tape manipulations and melodic sweeps and soars of this generous eighteen-track album to speak and unravel their sensibilities and captured moods and experiences to me. I’m sure every suite and action has an explanation or series of prompted connections to the artist’s growth, anxieties and meditations, but to embrace without any prior judgement Small Modernist House In Woodland Setting is a both mysterious hauntology and surprising concepted work of ambience, field recorded and snatched sampled collage, disturbances in the soundscape fabric, environmental music and the exotic.
A fourth world vision in many ways that takes in timelines and evocations of periods from across history; from the near courtly and banquet music of the Medieval age and a weird folkloric England to vague chants and ceremonies from what could be Africa, South America and the Far East and Java. More Robert Musci and Glove of Bones than Hassell, but with the amorphous signatures of porous border leakages and influences of bamboo music, the tribal, the jug poured waters of an exotic garden retreat, the bowl reverberations of Lhasa you could be simultaneously and subtly taking in the worldly and off worldly.
It begins with the lushly Japanese-esque ritual karmas and spindled dulcimer-like tones of ‘The Wormery’ (reminded me of both Walter Smetek and a trumpet-free Don Cherry), and then both flows and disjoints with either surface noises or the unruly into passages of shaken dried beans or rice and ghostly waves of wooden tubular pole building on the speaking insect foliage chorus of ‘The Whispering Forest’ and the peculiar Staraya Derevnya and Lotus Eater’s plucked and twanged folkloric guitar mystical ‘Earthfasts’.
The album (or rather double LP) has its own recurring themes and signatures yet constantly expands and takes in an abundance of sources and influences; everything from an astral Mosquito Coast of reverberating hollas and pipped rituals (‘Interstitial’, which reminded me in part of both Elve and Amorphous Androgynous) to starry ecological trance and space mulch (‘Life Flower Totem’) and a more childlike discombobulation of toy instruments and radio tunning (‘Siobhan And Roisin Dance A Ceilidh’).
Metallic pins rain down whilst a Boyd Rice-like voice intones a gothic post-punk esoteric poignancy; motors judder and voices, interactions, aggro and choral voices lie in the undergrowth or the tape ether. Zen meditations overlap with the supernatural; cloud surfing beauty breaks away from the ominous soundscapes of Ramleh. A balance is kept throughout, as Enofa pulls the listener into an extraordinary travelogue and diary of memories, abstracted feelings and life changes. Anything but indulgent, it’s still a lot to take in, and the ambience of it may surprise when it turns corners and undulates with an eclectic spread of sound, the atonal, the discourse and the mysterious.
Nonturn ‘Repeating Town’
(Audiobulb Records) 22nd August 2026
Underlying this often pleasant and understated rhythm of the concrete is the idea of “how the city can be made to function as music”. Beats and loops created from the environment and resonance of Tokyo’s famous “bohemian” neighbourhood of Koenji are repeated, layered and placed on a 96 BPM grid and used as the basis of sampled material, with the results being a most ambient and minimal soundtrack of kinetics, soft industrials, reverberations and the tubular.
The alias of Kanazawa-born and Tokyo-based electronic composer Nozom Yoneda, the Nonturn project utilizes everything from the tools of construction to the traffic and architecture of a well-known musical underground (especially punk rock it’s said) and retail district in the Western regions of that metropolis. And all of it without the use of instruments, nor the obvious or familiar sounds of a buzzing city; transformed from their sources into a low rhythm and groove and set of looped or sampled sonics and ambience.
Every track is interesting in its style and mode of rhythm; from cupping sounds to the ringing of metallic reverberations, swept motions, scaffold and the warbled oscillations and vibrations and the pneumatic drills of machines. With some exceptions it makes for a softened post club absorption of Boards of Canada, Kriedler, Japanese Environmental music, and the early Warp label.
Those exceptions however, can be found in the form of the camera-like shutter snaps hollowed-out tubed captures of ‘Fathom’, and on the psychogeography of the industrial and more supernatural sounding ‘Disrupt’ – I’m convinced that the spirits of the district’s original temples, of which it is named after, are invoked through the mystical and spirit sounds that prick the metallurgy of the slab concreted exteriors; something seeping through from the back alleys in which the old has been hidden and rebuilt. The peeling of layers, of the daily actions and converse of a city district come alive through attentive and subtle uses of sampling and the transduced to create a most immersive sound world that grooves and rhythmically finds a connection with the concrete.
Sly & The Family Drone ‘With Love’
28th August 2026
Are they taking the piss? That discombobulation of provocative, riled up, multi-limbed distortions and dynamics, Sly & The Family Drone have only gone soppy on us? Well, at least with the title and the artwork of their latest instigated power play of no wave jazz and space rock transmogrification it seems their originally framed Valentine’s Day project is packaged in Barbara Cartland pink lace, satin and velvet; a single gloved hand laying a singular rose on a love heart shaped box of unknown delights. So, to all intents and purposes a romantic gesture; a sentimental wheeze.
A love letter to their fans perhaps, there’s a limited edition of twenty individually cut 12”s up for grabs, (if you’re asking, cut no less “in real time” by Michael Lawrence at Bladed Flier!) and a less limited version on pink and grey vinyl to devour. But I for one am not buying this Barbiefication for one minute, and once on the turntable it’s a whole different matter or meta of sonic infusions.
On this particular occasion, in this particular zone, the troupe corralled the talents ofmainstaytrick noise maker of various hazardous and dissonance electronic effects, voice and percussionist Matt Cargill, drummer and electronics dial turner Kaz Buckland,another electronicinstigator Ed Dudley (also credited here as voice), fellow trick noise conjuror and drummer Will Glaser, and tenor saxophonist James Allsopp. Attentive certainly to the forces in the room, this diverse cast of players and artists – their lives and projects criss-crossing with each other over the years, and too numerous and extensive to list here -, they group both send out feelers to the universal forces and concentrate their psychic antenna on the cosmic.
Not so dissimilar to their lunar evocations and Fortean dialled-up peregrinations and activities on Moon Is Doom Backwards, but somehow even more alien, and this time around seemingly evoking both Irmin Schmidt’s Alpha 77 switchboard and Gunther Wüsthoff’s box of tricks alongside Amon Düül II very own Yogi talks to the Interstellar Drive circular oscillations of acid-space take offs.
Yes, this is an intergalactic trip of varying fusions, with a constant prevailing presence of space zeppelin propellors (another nice ADII vibe), constant rattling rim and tribal forward momentum drums (think Battles and Art Blakey meets Jacki Liebezeit – especially his Cyclopean team up), transmitted crackles and electricity, and a blurting and skonking, far out use of saxophone (Donny McCaslin lands with the Pharoah in the backyard of Jon Hassell’s Fourth World).
Moonwalks in zero gravity and the wafted trippy Floydian synched up with the Wizard of OZ airs of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ drift across the fabric of space to bring the mood into an untethered slowdown of song Byrd impressions and astral traverses. But the action is mostly navigated towards portal tunnelled and magnetic spherical space rock jazz jams that escape out through one star gate and appear in another dimension.
Like Hawkwind and Agitation Free riding aboard the Chariots of the Gods whilst crashing Chris Corsano’s stage, With Love is a space sonic drama; the band projected to some alien craft heading through a psychedelic wormhole towards a rendezvous with the illustrated worlds of Chris Foss and Angus McKie.
Centrifugal forces are ripped and then slowly forced out into a space field of acid, no wave and cosmic cried jazz on this voyager around the solar system and beyond: even the inner space of the mind…albeit one cooked and fried on various red and blue pills. Now as for the love, well, there’s definitely some fun going on with a release of voices left to wail and echo in glee and silly mooning. A love-in with the astrophysics and the pursuit of cosmic uncertainty and beauty, all rolled into one incredibly organic-fed performance.
Marvin Tate ‘Controlled Burn’
(Amalgam Music) 29th August 2026
Not so much parred down or enervated as intimate, the maverick (idiosyncratic would be a good description) poet, author, performer, artist, radio host and songwriter polymath Marvin Tate lets loose and agitates a conscious and wise accumulated stream to the sonics and guitar sculptured fuzz and scuzz of the former Wilco multi-instrumentalist LeRoy Bach.
With a number of previous bigger ensemble collaborations under his belt, Tate now finds a more minimal, but no less atmospheric and evocative, sound board with his fellow Chicago foil. Although the close-tied combo is expanded to include both a cameo from the Chicago hot housed and international Anthem stalwart Ben Lamar Gay on synth flute – you can hear it on the purred tweet-y sounded fluted and organ bedded ‘Best Side’. An invitation is also made to another of the contemporary Chicago gumbo scene’s notable players, the drummer, composer and improviser Quinn Kirchner. Opening out the sound and dynamics a touch with his drums, Kirchner can be heard, just about, on the Eugene McDaniels flange and wavey keys unrequited split-up short ‘Love Bass (I Was Hoping)’; the drum pad slavishly lo fi and cymbal crashed electronic cLOUDDEAD meets TV on the Radio ‘Mosh Pit’ – the lyrics either a continuation or repeat of the metaphor used by Tate’s on Mike Reed’s 2023 The Separatist Party album -; and a scrunched near heavy rock-prog Sabbath via Iron Butterfly and hard jazz roll and thrash on the rock-out punky Bukowski ‘First You Hear’.
Tate’s inimitable loose phrasing, observations, deciphers, enigmas, questioning and street staged episodes of life in this hood or that comes across like a combination of Malcom Mooney, Amiri Baraka, Thomas Albert Fabio and a less naïve and goofy David Liebe Hart. Without the lecturing tone, nor on the attack, politics and social comments are delivered candidly with a visual description unlike any other. No one quite encapsulates a whole woeful episode from the life of hard knocks quite like him, whether its recalls back to his older brother with both a fondness but brutal ghetto honesty, or the travails and inherited traumas that continue to plague the mind set and daily interactions. And then there’s a lot of references, remarks, poetic beats about a love lost, a love pornified and a love that stills worthy long after it’s died on the vine of reminisce.
There’s actions and annunciations driven just as much by agitation and immediacy as by attentiveness and inquiry. From a Chicago set vision of Cain and Able to proving that he was listening all along, highlights includes amorphous crossovers into Southern country-spirituals on the near plaintive, resigned ‘Robin’; the “streets made him” and numerous great lines from the brotherly affection ‘Baller’; the near Krautrock electronic pulsed octave, signal fluctuating ‘Went For A Run’; and the Sunn O))) meets Craig Ward and Hendrix on a bad trip scuzzed and riled ‘ Darren’.
Can meets Bad Brains; a post-punk transference of blues-rock and Fluxus; the sonic and sound world that underlays each poetic entry is kept lo fi and stripped-back so as not to overpower or take anything away from Tate’s startling and descriptive prose and near hectors of both low and high art.
Vivid throughout, there’s no doubt as to the drive and creative spontaneity that arises and flows from Tate’s poetry book of realities and cultural flotsam; of the eternal struggles and implicit dramas and the colourful ensemble that make up the poet’s life.
___/THE MONOLITH COCKTAIL SOCIAL PLAYLIST VOL. 109____
Yes, the same introductory paragraph and moan from this month. Despite Spotify’s many attempts to piss me off and burry my numerus playlists, I’m still persevering with the platform: more fool me. You may or may not have noticed holes and a smattering of said playlists suddenly disappearing. I’m pruning. And to be honest, after compiling over 300 of them since 2012 I’ve slowed down and fucked up my account to the point in which it has become tiresome to use. So, I’ve trimmed out those less popular playlists, and the ones with holes in them – various copyrights being either removed or now out of date, labels and those responsible for said artists and tracks either leaving the site or for some other reason taking down individual tracks from their catalogue without any explanation; luckily I’ve never, and I hope way too good at what I do to have ever included anything AI in my playlists over the years or recently, so that doesn’t hold as a reason.
In case you were wondering, or haven’t seen it on Reddit, social media posts or on notice boards, Spotify has at least decided to act by clamping down on AI created music, with some hilarious results as arbitrator of what constitutes the artificial and what doesn’t. There’s a methodology I’m told, which has unfortunately caught some true boba fide artists in the net. However, it was Spotify in the first place that was inventing and predominantly lifting up AI artists in their own playlists and on the platform as a whole.
By the way, if you are having trouble finding me on Spotify, I’m there under my name: DominicValvona.
And so, we come to this month’s Social, and the same old template of new and old tunes, cult and anniversary celebrating album tunes alongside some more recent ones that didn’t make the site’s Monthly playlist.
This month we pay our respects to Liverpool drummer and Teardrop Explodes totem Gary Dwyer, who’s death was announced by his former band mate David Balfe on the 10th August. The co-founding mainstay of the legendary post-punk-art band went on to also play on Julian Cope’s solo debut LP and serve as an integral part of the Liverpool scene. Dwyer has a couple of writing credits on the early singles and Kilimanjaro tracks ‘Laughing Gas’ and ‘Bouncing Babies’, and the later ‘In-Psychlopaedia’. I’ve gone with the first of those tracks, and one of my all-time favourites: I was obsessed for years, including in untold DJ mixes and shows.
Moving on to this month’s (or thereabouts) LP anniversaries, there’s select tracks from The Beatles’ Revolver (60 this month), with covers of ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ by Guadalcanal Diary and an all-out showtime version of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ by Jackie Trent. Sharing that sixtieth accolade, The Walker Brothers’ Portrait, and Larry Young’s Unity. Two decades on and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ transmogrified covers/homage, Kicking Against The Pricks, is unbelievably forty years old this month. Moving forward another decade, and making me feel all my years, The Sneaker Pimps’ Becoming X is now thirty years old. A new century and The Dears’ criminally underrated Gang Of Losers and equally passed-over Arts And Crafts album by Black Neon are both twenty this month. Closer to home, from 2016, I’ve decided to mark David West’s Peace And Love (featured below in the Archive section) and Ian Brennan’s in-situ recordings from Cambodia – Khmer Rouge Survivors: They Will Kill You, If You Cry.
The remainder of this month’s playlist includes cross-generational treasures and craziness and sublimity and headcases from across the globe and genres, including Connie Kim, The Exkursions, Royal Servants, Greg Foat, Pam Amsterdam, Yeah Yeah Noh, YAZ-KAZ, Thee American Revolution and many, many more…
The Complete Track List Is As Follows:
The Teardrop Explodes ‘Sleeping Gas’
The Walker Brothers ‘Saturday’s Child’
Royal Servants ‘Someone to Be with Me’
Jackie Trent ‘Got to Get You into My Life’
Sophie Baker ‘Paradise Lost’
Connie Kim ‘Doan Nguoi Lu Thu’
The Exkursions ‘Third Eye’
Thee American Revolution ‘Electric Flame’
Guadalcanal Diary ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’
Sneaker Pimps ‘Walking Zero’
Larry Young ‘Zoltan’
David West ‘Dream on Dreamer’
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ‘Sleeping Annaleah’
Battre Lyss ‘Vidsel-Sthlm, Enkel’
Frutos Del Pais ‘Todo Se Termina’
Soun San ‘Pjanch Meah (Defeat the Giant)’
Alice ‘Les fleurs’
The Black Neon ‘TX81Z’
The Dears ‘Ballad of Humankindness’
Yeah Yeah Noh ‘Cottage Industry’
Vasco De Mento ‘Nightmares’
YAS-KAZ ‘Bone Knife’
Piero Umiliani ‘Rivoluzionari’
Neuro…No Neuro ‘Spare One For Another’
Greg Foat ‘Blob #4’
Alarmist ‘CGI Sky’
Band of Holy Joy ‘I Got This Job On the Brutalism E’
Pan Amsterdam, Spice Programmers ‘Cutlery’
Kobalt 60 ‘Kaos from Order’
Baby Berserk ‘Entertainment’.
____/ARCHIVES_____
Plucked from the exhaustive archives’ sections of the site, released more or less a decade ago and reviewed on the site, David West’s languidly dreamy bedroom album, Peace Or Love.
David West ‘Peace Or Love’
Released by Tough Love, 5th August 2016
Languidly transducing his free and easy scraps of bedroom recordings into something resembling an album, the Pacific crossing maverick David West (based both in Australia and the USA) ties-down enough material to fashion eleven tracks for posterity on his latest release.
The follow-up to the Drop Out Of Collage cassette tape, Peace Or Love is a cornucopia of ideas, some fleeting others ambitious, delivered in the dreamiest gauze-y obscured way. Using a collage of samples, jams and more thought-out song suggestions, West sometimes meanders into somnolence, yet also stumbles into more fertile pastures.
His soft bulletins evoke a post-disco feel and groove on the funky keytar dance track, ‘Happiest Man In The Room’, and breezier, 99 Records meets Postcard ‘Au Contraire’. Somewhere between baggy indie and New Order, a synth pop 80s New York vibe is flittered with on the ‘heaven can’t wait’ poetic lilting ‘Dream On Dreamer’.
Purposely creating a lo-fi mood, West still hints at the bigger ideas. Strings (sampled I presume) can often be heard stirring throughout, lending either a plaintive note of mooning resignation or certain grandeur to proceedings. Vignettes such as ‘At Peace’ use them for a mixed emotional response: the title might suggest the comfort of death, and this bears out on the instrumental which is itself a mournful and ambient noise collage that features strange scrambled flickers of something from beyond the earthly realm.
Shifting genres, ‘Do You Miss Me Around’, with its overloaded noise gate distortions, sounds like a stab at No Age, and the first of a three-act suite, ‘Darkness In My Heart’ has an air of Wolf Parade. Touches, no matter how slight, of Tim Goldsworthy, ESG, Archie Bronson Outfit ‘Chunk’ period, Young Marble Giants and even Cabaret Voltaire all seem to make an appearance. And with contributions from an axis of San Fran/LA/Perth friends and West’s various stints with the Red Columns, Liberation and Rank/Xerox to expand and inspire the musical horizons, Peace Or Love is filled with some interesting hybrids and possibilities.
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 November 2024
November 29, 2024
CHOICE/LOVED/ENJOYED MUSIC FROM THE LAST MONTH ON THE MONOLITH COCKTAIL: TEAM EFFORT
The Monthly Revue for November 2024: All the choice, loved and most enjoyed tracks from the last month, chosen by Dominic Valvona, Matt ‘Rap Control’ Oliver and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea. As always our selection features a real shake up and mix of tracks that we’ve both covered in our review columns and articles over the last month, plus those tracks we didn’t have room to feature at the time.
Covering many bases, expect to hear and discover new sounds, new artists. Consider this playlist the blog’s very own ideal radio show: no chatter, no gaps, no cosy nepotism.
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Les Amazones d’Afrique ‘Wa Jo’
Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra ‘Major’
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp ‘Speak by the E’
Marcelo D2 & SambaDrive ‘Samba de Primeira/Encontro com Nogueira’
Les Sons Du Cosmos ‘LAUNDRY’
Ric Branson Ft. Relense ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
Juga-Naut Ft. Mr. Brown ‘Camel Coat’
Nowaah The Flood ‘On Location’
Blockhead ‘Orgy At The Port Authority’
Berke Can Ozcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson ‘The Saint’
Elea Calvet ‘Landslide’
Roedelius ‘217 09’
Lolomis ‘Kristallen den Fina’
The South Hill Experiment ‘Silver Bullet’
Sparkz & Pitch 92 ‘Genius’
Jack Jetson & Illinformed ‘Pray’
Spectacular Diagnostics & Kipp Stone ‘BUCKET LIST’
Cavalier & Child Actor ‘Knight Of The East’
Walking The Dead ‘Fun Facts’
Humdrum ‘See Through You’
The Conspiracy ‘Tick Tok’
The Awkward Silences ‘Mother I’m on TV’
Trupa Trupa ‘Sister Ray’
Neon Kittens ‘Demons’
Bloom de Wilde ‘Dwindi’
Bell Monks ‘Before Dawn’
Spaces Unfolding & Pierre Alexandre Tremblay ‘In Praise of Shadows Pt. 2’
Gasper Ghostly ‘Floor Thirteen’
Son Of Sam & Masta Ace ‘Come A Long Way (Jehst Remix)’
Hegz & Dirty Hairy ‘Ruby Murray’
Glowry Boyz ‘FREE FALL’
Django Mankub ‘BEATSEVEN’
Sly & The Family Drone ‘Joyless Austere Post-war Biscuits’
Lolomis ‘Sieluni tanssimaan’
Cumsleg Borenail ‘Parade You ‘round Town’
Sam Gendel, Benny Bock & Hans P. Kjorstad ‘Charango’
Yazz Ahmed ‘A Paradise In The Hold’
Maalem Houssam Guinia ‘Matinba’
Baldruin ‘Hinein, hinaus, hinuber’
hackedepicciotto ‘Aichach – Live in Napoli’
Hornorkesteret ‘Krekling’
The Muldoons ‘Hours And Hours’
Juanita Stein ‘Motionless’
Sassyhiya ‘Take You Somewhere’
John Howard ‘If There’s a Star’
The Tulips ‘Haven’t Seen Her’
Jamison Field Murphy ‘Ermine Cloak’
Graham Reynolds ‘Long Island Sound’
Mauricio Moquillaza ‘___’
Kotra ‘Trials Of Discernment’
Monolith Cocktail Blog 