Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
The Conspiracy ‘Dungeness’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) 23rd November 2025
The Conspiracy are back with another fine EP of post-punk art rock; a band that are as British as watching cricket on a summer’s day. The Fall, The Kinks, The Only Ones are all lovingly stroked and warped into a mesmerising shuffle of old man’s fancy. This is the sound of modern-day England as seen through the eyes of middle-aged men who can remember when rock ‘n’ roll had a meaning and need to the young, and soundtracked young rebellion, and was not just something they streamed from their phone as they nip down to Nando’s to ignore their friends as they watch videos on tic tok together but apart.
I Am Hands ‘Lastings’
Single 5th December 2025
This is the debut single by I Am Hands and it is no hands, feet and bumps a daisy but a lovely sail down the river of peaceful tranquillity, a song of the supreme confidence of knowing that your supreme confidence has never been painted in such a blue shade of subtly. It really is a rather lovely track that fans of the first Trembling Blue Stars album might clutch to their cardigan encrusted breast.
The Last Sound ‘All That’s Missed’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 28th November 2025
This is the sound of candy filled sugar pop, the kind that you might see on Top Of The Pops in the glory madness days of the 80s when Strawberry Switchblade seductively swooned from your transistor radio and pop could be both wonky and bliss like and whisper sweet nothings into your ear like an ethereal Green Gartside. All That’s Missed is an album that really is not to be missed. It’s yet another off-kilter pop wonder released by Cruel Nature Records, a label that certainly specialises in releasing off-kilter pop and or just plainly the off-kilter.
The Lounge Bar Orchestra ‘E.N.D.A.N.G.E.R.M.E.N.T. & The Room of Wrong Reflections’ Album (Self-Release) 26th November 2025
E.N.D.A.N.G.E.R.M.E.N.T. & The Room of Wrong Reflections is a collection of the tracks that made two-vinyl only releases on The Heavens Lathe label. The Lounge Bar Orchestra, who I have written about a number of times in the past, make a magical concoction of easy listening splenditude. The sort of thing one may hear on old sixties spy thrillers or takes you back to the golden age of seventies tv: you can easily imagine Bruce Forsyth willing on contestants on The Generation Game as they attempt to mold a mug in the shape of Anthea’s backside as “The Girl with Golden Hips Plays”.
Once again, The Lounge Bar Orchestra magically transports me back in an aural time machine to the days of Texan chocolate bars, Saturday night bath time, and watching Cilla duet with Marc Bolan as my dad eagerly awaits Starsky And Hutch and Match Of The Day. Yet again The Lounge Bar Orchestra proving why music is the most magical of all arts.
The New Tigers ‘Off The Wall/Butterfly’
Single (Soliti) 21st November 2025
These two tracks are a catchy foray into indie rock/pop, sounding not unlike The Bluetones with just a hint of what Teenage Fanclub might have produced during their heyday. All semi fuzz guitars and delightful melodies, and there is nothing wrong with that, let me tell you.
Origami Horses ‘Scenes’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) Released 23rd November 2025
I do not know if this EP was released to prove that post punk, garage rock, prog and psych can be melded into a hardy brew of rock ‘n’ roll finery. If not, it should have been as in fact that is what this EP is; one wonderful sparkling concoction of all the aforementioned, and track two, ‘Access Denied’, is an eight-minute gem that proves the point, and really needs to be heard by all, and takes one back to those hot summers days in 1989 when Madchester ruled the airwaves. The Scenes is another gem to be added to the aural crown that is the criminally ignored Metal Postcard Records label.
Sir Robert Orange Peel ‘A Man Dressed Up’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) Released 22nd November 2025
‘A Man Dressed Up’ is a beautiful Christmas symphony of seeing the magical time of the year through children’s eyes. A track filled with memories and nostalgia and an innocence to life that we all at one point in our life will lose. The perfect song to soundtrack sipping a sherry and watching the Christmas lights reflect from the baubles hanging from the tree and wishing you or your kids were young again.
Toxic Chicken ‘Quirky & Perky’
Album (Earthrid) 7th November 2025
Toxic Chicken is insanely brilliant and brilliantly insane. And Quirky & Perky is a fine introduction to his crazy world.
TC takes dance electronica and game music to new and unexplored levels of madness, and quite wonderfully tuneful melodious instrumental shenanigans are oozed from one’s speakers.
I would love Toxic Chicken to have made an album with Jim Morrison as for some reason his keyboard skills had me thinking this is what The Doors may have sounded like if they were brought up with the Game Boy and not the blues. A truly great fun listen.
Vlimmer ‘Hintersommer’
Album (Blackjack Illuminist Records) Released 21st November 2025
Ah yes, Vlimmer is back to offer all those lovers of Gothic Euro disco with a hint of post punk synth shoegazery a new Vlimmer of light. Those who’ve never tasted such a shot of pulverising gothic industrial tuneage since members of Fields Of The Nephilim, Smashing Orange and Depeche Mode were chased through the streets of a rain paved Wigan by an angry mob of spotty faced chavs on undersized bikes all holding out for sponsorship by the North Face clothing company whilst waving knocked off vapes into the air like an ancient Greek Olympian wielding his flaming torch. Yes indeed, Deliveroo has never witnessed such a wave of free advertising.
Hintersommer gets around the snag of being sung in German by both Vlimmer being German and myself not really giving a fuck as the tunes are blissfully dark and encouraging enough to imagine that what he is singing about is a worthy subject. So yes, an album I entrust will soon be in the collections of all you old and young goths who still roam this earth.
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Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions. All entries in alphabetical order.
bigflower ‘piggybird’
Single – Released last month by the artist
There is something strangely bewitching and beautiful about “Piggybird”; it’s all echoing vocals, subtle psych organ and a rather wonderful twangy guitar playing a rather sweet riff. Imagine Duane Eddy slowly waltzing with Hank Marvin through the gates of heaven whilst God looks on and gently flicks popcorn at the stars.
The Conspiracy ‘Trollied’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) 4th July 2025
I have written about The Conspiracy a number of times over the last few years or so, and with justification, as they are bloody marvellous. Bloody marvellous in such a British eccentric way; in a way that they can be lumped together or in fact tied in a ribbon in a heavenly way with the likes of Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, The Kinks and Julian Cope and XTC and The Fall and Billy Childish and even The Libertines/Babyshambles.
Yes, indeed, The Conspiracy make art shaped sculptured pop songs that don’t really get played on mainstream radio but instead will bow down and kiss the feet of the plodding Oasis of rock n roll that is Oasis. The tragedy of this that the eccentricity, the soul and intelligence of The Conspiracy are not getting the rightful acclaim they deserve from both the radio and the press/blogs and the general public.
Tony Jay ‘Faithless’
Album – 13th June 2025
I love the music of Tony Jay. I love the gentle caress of the lo-fi-ness; the simple drum machine; the tape hiss; the occasional fret buzz of the guitar; the handheld percussion; the beautiful dreaminess of the JAMC and MBV influences – two bands I think may mean a lot to Tony Jay. “Familia Dreams” is a stunningly beautiful ballad; a duet featuring the vocals of Kati Mashikian, and probably worth getting the album alone for.
The rest of the album is also rather good, indeed; all sonic heavenly softly strummed guitars and slightly distorted throbbing bass and whispered vocals. An album that lays gentle on your soul, one of those albums to soundtrack falling in and out of love to.
The Kirkbys ‘It’s A Crime: The Complete Recordings’
Comp-Album (Think Like A Key) 13th June 2025
I don’t normally go to the trouble and expense of buying an album so I can review it, but there is something quite magical about this compilation of the complete works of The Kirkbys, who of course were Jimmy Campbells first band, and takes us back to the early days of Merseybeat up to the point where he formed the psych wonder that was the 23rd Turnoff, and in fact includes a demo of ‘Michael Angelo’ recorded by the Kirkbys before it became The Turnoff’s debut (and only single), and of course now rightly regarded as a psych classic.
‘Michael Angelo’ is not the only classic song Jimmy Campbell wrote, as this album shows. ‘Bless You’ and ‘Don’t You Want Me Anymore’ have a complete 60’s beat charm that both The Beatles and The Byrds would have been proud of, and that lost wonder ‘Keep Me Warm {Til The Sun Shines}’ is truly a 60’s gem. ‘It’s A Crime’ is the sound of one of rock n rolls true lost poets in his early years singing songs of beauty and bittersweet magic; what’s really a crime is that Jimmy never ever tasted even a whiff of success in his lifetime, and now nearly twenty years after his death, is still only known by a few. Maybe one day a car advert will use one of his songs and will be propelled Nick Drake like to the covers of Mojo and the like. Link to release can be found here…
The Noisy ‘Twos’
Single – (Audio Antihero) Release last month.
‘Twos’ is a rather fine and dandy pop song, all 50s like pop melody and all sweetly sung and swung. In fact, as soon as I started listening to it, I started to smell candyfloss (I kid you not). Maybe pop supremacy is airborne and taking hold of music lovers’ nostrils…yes, what we have here is a song to fill your vape with a song to smoke and sniff.
Kevin Robertson ‘Yellow Painted Moon’
Album – 11th July 2025
Kevin Robertson is back. Yes, the Scottish Roger McGuinn has released his brand-new album just in time to soundtrack the Summer; and it’s an album that would not sound out of place in that Summer of 67. Kevin has done what he does best and released an album of 12 string laced beauty. Folk-rock, the psychedelic and 60’s pop are melded together with his usual style and grace. Yellow Painted Moon is the kind of album I get sent by the cartload – the number of bands and artists who are in thrall to the 60’s has to been seen/heard to be believed – but Kevin Robertson does it better than most and has an obvious love of the love generation, and his love shines through in his art he produces.
Scotch Funeral ‘Weak At The Knees’
Track taken from the upcoming album Ever & Ever, released this summer by the artist
A teaser track from the forthcoming album by Scotch Funeral, who are a rather fine musical extravagance hailing from the mighty Rhyl, a place I spent many great days in the 70s (I wonder if the Black cat amusement arcade is still there?). Scotch Funeral here supply us with a rather rambunctious kick in the nether’s with a punk pop romp of supreme guitar gnarl and fortitude that makes one indeed weak at the knees as all good kick in the nether’s should.
Soft Hearted Scientists ‘Hello Hello’
Single – (The Hip Replacement) 11th July 2025
The Welsh psychedelic collective The Soft Hearted Scientists are back with a bang. Well actually, more of a chime – a chime of the 12-string guitar variety. Yes, ‘Hello Hello’ is a song so good they had to name it twice; all 60s love and melody pure pop magnificence.
Spotless Souls ‘In The Heat’
Single (Soliti) 11th July 2025
The Spotless Souls debut single is a fine post punk piece of jangly pop; a song that comes over like a slightly artier Sundays, and has a lovely undercurrent of darkness that I find very appealing indeed.
Marc Teamaker ‘Teas n Seas’
Album – 8th August 2025
Teas n Seas is a rather lovely and flowing album of warm sounding enriching songs of love and remembrance. If 70s Beach Boys/Fleetwood Mac/ Todd Rundgren and the beautiful bountiful radio candyfloss MOR/AOR rock pop with an occasional country rock tinge magic is your thing, then this album could well be for you. Certainly, a perfect album to soundtrack sitting on the Beach soaking up the sun and sipping a cup of tea to whilst watching the incoming tide. Yes, an album to soundtrack your summer.
If you’ve enjoyed this selection, the writing, or been led down a rabbit hole into new musical terrains of aural pleasure, and if you can, then you can now show your appreciation by keeping the Monolith Cocktail afloat by donating via Ko-Fi.
For the last 15 years both me and the MC team have featured and supported music, musicians and labels we love across genres from around the world: ones that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored, and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love or interest in. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to say thanks or show support, than you can now buy us a coffee or donate via https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Reviews Roundup – Instant Reactions
The Pennys
Ayarwhaska ‘Dendritas Oscilantes’
Album (Buh Records) 11th April 2025
This album is noisy. It is chaotic. It is fun. It has an experimental vigour that should be applauded. The first track is called “XXX Speed Grindcore” and lasts 52 seconds and is the kind of thing John Peel would fill in 52 seconds of his show with. There are guitar riffs aplenty, ones that would make Billy Childish weep with joy. There are off-kilter vocal forays into electronic noise, feedback aplenty and the sound of someone clearing their throat. If this is what Peruvian Punk Rock sounds like please send me a Box Set.
NOTE: Presently no examples of the music available until release. Visit the Buh label bandcamp page.
The Conspiracy ‘Rainbow Prism’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) 13th March 2025
There is an old British psychedelic magic about ‘Rainbow Prism’ that should be celebrated by the current ever expanding psych fraternity. And the only reason I can think of why it isn’t, is because they have not heard it. For it has all the great qualities of British psych, and if this track was released on say Fruits De Mer Records, The Conspiracy would be all over Record Collector and Shindig and getting airplay from late night BBC 6 music: attention The Conspiracy deserves.
Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera ‘Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera (Remaster Reissue)’
Album (Think Like A Key Records) 25th April 2025
What we have here is not a new band. No, I have made an exception to the rule of only reviewing new music to review this wonderful reissue of the Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s self-titled, and only, album from 1968 (I think) reissued on the wonderful Think Like A Key Records.
It is quite a marvellous album full of mellotrons, sitars and screaming like psych rock guitars and a quite marvellously busy bassist that has to be heard to be believed. This is really a must have for any fans of 60’s psych or music lovers who want to get the aural feel of life in late 60’s swinging London.
NOTE: Presently no examples of the music available until release, but you can find or order the album here
Occult Character ‘Party Heaven’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) 4th April 2025
Party Heaven is an eight-track mirage of deranged emotional psychosis; a Party Platter of unhinged outpourings of electro-punk. Yes, Occult Character is back with eight short tracks that confuses and delights in equal measure; songs that captures the ugliness of modern life, painting a dark picture but with a huge pink lipstick smile scrawled all over it. Madness and Magic at its most extreme.
The Pennys ‘Say Something’
Track/Video
A song of pure sweetness and sadness; a lovely jangle guitar Odyssey of lo-fi home recorded indie bliss. A track worthy of the golden days of jangle pop when Subway supplied darn fine tooting slices of indie pop melancholy and not overpriced sandwiches. Album to follow this summer.
Poundland ‘Can’t Stop’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 28th March 2025
You can lose yourself in a abattoir of current events, open the newspaper, open twitter or X or whatever it is called nowadays, read the news listen to the news watch the fucking news and you are overcome, overwhelmed with the sinking feeling of life in its most horrible reality. In this time of being on the brink of world war 3 and lost in the everyday mundanity of the 9 to 5 life or the hoping to get onto the mundanity of the 9 to 5 life just so you can get away from your bloody job coach and the latest nonstarter of training course you have to attend, its only three buses there and three buses back and there is a chance no matter how slight that they will keep you on in a full time position as a general dogsbody until they discard you when a much more viable and cost cutting option comes along. Poundland are the soundtrack to this life; they are the suppliers of the modern British folk song but not the hey diddly dee bounce your child on your knee with your finger in your ear type folk song, they are writing about street life for the everyday working class. They write songs about the everyday experience. They write about how the littlest thing can make a difference – like how the thought of the flapjack in your pocket can lift the mundanity of your working day – and the banality of tv, but not set to acoustic guitar and fiddle but the dense sound of noise or the simple drumbeat and the confusion, the feedback of the distorted guitar and bass: lo-fi punk at its best.
Poundland are one of the finest and important bands in the UK today, and capture the essence of true life in Britain in 2025 in all its ugly lack of glory.
Smellsofwitches ‘Bride of Fistula’
Single 28th March 2025
Brides Of Fistula is the debut release from new Wigan outfit, the wonderfully named Smellsofwitches. And it is a strange fish of a track, all experimental improvised glory but with a marvellously warm texture and feel. It may not have a melody that one can hum along to but is all the more fascinating and bewitching for that very reason.
SUE ‘Get Over’
Single
This is actually rather good, a throwback to those days of flannel shirts and The Late Show being dedicated to those pesky grunge bands from the good old US of A. And indeed, this track by Sue would not be out of place on that show: all angst vocals and heavy guitars. This could do very well, or would have 30 odd years ago.
Toxic Chicken ‘Mentally Sound’
Album (Earthrid) 16th April 2025
Let’s be honest, the only thing musically mentally sound about the great Toxic Chicken is the title of this album, as we in the know all know Toxic is one of the great musical eccentrics that live in the underground occasionally releasing mostly instrumental forays into the psych of electronica. And this wonderful album is an aural stroll through a strange Forrest as the sun goes down. Tracks that bewitch and amuse, entertain in equal measure. Songs that trip and drip through the mind, a relaxing frenzy of the old adage that a bird in the bush is a better than the bird in the freezer, or something similar that really is not too similar at all, and that is the perfect description of the works of The Toxic Chicken. For it sounds like electronica; it feels like electronica; but there is just something there that makes it much more. It has a slight dark ember of a twisted foray into the thinking of a musical maverick; an index into the mind of the closest thing the world of electronica has to Syd Barrett. Mentally Sound is indeed extremely sound but in the most magically unsound way.
Vesch ‘Passport’
Album (Incompetence Records) 11th April 2025
Art-Punk Cabaret is how Vesch describe themselves, and I’m not going to argue with that. For what we have is an enjoyable foray into a land where Xray Spex and The Teardrop Explodes and Lena Lovich rule the radio, as at different times the band remind me of all three. Maybe late seventies post punk and early eighties pop is what is in vogue in Russia at the moment, as that is where Vesch hail from.
Passport is an album made up of off-kilter and extremely enjoyable unusual inventive pop music. It may not be to everybody’s taste but is certainly to mine.
The Monthly Playlist selection of choice music, plus our Choice Albums list from the last month.
So last month we decided to change things a little with a reminder (if you like) of not only our favourite tracks from the last month, but also a list of choice albums too. This includes both those release we managed to feature on the site and those we just didn’t get the time or room for.
February’s tracks and albums were chosen by me, Dominic Valvona, Matt Oliver and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea.
In Alphabetical Order, those Recommended Discoveries and Choice Albums from February:
Cumsleg Borenail ‘Alone Again’
The Bordellos (with Dee Claw)/Neon Kittens ‘Half Man Half Kitten’
(Cruel Nature Records) Review
Brother Ali ‘Satisfied Soul’
(Mello Music Group)
Noémi Büchi ‘Liquid Bones’
Christopher Dammann Sextet ‘If I Could Time Travel I Would Mend Your Broken Heart aka Why Did The Protests Stop’ (Out of Your Head Records) Review
Helen Ganya‘Share Your Care’
(Bella Union) Review
John Howard ‘For Those that Wander By’
(Think Like A Key) Review
Oksana Linde ‘Travesías’
(Buh Records) Review
Marshall Allen ‘New Dawn’
(Week-End Records) Review
Mirrored Daughters ‘S/T’
(Fike Recordings) Review
Phill Most Chill & Djar One ‘Deal With It’
(Beats House Records)
Sophia Djebel Rose ‘Sécheresse’
(Ramble Records/WV Sorcerer Productions/Oracle Records) Review
Salem Trials ‘Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground’
(Metal Postcard Records) Review
Various ‘Wagadu Grooves Vol. 2: The Hypnotic Sound Of Camera 1991 – 2014’
(Hot Mule) Review
Kaito Winse ‘Reele Bumbou’
Witch ‘N’ Fox ‘Outfox’
Review
Yellow Belly ‘Ghostwriter’
(Cruel Nature Records) Review
The Monthly Playlist of Choice Music::
Jupiter & Okwess ‘Selele’
Snapped Ankles ‘Pay The Rent’
Phill Most Chill & Djar One ‘Born To Rock’
Ramson Badbonez ‘The Great’
Cthree & Sa-Roc ‘Gold Tablets’
Brother Ali ‘The Counts’
Pacific Walker ‘Induction Ceremony (White Women in White Robes, Clapping)’
Marshall Allen ‘Angels And Demons At Play’
Helen Ganya ‘Share Your Care’
The Men ‘PO Box 96’
The Model Workers ‘Sorry Again’
Salem Trials ‘500 Knives’
The Awkward Silences ‘The Eugenicist is Calling’
AIMING ‘Brianiac’
The Conspiracy ‘White Winter Coats’
Yellow Belly ‘Other Half’
SUO ‘Arms of an Angel’
3 South & Banana ‘Temperance’
John Howard ‘The Man Who Was America’
Mirrored Daughters ‘Unreturning Sun’
Panda Bear ‘Ends Meet’
Extradition Order ‘Consider the Oyster’
Kaito Winse ‘Waabo’
DJ Design & Vermin the Villain ‘Un Chien Perdu’
Confucious MC & Bastien Keb ‘Eyes To See’
Roedelius, Onnen Bock & Yuko Matsuzaki ‘Moon Garden’
Mabe Fratti & Lucrecia Dalt ‘cosa rara – en la playa’
dis.tant, Boundary, Reptiles Reptiles ‘Pasaje Por La Montana (Pt.3)’
Karriem Riggins Ft. Westside Gunn & Busta Rhymes ‘Long Live J Dilla’
Black Milk & Fat Ray ‘ELDERBERRY’
Kungfoolish ‘Recognize The Real’
Forest Swords ‘Lines Gone Cold – Deconstructed’
Oksana Linde ‘Luciernagas en los manglares’
Christopher Dammann Sextet ‘No Hope At All Other Than I Don’t Want To Die Today Pt. 3’
Hi, my name is Dominic Valvona and I’m the Founder of the music/culture blog monolithcocktail.com For the last 15 years me and my various site collaborators have featured and supported music, musicians and labels from across the genres, and from around the world that we think you’ll want to know about. No content on the site is paid for or sponsored and we only feature artists we have genuine respect for /love. If you enjoy our reviews (and we often write long, thoughtful ones), found a new artist you admire or if we have featured you or artists you represent and would like to buy us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/monolithcocktail to say cheers for spreading the word, then that would be much appreciated.
Our Daily Bread 636: Eamon The Destroyer, Cats Of Transnistria, John Howard, Yellow Belly…
February 4, 2025
BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
bigflower ‘trip d’
Single Released on the 31st January 2025
‘Trip D’ by bigflower is a cavernous atmospheric journey of yearning and sadness; three plus minutes of guitar solitude with a quite wonderful nagging riff. Once again Ivor Perry showing us why he is rated one of the finest guitarists to emerge from the 80’s Manchester scene.
Cats Of Transnistria ‘Horror’
Single (Soliti Recordings) Available Now
Horror is anything but horrible, but an atmospheric gem of Goth-y dream pop, awash with succulent 80’s keyboards and dreamy vocals. It’s as if the last 40 years been nothing but a dip in the shower with the Man From Atlantis.
Chaos Emeralds ‘Passed Away’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
Not to be confused with the Nashville Pop duo of the same name as this, Chaos Emeralds are anything but a pop duo but a rather excellent lo-fi sludge Indie rock duo with the occasional stray into both shoegaze and goth. “Count Me Out” reminds me of very early Psychedelic Furs before they went all Hollywood on us and polished up their prettiness in pink. At other times it reminds me of early 80’s Cure and Smashing Orange, which is not to be confused with smashing an orange, which is a messy and pointless exercise and The Chaos Emeralds are anything but pointless and messy, they are a fine band with a rather wonderful atmospheric sound.
The Conspiracy ‘White Winter Coats’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) 21st January 2025
I am a fan of The Conspiracy. I love their Englishness, and this excellent track really does not disappoint, it’s all seventies Bowie and Mid 80’s Julian Cope and what Syd Barrett might have sounded like if he was not a troubled soul. This is a taster to their forthcoming album, an album I will no doubt tell you all about in the coming weeks.
Eamon The Destroyer ‘Radio Sessions’
EP (Bearsuit Records) Released 21st January 2025
What we have here is an acoustic six track EP of songs recorded for two radio sessions in 2024: and mighty fine they are as well. The songs work well in acoustic form – is there such a genre of folktronica (ED: yes, there is), because if not Eamon The Destroyer has discovered it.
The Wickerman soundtrack, Momus and Leonard Cohen collide in a not so frenzy-like pleasure of subtle sly nods and winks whilst feeding Bagpuss illicit halogenic expressions of drugs gone by whilst showing thumbnail sketches of could and should have Beens. This really is a stunning six track EP of pure epic beauty.
John Howard ‘For Those that Wander By’
Album (Think Like A Key) 14th February 2025
“For Those That Wander By” is an album of sublime eloquence, an album that is steeped in songwriting craft and God-given talent. An album that features eight songs co-written by John Howard and poet Robert Cochrane, set to be released on Valentines Day, which by accident or design is extremely apt. For the album is quite a beautiful thing indeed. It is steeped in a lush wave of warmth, sadness and melancholy.
This is an album that draws on the experience of life and the passing of time; a dream world of haunting memories and ghosts from your past that caress and comfort you in the knowledge, as the old saying goes, that it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all, and the skeletons in your closet are taken out daily and slow danced with under a full and rich moon.
John Howard is, as we all should know, one of England’s great musical hidden treasures, and this album coming exactly 50 years after his debut, the quite marvellous “Kid In A Big world”, goes to show that John has not lost any of his vocal capabilities. If anything, he is singing better now than he ever has, producing an album that Elton John would sell his children to be able to produce. An album of pure magic.
The Men ‘Po Box 96’
Single (Fuzz Club) Available Now
Fuzzy punk grunge with wah-wah guitar solo all in less than two minutes. If you like the sound of that give it a listen, if not give it a listen anyway: it takes longer to open a can of corn beef.
The Model Workers ‘Disaster Punk’
Album – Released 28th January 2025
I really know very little about the Model Workers apart from they are a pretty good three-piece punk band, or pop punk to be more precise: more early Green Day but with a bit more balls than say the Sex Pistols, a band that took me back to the days when my then 15 year old daughter used to text me every Tuesday to remind me to pick up that week’s copy of Kerrang and at the time that mag and its accompanying tv channel was filled with bands of this ilk and like. The Model Workers are indeed very good and I can quite easily imagine “Red Rose” or the extremely catchy “Sorry Again” popping up on the channel or the wonderful Dead Kennedy’s like “Surf Storm”, which is my favourite track on this mighty enjoyable seven-track mini album.
Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’
EP (Metal Postcard Records) Released 21st January 2025
Next Year’s Model is sadly not a reworking of the genius Elvis Costello and The Attractions album from 1978, although it does have a 16 second track called Elvis Costello among the seven extremely short tracks that make up this release. Occult Character is of course someone I write about very often in this blog as I like him very much, and he releases an awful lot of music, and this is another off the cuff experimental dementia music ridden foray into the diseased mind of the good old USA. And I love it.
PS: Occult Character ‘Next Year’s Model’ made last month’s choice selection of releases.
Salem Trials ‘Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground’
Album (Metal Postcard Records) Released 24th January 2025
Any album that kicks off with a track that sounds like Magazine covering Television Personalities, How I Learned To Love The Bomb soundtracking Russ spewing juicy gossip to a man he can only see whilst standing in one of the only remaining red telephone boxes left in The UK. And not even a nice part of Britain…we will say the red telephone box by the town hall in St Helens, it stinks of piss and decay but has a lost nostalgic beauty; a one-off memory of exciting times and rushed conversations, which is the perfect description of this wonderful post-punk album.
“Heavenly Bodies Under The Ground” could well be the Salem Trials best album yet, which is pretty much high praise as all The Trials many albums are pretty good indeed. One day Cherry Red Records will release a CD boxset of The Salem Trials and it will be hailed as the complete collection of one of Britain’s finest guitar bands.
Yellow Belly ‘Ghostwriter’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 21st February 2025
The shimmering glisten of the beautiful awakening of the first summer steps of the handwritten rhyme. The melody of the clouds casting dark shadows of the night pulling dream like caricatures of memories past. The haunting bewitching soundtrack to the forever young in your mind. Yellow Belly dives deep into the subconscious and slowly teases the sadness and delight, offering the hope of the gentle and the meek, being the beacon of light that slowly emits the slow electronic drumbeats of yesterday, the vocals encapsulating the art that is found in all great pop music, the heart rendering yearning of the modern songbird or the memories of Julee Cruise floating through the speaker of your old radio kidnapping your beating heart and holding ransom to the melancholic wishes of yesterday. Yellow Belly’s Ghostwriter is an album touched with the dark hand of beautiful heartache and a bewitching stillness that is totally entrancing.
THE INIMITABLE BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA DELIVERS HIS VERDICT ON A NEW HAUL OF RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH (all of which are available now, unless stated otherwise)
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Humm ‘Danced Alone (Who I Am When I’m In love)’
This month’s cover stars
‘Danced Alone [who I Am When I Am In Love]’ is a lovely jaunt of melancholy wonder, a respite of fulfilment; the kind of charming acoustic pop that Eddi Reader used to occasionally bother the bottom end of the Top 40 with when people cared about such things. I think Humm could be ones to watch, and expect them to pop up on the radio 2 playlists soon: that is, if there is any justice in this musical world.
Bloom de Wilde ‘Clown’s Ride On A Kangaroo’
(Cherry Red)
There is something quite joyous and magical about ‘Clown’s Ride On A Kangaroo’. It’s perfect radio pop with a bewitching quality that seeps into your soul, takes hold of your heart and spins it around leaving you a giddy mess of stirred up emotions. It’s a hopeful future memory of found love, that old 60s or 70s pop song appearing on your transistor radio as you dance by yourself, imagining in your arms was the partner of your dreams. Pure pop perfection.
Tom Satch Kerans ‘Those Lies’
If catchy Stones-like rock ‘n’ roll is your thing, and if it is not your thing, what on earth are you doing reading the Monolith Cocktail! For what we have here is a catchy slice of early 80s like Rolling Stones or a Tom Petty with a Bee in his Bonnet – in fact have you ever heard of anyone who has ever had a Bee in his Bonnet? I have squashed a wasp in my ear, but that is a whole completely different story. But I cannot imagine having a bee in your bonnet being a very pleasant experience, unlike this song, which is a very pleasant experience and one more people should share in.
Dragged Up ‘Hex Domestic’
(Cruel Nature Records)
With a shiver and a shudder, the rumbles and vibrations of a bass, and the warmness of an escape from everyday life, you enter the indie world of the cassette label. You enter into the world of Cruel Nature Records, a world that exists not just in films directed by Jason Reitman but also in real life; in real life UK, a place that is in need of a shot of indie alternative art more and more everyday. And it’s labels like Cruel Nature Records that is somehow making my life tolerable and giving me hope. For they release ltd edition cassettes as splendid and life affirming as this little 4 track beauty by Dragged Up; 4 tracks of pure Velvets, Teenage Fanclub and Vaselines like gems of warmth and cold walks on rain soaked pavements attempting to window shop in boarded up shop windows in the decaying memories of what the High Street used to be: 4 tracks of pure beauty, melancholy and hope.
Dog Door ‘Cover Up Contest’
‘Cover Up Contest’ by Dog Door submerges into your yesterdays with a trip down to the days when Sparklehorse was an essential part of ones record collection; when Mercury Rev used to soundtrack your evening with your not quite married friends, and sipping to much alcohol was a daily occurrence. This is a track that almost catches the magic of those carefree days, and is a quite lovely thing indeed.
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Nick Frater ‘Bivouac’
17th November 2023
The art of the concept album is alive and well and living in the confines of Nick Frater’s new album Bivouac; an album about escaping post industrial Britain and seeking solitude in a woodland sanctuary.
All the tracks run into each other giving you the blanket of warmth and melody, which really is not a bad thing and with the coming Winter months can indeed be an essential requirement as it may be the only warmth we get this year. It’s sunshine pop after all. It brings to mind the magic of Jellyfish and Squeeze at their best. The 70s am pop of Andrew Gold, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren all collide and cause an explosion of one of the most heart warming and joyful albums of the year.
The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls ‘The Ship, The Compass And The New World’
At last, the debut album from The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls. And it’s just what the world needs; honestly it does. In this time of war and death we need the sound of an instrumental like Joe Meek magic/madness brought to us by three tiny plastic dolls. We need adventure guitar twang; the whirring and whirling of sci-fi sounds; the feeling you are witnessing the second coming of the black and white TV age: the age when cobble streets and Minnie Caldwell were everybody’s sweetheart.
The Quantum Surf Garage Dolls sound like they could have stepped straight out of the wonderful explosion of 60s teenage high musical melodrama that was “Live It Up” – the Smart Alecs would have killed to have tracks like these, or at least swapped their motorbikes for. A wonderful album, the perfect soundtrack for sitting in a coffee house: the coffee house being the 2 i’s not Costa.
The Conspiracy ‘The New Zeitgeist’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Eccentricity is not a common thing in music these days. It is on the whole frowned upon, with record labels and radio stations tending to play safe and stick with the same old or the same new soulless pop or indie by-numbers strum alongs. Music with intelligence and verve and wit are pushed to the backwaters; the likes of the great Julian Cope and Luke Haines becoming nothing more than an influential cult. And that dear readers can be the only explanation why The Conspiracy are not better known, and currently reside in the ‘never heard of them, they cannot be any good brigade’, where in fact I have heard of them and they are very good indeed. As I’ve written in previous reviews of their music, they are very bloody British; they wear their love of The Kinks and the aforementioned Julian Cope on their sleeves.
Intelligent witty lyrics and riffs that at times sound like an upmarket Billy Childish – the days of him not slumming it at Aldi but buying his riffs from Selfridges. See The Conspiracy are intelligent contrary buggers who do not dumb down their art, and in these days of Neanderthals wanting Oasis to reform that can only be applauded, and they should be given medals for trying to keep intelligent artful pop alive and well.
Neon Kittens ‘Nine Doesn’t Work For An Outside Line’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Post-punk beatnik shenanigans are afoot with this the new release from Neon Kittens. Their second album [I think] carries on where their last left off, with spoken female vocals purring erotically like an attractive nun filing her nails, smiling, knowing her crotchless knickers are only slightly hidden by her too short mini habit wondering just where to place her oversized cross next, over the scratch and sniff guitar yearnings that are part Fire Engines, part Scary Monster & Super Creeps, part rock ‘n’ roll, and part sexual abandonment. Yes, this is the true sound of total derailment. This is the sound of a 15 year old girl French kissing her jazz induced slightly older best friend with benefits; an album of pure off-center genius.
The Inimitable Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea’s Perusal Of New Releases
SINGLES
Fruit Bats ‘We Used To Live Here’
‘We Used To Live Here’ is a bittersweet lament full of sadness and hope. A nostalgic waltz through the past, a memory, a snapshot set to a country/folk beat; a stroll of beauty we all take in our lives. A lovely song, which I am very much taken with.
The Conspiracy ‘Venus’
(Metal Postcard Records)
Chunky Kinks-like guitar riffs sends one off to the adrift of nostalgic England; a place where chunky Kinks guitar riffs go when all hope of rock ‘n’ roll future dies. That is what I love about The Conspiracy: they are so bloody British. They take the past and wrap it in a warm post-punk pop guitar feel; a place where strangers meet and discuss the early albums by Cleaners From Venus and how XTC demos are always better than the finished article. Yes indeed, I love The Conspiracy one of the many great current British bands not clogging up the airwaves.
Opus Kink ‘1 : 18’
(Nice Swan Records)
I do like Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. So I see no reason not to like this, as they take all the early Bad Seeds charm – if charm is the word – and cover it with some youthful enthusiasm. Nothing I haven’t heard before, but Opus Kink does it pretty well. Plus for some reason I approve of a record label called Nice Swan Records. And there really is not much more to add.
CIEL ‘Somebody’
The sound of perfect guitar pop that is what the Ciel single is. Less than two minutes of jangly guitar, power pop hooks and pop punk attitude. A song so sweet it will rot your teeth, and because it is so short something we need not worry about. A lovely little gem of jangly power punk pop delight.
Tomato Flower ‘Destroyer’
Another short single. This must be the new thing, releasing singles less than two minutes in length. A thing that I hope to see more of, especially as this wonderful piece of pop buffoonery, a unhinged little gem of disposing the milk bottle in the grey area of wagstaffs once flowing blond locks, is a triumph. It has an uneasy easy feeling about it; the kind of song people who enjoy their nightmares the next morning might hum to themselves while looking through the situations vacant column knowing they do not want to work for any company willing to employ them. Tomato Flower are a band to watch out for, in a good way.
Cindy ‘Earthly Belonging’
The sound of a Summer jangle delight, at just under one and half minutes long it doesn’t give you time think about anything really. Just gives you time to wonder whether the album will be filled with such pop joy. And of course pop joy at any length is always welcome, and I look forward to the album (Why Not Now?).
Chloe Gallardo ‘Bloodline’
(Taxi Gauche)
Awwwww this is really beautiful. A really lovely sad song full of self doubt and regret. And when the young lady sings “I’m fucked up” it makes me want to give her a hug. Any song that succeeds in bringing out my natural fatherly instinct should only be applauded, for it proves Chloe Gallardo has the gift of writing from the heart and has plenty of empathy and soul. She also wraps it in a melody so beautiful it is like a discarded bubblegum wrapper blowing in a strong.
ALBUMS
Lemon Twigs ‘Everything Harmony’
(Captured Tracks) 5th May 2023
The Lemon Twigs are masters of taking influences from the masters of pop and rock and weaving blankets of musical warmth and reflection from them; whether it be the Beach Boys on ‘Corner Of My Eye’, The Carpenters on ‘Any Time Of The Day’, Simon And Garfunkel on ‘When Winter Comes Around’, Big Star on ‘What You Where Doing’…the list goes on as the album goes on. And plays and unwinds, each track casting shadows of former rock ‘n’ roll greats, and each track reminding you how special and magical classic pop music can be.
Everything Harmony is like listening to an amazing oldies radio show but never having heard any of the songs before. So take a trip in this musical time machine to go back and discover some quite wonderful new songs.
Unlettered ‘New Egypt’
I am indeed Slanted And Enchanted by this lovey 5 track EP of late 80s early 90s sounding alt rock; an invitation to revisit my youth and long for the days of John Peel and pubs shutting at 11pm, and myself being still young enough to care about these happenings. For New Egypt by Unlettered is a time box of sonic explosions a musical box of unease and bewildered fuzz bass whimsy; a 5 track wonder that takes the influences of JAMC and early Pavement and covers the tracks in a slightly tainted fairy dust of its own. And two of the tracks are available on a very ltd 7 inch single, which I am sure by the time you read this will be snapped up.
A word about the Author of these reviews::
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. Far too many projects, asides and oddities to mention, but his latest album is Songs For Cilla Black (released on Think Like A Key Music) threatened to trouble some online alternative chart for a week on Amazon – so things must be looking up.
Each week we send a mountain of new releases to the self-depreciating maverick to see what sticks. In his own idiosyncratic style and turn-of-phrase, pontificating aloud and reviewing with scrutiny an eclectic deluge of releases.
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