BRIAN ‘BORDELLO’ SHEA’S REVIEWS ROUNDUP – INSTANT REACTIONS.
Arab Strap Photo: Luke Bovill
Arab Strap ‘You You You’
Single (Rock Action Records)
If I was young and one of these influencer types you see popping up on YouTube and such, being all jolly and hip and now and current and suchlike, I would describe this as a bit of a banger and not mean old car or sausage but a bit of a toe tapper, one to cut some rug to; a record in the bygone age of when Morrissey had something to say; a record that would have dented the bottom half of the Hit Parade as indie crossover singles tended to do. Ahh…those were the days, of Gallup chart machines and record shops. And this song would have been good enough to visit your local record store and part with your penis. I meant to write pennies but I will stick with penis as it could even be good enough to part with your penis, unless you don’t have one which would mean having to borrow someone else’s to part with, and if you did, what compartment in the till would you put it? The notes or change compartment? The mind boggles.
Double Francois ‘La Poursuite’
EP (Freaksville) 15th May 2026
La Poursuite is a rather lovely thing indeed. 5 tracks of pure French pop from the synth pop of Allumeur to the lovely acoustic summery jazz Trop Ou Paz Assez and the blissfully sweet romance of the love duet Un apres- midi a Paris which features the wonderful Benjamin Schoos. Yes, five wonderful tracks that will soundtrack the oncoming summer; songs to lick ice cream and drink wine whilst trying to look cool in ill-fitting flannel trousers.
Filalete ‘Frequencies Of The Soul’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 16th June 2026
I will be completely honest, me writing about modern classical is like asking the incredible Hulk to successfully reenact the final meeting scene in Brief Encounter: it is not going to end well.
Modern classical is a musical genre I have only occasional dipped into, mostly when I have been sent some new music to review. But I am a human being for god sake! And have emotions and fallibilities like most others, so can appreciate beauty and soul and feeling. And those three things are in abundance with this rather lovely album and has me thinking there are far worse ways of me spending my Sunday afternoon than being totally moved by the outpourings of instrumental piano emotional grandeur.
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Sci Fi Hi Fi’
Album Released 7th May 2026
Well, what’s not to like about an Sci Fi themed album with songs concerning planets and space and aliens and ray guns. It’s all twanging guitars ala The Ventures and suchlike and whooshing sci fi synths and Monochrome Set like vocals. Sci Fi Hi Fi has a wonderful eccentricity and includes many rewrites of Incense and peppermints, which believe me can only be a great thing.
Occult Character ‘The Zodameta Working’
EP (Subvert)
This is rather wonderful, the new EP by Occult Character is a splendid three track EP of pure bonkers experimental pop/dance part Eurovision, part Welsh Male voice choir, part satanic black mass. The Occult Character never fails to astound and surprise with this quite hypnotic three track gem.
Opus Kink ft The New Eves ‘The Head Tree’
Single
I quite enjoy the madness of this track. Imagine if you will Sam and The Womp getting together with Nick Cave to perform a track about hanging a witch, the kind of thing one really does not hear much about these days on the radio: That’s if you still listen to the radio, nowadays it’s all curated playlists and suchlike. I know that makes me sound like I am old enough to remember the days when they used to burn and hang witches but maybe it’s because I am.
Schizo Fun Addict ‘Desolate Ecstasy’
Album (Fruits de Mer) 10th June 2026
The world needs a new album by Schizo Fun Addict, it honestly does. The tragic thing about this is that the world does not realise it yet as they are criminally undervalued. The perfect pop band, just like The Beatles and The Beach Boys (in the 60s and 70s) and the Velvet Underground are perfect like Orange Juice (another criminally undervalued band), The Smiths and first few albums by the B52s where perfect.
SFA have a wonderful sense of adventure and inner spirituality that all the finer artists and, indeed, people do. In fact, there really should be a Schizo Fun Addict cartoon (Hanna-Barber get on it please). The world is a mess, more of a mess than I have known in my near 60 years on this planet, so we need Schizo not just to soundtrack these times but also give us an escape route from life for the 35 minutes that this gem of an album plays. The radio and mags and blogs in an ideal world should be all over this album.
Desolate Ecstasy is a pop fantasy. It is the lighted up pave stones of Billie Jean. It is the mop top headshake. It is the aural image of Otis Redding falling to his knees and begging for a little tenderness. The band bring all the magic and danger and sexiness of the last 60 years or so of Rock ‘n’ Roll because they still believe in the magic.
The album kicks off with the single “Pasteline Dream”, a guitar jangling pop beauty that brings the sound of the early Stone Roses being fronted by the girls from The B52s. Jayne Gabriel and Ilona Virostek voices blend perfectly: they have that perfect blend of heavenly sass that all the best 60s girl groups have and again on “The Scent Of Heather” the sound of the BJM being fronted by the Shangri-La’s – perfect heavenly sass psych pop.
Desolate Ecstasy is one of those albums when it really is impossible to choose your favourite track as it constantly changes depending on your mood, and because all the tracks are quite special. “Coming To You” is a rather hypnotic and beautiful mellow gaze of a dance track that once again highlights both the spirituality and sensuality of the girls’ vocals, a song that takes me back to the days of the Manchester Acid scene when the Hacienda was many a peoples place of worship: “Coming To You” is an aural E of togetherness. “The Line Is Gone” is a somewhat darker beast of a track, one that highlights the genius of guitarist and producer Rex John Shelverton; a song drenched in fury and guitar twang in equal measure, the sound of the priest in the Exorcist driving the Demons out of Linda Blair by playing her The Ventures greatest hits. “Strange Theatres”, at the time of writing my current fave from the album, is a wonderful baggy like dirty pop gem of a track with sleazy bass and groove drums of Daniel Boivin and Jet Wintzer sounding like he has been possessed by the spirit of Sean Ryder chanting “let the people all die”: a truly dark and hypnotic listening experience I tell thee. So Desolate Ecstasy is quite wonderful and could be the best Schizo Fun Addict album yet and probably already my favourite album of the year. I have just realised I have not mentioned the track “Cathedral Sunshine”, a song so perfect that JAMC could have written it when they were very special…And that is very good indeed.
Our Monthly Playlist selection of choice music and Choice Releases list from the last month.
We decided at the start of the year to change things a little with a reminder of not only our favourite tracks from the last month but also a list of choice albums too. This list includes both those releases we managed to feature and review on the site and those we just didn’t get the room for – time restraints and the sheer volume of submissions each month mean there are always those records that miss out on receiving a full review, and so we have added a number of these to both our playlist and releases list.
All entries in the Choice Releases list are displayed alphabetically. Meanwhile, our Monthly Playlist continues as normal with all the choice tracks from October, taken either from reviews and pieces written by me – that’s Dominic Valvona – and Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea. Our resident Hip-Hop expert Matt Oliver has also put forward a smattering of crucial and highlighted tracks from the rap arena.
CHOICE RELEASES FROM THE LAST MONTH OR SO:
Bedd ‘Do Not Be Afraid’
Review
Joel Cusumano ‘Waxworld’
(Dandyboy Records) Review
Peter Evans’ Being & Becoming ‘Ars Ludicra’
(More Is More Records) Review
Will Glaser ‘Music of The Terrazoku, Ethnographic Recordings From An Imagined Future’
(Not Applicable) Review
Amira Kheir ‘Black Diamonds’
(Sterns Music/Contro Culture Music) Review
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Ricardian Churchward’
Review
NiCKY ‘with’
(PRAH Recordings) Review
Picniclunch ‘snaxbandwitches’
Review
Cosimo Querci ‘Rimane’
(Quindi Records) Review
Širom ‘In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper’
(Glitterbeat Records)
Striped Bananas ‘Eternity Forest’
Review
Sum of R ‘Spectral’
Tortoise ‘Touch’
(International Anthem X Nonesuch Records) Review
Vexations ‘A Dream Unhealthy’
(Cruel Nature Records) Review
Violet Nox ‘Silvae’
(Somewherecold Records) Review
THE PLAYLIST::
Howling Bells ‘Heavy Lifting’
Melody’s Echo Chamber ‘Eyes Closed’
Arcigrandone & Sone Institute ‘Ancide Sol La Morte’
Pray-Pax ‘Can’t’
Peter Evans Being & Becoming ‘Pulsar’
Petter Eldh Ft. Savannah Harris ‘MIDSUM BREW’
Myka 9, Blu & Mono En Stereo ‘Battle’
Jesse the Tree & Sage Francis ‘A Bad MFer’
Verb T & Vic Grimes ‘Distraction’
Elsio Mancusco & Berto Pisano ‘Nude per l’assassino’
Joker Starr Ft. AnyWay Tha God & Jazz T ‘Don’t Try to Test’
Summers Sons Ft. Ben B.C ‘Promises’
Sebastian Rojas ‘Pulmon Del Tropico’
Amira Kheir ‘Rabie Aljamal (Spring of Wonder)’
Oswald Slain ‘Cranberry Juice’
NiCKY ‘I Saw You’
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Bones in the River’
Edward Rogers ‘Astor Place’
Joel Cusumano ‘Death-Wax Girl’
The Stripped Bananas ‘Vampire of Mine’
Bedd ‘Paulie’s a Bum’
Legless Trials ‘American Russ Never Sleeps’
Vexations ‘Let Me In’
OvO ‘Gemma’
Sum of R ‘Violate’
GRABENFUSSS ‘Broken Kingdoms’
Cosimo Querci ‘Rimanemai’
Valley Voice ‘As Though I Knew’
Samara Cyn ‘vitamins n minerals’
The Strange Neighbour ‘No Mans Land’
Truth by Design ‘Stray Shots’
The Cool Kids, Sir Michael Rocks & Chuck Inglish ‘We Got Clips’
Dillion & Paten Locke ‘Always Never’
Sol Messiah & Connect The Dots Movement ‘Small axe wins the battle’
Tortoise ‘Works and Days’
Sirom ‘For You, This Eve, the Wolves Will Be Enchantingly Forsaken’
Violet Nox ‘Whisper’
Liz Cooper ‘New Day’
Sweeney ‘Silent J’
RULES ‘Run Boy’
Tinariwen ‘Chaghaybou – Adalan’
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. All entries in alphabetical order.
Joel Cusumano ‘Waxworld’
Album (Dandyboy Records) 24th October 2025
I like this album. I was expecting the typical power pop tuneful bombast, which it does to a certain extent have, but with a slightly tattered heart that at times reminds me of what Blondie might have sounded like if they were fronted by Pete Perrett instead of the lovely Debbie – especially on “Through A Darkened Glass“. Waxworld is an entirely enjoyable listening experience, one I would recommend to all those power pop aficionados out there, as Joel Cusumano performs like he is Joel Cusumano and not a stars in the eyes Mathew Sweet.
John Howard ‘Kid In A Big World (The Prof Stone Remaster)’
Album (Think Like A Key Records) Released back in August 2025
Autumn is upon us and is the perfect season to discover or even rediscover this 50-year-old classic debut from one of Britain’s finest hidden treasures. Yes, John Howard‘s excellent debut has been remastered by Prof Stone, available from Think Like A Key Records Bandcamp as a download only.
Do I need to pontificate about the magic of this much written about debut. Probably not, but I will anyway. If Elton John was as good as people think he is, he would sound like this album. And John does not feel the need to sing in a phoney American accent or share Dame Edna’s stylist. Why he never made it as a chart regular and enlightened the screens of Saturday night tv in the seventies can only really be put down to the homophobia that existed in the 70’s especially in the upper offices of The BBC and as John never felt the need to hide the fact that he was gay (as Elton wisely career wise did).
Kid In A Big World is a wonderful record and should a hold a place both in all music lovers record collections and hearts … and if I was Amazon or Spotify or Youtube I would say if you enjoyed this album you might enjoy Hunky Dory, or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Year Of The Cat. And it deserves mentioning in the same breath.
The Legendary Ten Seconds ‘Ricardian Churchward’
Album – Released 2nd October 2025
I love Musical British Eccentrics (it takes one to know, so they say), and here we have a wham doozy of a release by The Legendary Ten Seconds. Imagine if you will, that Julian Cope had not taken drugs and only read Horrible Histories books and was influenced by The Monochrome Set, then he could well have made this album.
This is the kind of album that could one day (if enough people get to hear this gem of a release) become a bit of a cult classic. For it is a fine collection of psych folk Medieval indie-pop (is there such a thing). The only bad thing I can say about this release is that it’s not available as a CD, as it is one that I would happily add to my collection.
Legless Trials ‘American Russ Never Sleeps’
Single (Metal Postcard Records) Released 13th September 2025
More post punk glory from the Legless Trials. American Russ Never Sleeps pt 1 and pt2 is two tracks of Public Image Ltd styled smooth discord with an air of dubby splendour and chaotic lyricism that once again pokes holes into the flimsy facade of shittery that currently engulfs the world: like a bedtime story read to you by Michael Myers.
Picniclunch ‘snaxbandwitches’
Album – Released 13th October 2025
snaxbandwitches is an album of supreme post punk noisery, experimental fun and undoubtedly surprisingly tuneful. Think the Fall, early Pavement, Morphine (the band not the drug) and early Talking Heads but only if they had been in the pub since opening time and David Byrne had been replaced with someone less annoying.
This is the sound of the true alternative; the sound of a band who would not use a Rickenbaker guitar but an old Woolworths copy battered and played through a borrowed amp. Yes, this is the true spirit of the garage band; the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. This is a band who should join forces with The Legless Crabs and do a double headline tour of all the dives in America, and influence the current American underground. If I had a record label, I would sign them up.
Edward Rogers ‘Astor Place’
Album – Released 10th October 2025
I love warm sounding timeless, slightly unusual sounding pop albums and Astor Place is an unusual sounding pop album. Unusual in its joyful mash of psychedelia and rose tinged eloquent nostalgia, at times sounding like a true English gentleman narrating over a backdrop of a huge love-in from ‘67 and believe it or not, sadly it’s not ‘67 and that’s what is so unusual about this album that it would not sound out of place if it was, but not in a retro way just in its feeling and atmosphere, screaming guitars and cucumber sandwiches is it seems a match made in heaven. Hippy heaven even.
If Noel Coward made a psych album, I believe this is what it may have sounded like. And me being a huge Noel Coward fan and a lover of the whole fairytale of the summer of ‘67 I love it. He also name checks Tommy Steele in the lyrics, which for me makes this album slightly more fabulous than it already is.
Smash Palace ‘87’
Album – Released 10th October 2025
87 was supposed to be the second album from Smash Palace in 1987, but their label Epic dropped them before they got around to recording it and releasing it. So, what we have here is a strange beast: 5 of the songs have been rerecorded by the original band and the other five songs are the original studio demos recorded in the 80s. The five freshly recorded songs are bright and chirpy covered with an old MTV sheen, with guitars that jangle and guitars that strut like they are going out on a date with Keith Richards; songs, at times, that remind me of The Hoodoo Gurus and the Smithereens and other bands from the 80s of that ilk – the kind of bands VJ’S with mullets would introduce wearing shiny leather jackets and being all hip to go.
The other five are the real deal from the 80s recordings, not as shiny and bright but have the advantage or disadvantage, depending on how you feel about 80s major label production values, of having the atmosphere of that strange decade. The five 80s tracks one can imagine not being out of place on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack or The Breakfast Club or The Lost Boys…yes indeed, an album to soundtrack Molly Ringwald looking gorgeous.
Striped Bananas ‘Eternity Forest’
Album – Released 3rd October 2025
I always imagine that the married couple that make up the Striped Bananas live in a thatched cottage just outside some enchanted forest in upper Connecticut and spend their time weaving magic. For their music has a fairytale cartoon quality to its Psychedelia; it’s as if Lou and Nico had discovered and became addicted to candyfloss instead of Heroin.
Eternity Forest is a joyful beatastic trip of wonder and delight, an album full of melody, invention and fun; an album where guitars, Hammond organs and Theremin weave together to make one heavenly cartoon album of pure adventure. It’s like going on a daytrip to the fairground with the Banana Splits while having a playlist made up of Buffalo Springfield, The June Brides, The Velvet Underground the Archies and Strawberry Alarm Clock playing in transit. As the Beach Boys once eloquently put it: “it’s Fun Fun Fun”.
Vexations ‘A Dream Unhealthy’
Album (Cruel Nature Records) 17th October 2025
Vexations could well be your new favourite band. “A Dream Unhealthy” is a rather impressive beast of an album, five tracks of pure post psychedelic rock n roll, off kilter as hell and probably as hot, with almost spoken screamed vocals surfing on an explosion of noise frenzy. This album is worth hearing for the drumming alone, which is not to say that everything else about the band is not as equally as wonderful. They produce such a cavalcade of cavernous hypnotic spine-tingling beat poetry.
Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea and the Shea family house band, the Bordellos, have a new single out on Metal Postcard Records this month called ‘The Village People In Disguise‘.
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
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