Squeeze: Trixies. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Life seen through the eyes of young men, of teenagers with the whole world waiting at their feet should be a joyous musical occasion. Instead, it often turns their vision to a physical concept that would underline just how the times and the political situation has shaped them, forced them to see in the end life not as carefree and filled with possibility, but instead as a series of tales weaved together tempered by experience and delusion.

Karl McCann: Trial By Versions. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The enormity of the project that Karl McCann has undertaken is evident as he follows up his previous releases, including Put It All Behind You and It Was Only A Dream with an impressive insight into the way we perhaps understand music as listeners and how an artist can pull you into seeing, witnessing a kind of metamorphosis of intention and belief of the personal epic, of pushing the artistic boundary beyond the comfortable but producing something rather incredible.

Visions Of Albion: Avenues. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Into each life the sense of the profound and delicate must not only fall, but be seen for exactly what they are, moments of seismic and unadulterated beauty. It is the rainbow seen through the downpour, the longed-for figure emerging through the gloom at the funeral to hold your hand and whisper that the road you are on will lead you to Avenues of plenty, that benefit and elegance of the soul being complete and ready for the song to be sung.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Robert Picardo, Paul Giamatti, Tatiana Maslany, Karim Diane, Kerrice Brooks, George Hawkins, Bella Shepard, Gina Yashere, Zoë Steiner, Raoul Bhaneja, Tig Nataro, Oded Fehr, Stephen Colbert, Brit Marling.

In its 60th year, one that is filled with huge past highs, and some fairly despondent lows, moments that preached beyond the capacity of the viewer to admire, let alone respect, the many worlds of Star Trek finds itself following from the lamentable final series of Discovery with a way to restart the whole idea of Starfleet being formed once again whilst building a structure to imagine just how the premise of the programme, its history and its future can combat fatigue.

Robben Ford: Two Shades Of Blue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Freedom is not a gift, it is a right, and one neglected by many as they swear alliance and allegiance to a system that requires subservience, that insists on compliance across the board…no room for the individual to make the best of their lives, no recourse to the law of liberty or of understanding that there may be not just one, but Two Shades Of Blue in which to feel that all paths are open to explore, to perform, to feel gratification within.

Axum Folk Ensemble: Crossing Borders. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Crossing Borders is at times best approached without words, the sense of anxiety that can be swept aside by just listening without a verbal exchange hindering the process of acceptance and a guarantee of understanding with simple gestures and a flourish of music acting as a serenity to progress and further advancement.

To see beyond the self-imposed margins that bind us to the comfortable and the content is not a gift, it is a right of every person, a need to push the boundary of existence, to speak less but create more unblemished sound, and as the eight strong membership of Axum Folk Ensemble provide with proof intact and dynamic cool in the new E.P., Crossing Borders, so the need for the listener to expand their own horizons becomes imperative.

Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis: Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

What can be summoned through the simplest of human acts in a certain setting can lead some to believe that grave luck may follow, or to others a sign that from the sense and realm of the ethereal comes a kind of guidance, that the spirits who heard you Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard are there not only to aid, but spread fortune in your favour.

Peter Gabriel: In The Big Room. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

As a performer there is nowhere to hide when the music starts, as the focus of the event the world suddenly becomes smaller, expansive as the imagination runs riot and the ideas take on epic proportions, but perhaps more intense, sharp, extreme and passionate as the eyes stare at you, imploring for beauty to be revealed, for a secret world to be understood. There is nowhere to hide, not even In The Big Room.

Bluenose B: Truth Is King. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The truth is not always honest, it can be a variation of whatever the beholder and speaker feel in the passing is relevant, ideal, and more believable; this is the world in the 21st Century operates…not in black and white terms, but in shades of opinion, and rarely does it capture the truth of existence.

It is then to the artist to apply a letter of stringent authenticity, of offering trust in their vision, and never wavering from certainty, and into this world of music direction, of genuine reaction to the art of recreation and subtle revisiting haunts, words, and times to which Bluenose B, otherwise known as Stephen Lawson, reveals that Truth Is King absolutely.

Paul Dunbar. Gig Review. Music Room: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are names in Liverpool that just draw you in, that leave you with remorse when you cannot find a way to blow off life’s expectancies and attend a show, a performance, a sense of the masterclass they, and those alongside them, offer with grace and sincerity, whilst rocking the plaster dust of static existence to the four winds.