Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
Nash Albert ‘Kingdom Of Love’
Album – 6th June 2025
Now then my dearies what do we have here…well, an album by Nash Albert, an artist I admit I’d never come across before, and his third album called “Kingdom Of Love”. It sounds to me like the kind of album that would have been released in the 1980’s by a major label pretending it was an indie. It has a mixture of 80’s rock bombast with a slight tinge of goth and folk and psychedelic goodness and AOR pop. And all in all an enjoyable listen for an album that could have been released anytime in the last 40 years.
Armstrong ‘Handicrafts’
Album – 1st June 2025
Armstrong (or Julian Pitt) as I have mentioned so many times in my past reviews of his work has a God given gift for melody that is rather quite a rare and marvellous thing, and one that really deserves to be heard by more people and hopefully these 43 songs that make up this double CD comp of his wonderful gift for melody will go some way to putting that right. For we have 43 slices of home recorded sunshine pop, from the Housemartins meets Joe Meek Pop Splendour of “Sunday Walking” to the seventies Bacharach and David late tv shine of “Cosmos World” fed through the mind of Brian Wilson circa “The Beach Boys Love You” sessions.
So many aural delights: “The Wonderful Sweetest Girl” is a fine 4 track wonder of lo-fi post punk jangle pop and “Yesterdays Over” is a rather sweet piano ballad worthy of the Zombies, or the mid to late sixties magic of the Hollies or the Smiths like “Let’s Be Decisive”. I could honestly just go on and on listing the tracks and writing about how beautiful and wonderful they all are, so instead of doing that I just advise you buy the CD, and you will not be disappointed.
Dragged up ‘Blakes Tape/ Clachan Dubh’
Single
Ah, more indie guitar rock to tempt me with. I admit, I get sent way too much indie guitar rock to listen to, but when it is as fun and as well done as this I really do not mind. What we have here are two tracks of sublime indie chuggery: is chuggery a word? And if so, have I spelt it right? Anyway, Dragged Up do it all very well and hopefully will find themselves on the BBC6 music playlists and maybe even one day finding themselves guesting on Jools Holland (if so, please kick him in the groin for me), as I find the distant whispers of the mainstream calling their name.
Half Naked Shrunken Heads ‘Let’s Build A Boy’
EP – (Metal Postcard Records) 16th May 2025
Metal Postcard Records is becoming the record label to go to if you require some discordant post punk in your life. Not only do they offer us the Neon Kittens, The Salem Trials and the Legless Crabs but now their latest band of jagged angular post punk the wonderfully named Half Naked Shrunken Heads. This their debut ep is four tracks of Public Image Ltd /Bow Wow Wow extravaganza, experimental mixture of punk, dub and rather fetching kicking your heals downtown filthy art filled rock ‘n’ roll…. yes, another gem. One day Cherry Red Records are going to release a series of box sets of Metal Postcard releases and people will marvel how they never heard it first time around.
Heavenly ‘Portland Town’
Single – Digital Release 6th June 2025
The first new single from Heavenly in 20 years, and a fine single it is as well, all charming indie guitar strum and melody filled harmony bliss. A beautiful ode to Portland Town, a song that captures and enraptures and makes me want to pop on a plane with my guitar and busk away till my heart is content. A lovely summer single.
Majken ‘A Siren’
Single – (Sing A Song Fighter) 12th June 2025
“A Siren” is a rather beautiful atmospheric unusual ballad filled with rising sunsets and falling dew drop, a journey into the life and minds of a wistful muse. For Majken has a rare and sweet musical talent that emits warmth and tenderness.
Novelistme ‘Fabulous Nonsense’
Album – 10th June 2025
I like this album. Novelistme is obviously a talented songwriter and musician, and “Fabulous Nonsense” is a fine album made up of good songs and some fine melodies and some great guitar riffs; an album that will appeal to all lovers of indie rock legends GBV and Graham Coxan’s solo recordings. But there is a something that I have to mention, that I find the production and sound of the album just a little to clean and clinical for my tastes, and lacking a little warmth; the same problem I have with XTC, which is my problem and not Novelistme, and is the only thing that is stopping me loving the album, but really is a good listen.
Swansea Sound ‘Oasis V Blur’
Single – 6th June 2025
Oasis Or Blur, now that is a question that really needs to be answered even after all these years. Obviously, I am well known for my hatred of Oasis, so Blur is the obvious answer, and this lovely blast of indie is good fun with its Fall like riffage and radio friendly melody. If I was on jukebox Jury I would be holding up the Hit card…. I would probably be wrong, but it’s all good fun.
The Twirlies ‘Think That I Am In Love’
Single – (Café Superstar Recordings) 23rd May 2025
This single is a rather beautiful summery pop song. The word charming was indeed invented to describe this charming slice of indie pop. The Twirlies could well be a band worthy of further investigation; any band that can remind me of both the Zombies and Belle and Sebastian doing a summer shimmer is indeed a band worthy of further investigation. I Think That I Am In Love with this single.
The Wants ‘Bastard’
Album (STTT) 13th June 2025
There is something quite Go Betweens-ish about The Wants, but a more experimental Go Betweens, a more jagged angrier experimental colder sounding Go Betweens. I think it might be the Grant McLennan-like vocals. Although I could be completely wrong about this. If so, please ignore my opening sentence. It might be because my wife is listening to the Go Betweens in the other room and there might be a cross contamination of musical genius.
Anyway, I like this gang of post punk musical miscreants. They have a lovely 80’s psychedelic undercurrent to their sound that combines with the coldness of their post punk energy, and the whole album is an enjoyable emulsion into darkness and angular sadness. A fine album.
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BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Unless stated otherwise, all releases are available to purchase now
Aiden Baker & Stefan Christoff ‘Januar’
ALBUM (Cruel Nature Records) 25th October 2024
Januar is a five-part suite of heartfelt improvised musical interplay, a heart play if one likes; an album of minimalistic experimental ambience; a conversation between piano and guitar electronic tonal seduction. Importantly Januar was recorded live in the studio, so capturing the emotion and power of Baker & Christoff‘s performance.
The five tracks weave a becoming slow dance of meditation lulling one into a dreamlike state and letting the waves of pure bliss wash over you leaving you mesmerised and in awe of the fragility and beauty of the music. Januar is an artful bewitching delight of improvised brilliance.
Bell Monks ‘Watching The Snow Fall’
ALBUM (Wayside & Woodland) 1st November 2024
Is slowcore-indie-hipster-post-jazz a musical genre? If not, it doesn’t matter as that is how I am describing this rather beautiful album of, well…slowcore-indie-hipster-post-jazz. What does slowcore-indie-hipster-post-jazz sound like? Well, it sounds like the Bell Monks. Okay, imagine The Cure and Low and the Postal Service and Red House Painters having a cravat wearing competition, or party even, and sipping on a sherry in dimmed lights and recording whilst their wives and kids are sleep. Yes, it is all hushed tones, hushed deep vocals and general blue moods.
How could it not be beautiful, it’s called “Watching The Snow Fall” after all. And is indeed an album to close the curtains to and lock yourself away from the cold and the outside pressures of life.
Broken Candles ‘Falling Asleep In The Sky’
ALBUM (Cruel Nature Records) 25th October 2024
I wonder, does the ghost of Elliott Smith roam this land taking hold of the imaginations and musings of the wandering minstrel, the heartbroken troubadour, as I feel he certainly means a great deal to the life of Broken Candles as this album contains ten songs of supreme sadness steeped in a melancholy prose that Elliott Smith would be proud of.
I’m not saying that Broken Candles is a Smith copyist, just that he walks the same winding path of sadness and hope. Both have beautiful voices and the gift of writing sublime melodies.
“Falling Asleep In The Sky” is an album of pure stillness and beauty.
Cosmopaark ‘Backyard’
EP (Howlin’ Banana Records)
The Backyard EP is five tracks of extremely easy on the ear catchy indie pop/shoegaze, and of course nothing that one has never heard before, but there is nothing wrong with that. Cosmopaark do this shoegaze business with enough enthusiasm and aplomb that lovers of this kind of soundtrack to looking at your shoes business will no doubt lap it up and enjoy it so much that they’ll be heading down to Clarkes to get themselves a new pair of sandals to stare at whilst listening.
Ex Norwegian And Friends ‘Sing Wistle Tunes’
ALBUM
Sing Wistle Tunes is a tribute to the late John Entwistle, of course former bassist with The Who. And this is an album of his songs written by the great man, performed by the wonderful Ex Norwegian and friends.
I must say I’m not a huge Who fan. I loved them from 1965 up until Tommy (1968) and then I found them a bit hit and miss [never really got on with Roger Daltrey and his vocal histrionics]. So, I’m not a man who is too precious about the band and their musical output. But saying that, I find this an enjoyable romp through songs I’m not overly familiar with, taking in melody filled tracks of psych-tinged power pop and alt rock. Highlights there are many, and I must point out one of them is the quite wonderful drumming on all the Ex Norwegian tracks [somebody buy that drummer a drink]. John Howard performs with almost Beach Boys like beauty the song “What Are We Doing Here”, which is all harmonic 70s like filled grace, and “When I Was A Boy”, where Ex Norwegian is joined by Fernando Perdomo, which is a self-celebratory delight of psych pop wonder. There are many gems on this album, and I’d recommend it to you if you love The Who, or don’t really care, as it’s an album of fine pop.
High Wasted Genes ‘Skatepark’
SINGLE
I like this single. I like the 80s like synth power chords and the beguiling nostalgia of the lyrics; it paints a picture of the happier trouble-free times of your youth, hanging out with your friends in the sunshine and trying to unpeel the apple of your eye. A song steeped in heartfelt pop wisdom.
The Junipers ‘Imaginary Friends’
ALBUM
The Junipers…now then, if I’m not mistaken my band The Bordellos once appeared on a compilation album alongside these lovely lads. The Future Is Bright The Future Is Cloudy or vice versa. Anyway, a fine compilation from many years ago. But I digress once again.
What we have here is the fourth album from the group, and what a cracking little pop gem it is. An album of pure pop, the kind Macca and Gilbert O Sullivan used to make in the early seventies, with a touch of pure 60s pop harmony magic that The Zombies would no doubt write home to their mothers about, and playful psych undertones that yearns for the day when London used to swing and Russ Sainty used to loiter outside the Bag O Nails with that bunch of dandies The First Impression. Imaginary Friends is a wonderful album filled with quite wonderful songs. And is really made for your record collection.
The Loved Drones ‘Live at Atelier Rock HUY’
ALBUM
Welcome to the live sonic space rock world of the quite wonderful Loved Drones, a band that takes psych, post-punk and space rock to new and cosmically dizzy heights.
Recorded live in Belgium this year it’s a perfect introduction to anyone who has not yet had the pleasure to lay ears on the band.
The album kicks off with the quite excellent “Dirt & Leaves”, which is all Fall like lead guitar riffs, sonic ambiance and Julian Cope like 2 car garage like rock ‘n’ roll [I told you they were good].
The Loved Drones have a power and an all-round likability and uniqueness that all the great bands have. They are a band who plough their own furrow through live casting off tangent animal shapes at the sun, raising two fingers to the lack of talent and originality that currently is forced upon us by the mainstream radio and press. The Loved Drones are quite wonderful.
“The Hindenburg Omen” is a instrumental that a blockbuster film should be made just so it can be included on the soundtrack, and “Human’s Can’t Compete” once again is brimming with a Cope-like magnificence. These eight live tracks show what a great band we have in our mists and really should be heard and appreciated by all us music lovers who love mind bending space hopping cosmic musical delights.
Occult Character ‘Swifties’
EP (Metal Postcard Records)
There is a darkness about this EP that I find quite enlightening. Four very short tracks that capture the slight unhinged mess of the times we find ourselves in. I have written about Occult Character many times over the years and the more I hear, the darker and twisted his music seems to become.
He is a modern-day musical folk anti-hero: part Woody Guthrie part Walmart Eminem. He is a one off, and he captures the mood of America; not always in what he is saying, but how he is saying it, and with the atmosphere that surrounds his music.
Occult Character is a very important musical artist and one day he will be discovered, receiving the acclaim he richly deserves. He may not always be easy to listen to but is always fascinating.
Pound Land ‘Live At New River Studios/ Worried’
ALBUM (Cruel Nature Records) 25th October 2024
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.
Salem Trials ‘Big Bad King’
SINGLE
The Salem Trials are back with a fuzzed distorted post-punk slice of punk rock. Yes, two tracks of pure unadulterated alternative pop frenzy with melodies bathed in menace and slightly gone off honey. Yes a honey larynx explosion of pure spite and delight, in that order.
The Smashing Times ‘Mrs. Ladyships And The Cleanerhouse Boys’
TRACK
I really like this track. Imagine if you will the early Go Betweens deciding to go all 60s: just pre psychedelic pop. It’s all 12-string guitar chime but played by someone who is slightly down on life, a melancholic haze of happy memories and flat beer. If this song was a girlfriend, it would be a keeper. But I bet your mum would not approve, but your dad would.
Juanita Stein ‘Mother Natures Scorn’
SINGLE (Agricultural Audio)
What I really like about this little beauty of a song is the stripped backline of it. No drums, no bass, just electric guitar and beautiful harmony, it gives the song room to breathe and to draw you into the soundscape fragility, and to bask in the fading sun quality of the song. A lovely little thing indeed.
The Striped Bananas ‘Flowers In The Air’
SINGLE – 25th October 2025
“Flowers In The Air” is a bit of a gem, all sixties Hammond organ prose and garage flower beat, the sound of Neil Young Jamming with the Strawberry Alarm clock in the hope of making the perfect single to spread the message of free love and discotheque flashback ecstasy.
Swansea Sound ‘Toxic Energy’
SINGLE (Skep Wax (UK), Formosa Punk (Germany) and Sm. Craft Advisory (US))
“Toxic Energy” is an imagined duet between the late great Terry Hall and the ‘I have no idea what his time keeping is like but there is nothing great about him apart from what a great nasty piece of work he is’ Elon Musk.
And a fine single it is too. A song full of vim and vigour and annoying urgency and indeed energy, and the energy is indeed toxic as I am currently doing laps around the living room trying to lasso Reilly the cat. I’m sure “Toxic Energy” will be lighting up the alternative airwaves over the next few weeks. It should come with a health warning.
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