Tom Houston: Komorebi. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Imagine walking through the bleakest, darkest, scariest forest, you are guided by intuition rather than direction, you have no sense of time because all the natural indicators have been swept away by the tight foliage, by the darkness, by the obscurity, and this is a place where even shadows are frightened to emerge; then out of nowhere a sliver of light appears through the trees, a small, almost imperceptible, an aspiration of hope that like a will-o’-the wisp will reveal the way out, that the sunlight through the trees is more than just direction, it is the target.

Tom Houston: Komorebi. Album Review. full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Brand New Heartache: A New Alchemy. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We are all in search of A New Alchemy, that moment in which we can see the great work being moulded into place through transmutation, through the power of fertile philosophy that will change the way people think and act with a sense of the divine and the human soul working in tandem. We are all in search of the resulting groove, but few are willing to see the process from the start, to dig deep into the soil, to be authentic and never once resort to the crooked charms of sleight of hand mysticism that comes with the modern-day wand and the potions of the sly.

Brand New Heartache: A New Alchemy. Album Review. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Jim Eannelli: You’re Not Here. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

You’re Not Here…a moment of denied presence, of accusation, of savage, finger pointing denunciation against the truth of existence…that is the authority of a single phrase when pressed with certainty as a complaint wrapped up in the clothes of nostalgia, a sense of worth that takes melody and yearning to a point of grace and consideration. The truth is always somewhere between, that love regrets and denial is a floating musing that acts with patience and sees the heart understand that presence is more than a feeling but a deliberate act of insight.

Jim Eannelli: You’re Not Here. Single Review. full post

(376 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Ian Prowse: No Names. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a shiver of meaningful cool that comes from listening to an artist to whom you understand observes more than just the casual and the surface noise of life, the ones who are prepared to delve deeper, seek further clarification, open wounds and watch the blood flow, for they are the ones who open the listeners’ minds and cause them to think, to pay attention, to leave a mark on the abused heart that is indelibly stamped.

Ian Prowse: No Names. Album Review. full post

(355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Pink Floyd: Live In Venice – The Complete Venice 1989 PBS Broadcast. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

History always seems to be made when the fan and keen lover of music consider deeply a band’s choice of setting for a gig, for a concert that stands out for its geographical position, its more unusual location. Whilst many attend a night with their favourite groups or singers and are content to be sat in the splendour of the ornate and the predictable spaces, there is something to be said for a concert that doesn’t take place in a music hall, or everyday venue; and it is to the imagination of the greats that we learn that perhaps the historical emptiness of Pompeii is cool, but set against the Venice waterfront is exquisite.

Pink Floyd: Live In Venice – The Complete Venice 1989 PBS Broadcast. Album Review. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

The Blues Overdrive: Live Slices. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Blues has not just reinvented itself; it has in many respects re-established itself as defining expression of culture.

It doesn’t feel that long ago that the Blues was on its knees, almost terminal, dying with its heart ripped out and its soul kept alive by a dedicated few to whom the fans and admirers must always be grateful to; then the 21st Century appeared, hope seemed to rise from the depths, and now two and half decades on, the genre is stronger than ever, and as their new album arrives, The Blues Overdrive bring a sense of definition to the arena with a sound that is upbeat, materially fascinating, and a beat that captures the imagination fully.

The Blues Overdrive: Live Slices. Album Review. full post

(325 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Visions Of Albion: In The Past. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In The Past, it’s where we store the emotions and feelings that did us harm, that caused us to understand the nature of pain in ways that we fear will resurface and prove to us that we accept the tenderness of grief and the sting of self-reflection. We should never shy from the doors that lead us to the past, we should fear nothing from those wounds, for they teach us nothing short of the constancy in freedom in expressing beauty for that which hurt us.

Visions Of Albion: In The Past. Single Review. full post

(316 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

Helen Maw: Shadows. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We fear that which holds our shape but not our image when we are younger; even in adulthood we perhaps feel an unnerving comfort when we stand underneath a streetlight or pass by the reflected light of the moon above us, for in those Shadows there is a weightless buoyancy, a tether, not to Earth but to a realm where the rules are inverted, where life is given a different edge, one hopeful of softness, or a rougher edge in which the connection is cut loose and the spirit beside us set free.

Helen Maw: Shadows. Single Review. full post

(348 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Joe Bonamassa: The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are names that will undoubtedly live on long after the generation that was inspired by their ideas and steel eyed vision have moved on, left the stage and the auditoriums, taken their six strings and their t-shirts, and packed away their albums in boxes labelled legend; these names will live on because of fables, myths, truisms, and vitally the sincerity of the performance captured for eternity…after all some names are never meant to disappear from view, they are meant to enthral and educate for all time.

Joe Bonamassa: The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork. Album Review. full post

(518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado: Live At Hotel Cecil. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Whilst Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado don’t perform in Britain all that often, their name has carried across the North Sea by the winds of fortune and the acclaim of those on the European continent who venture past the shores of the land of Hans Christian Andersen, Lars Ulrich, Niels Bohr, and Karen Blixen, and it is a name that carries with it a sense of opportunity to revel in some of the best Blues/Roots/Rock music to ever come out of the country and which transfers beautifully across all scopes of language.

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado: Live At Hotel Cecil. Album Review. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)