Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The hipster will always find a way to extol the virtue of their own brief encounter with whatever is current, whatever shines like an exploding meteorite caught on camera and they will ignore, often to their peril, the beauty, the rage, the innocent and the demanding as they search in vain for that which reflects the way they perceive they are looked upon.
What is really hip, what really captures the mood is being true to the way you are, be delightful, be full of ideas, but always remember what drove you inward in the first place and whilst the fashionable and the trendy may well indeed see their opinions influencing a greater number of people, what they will never understand is that you are, and always will be so down to Earth that you are the coolest person in the room.
Brian Bordello doesn’t need to be told what is cool, he maintains the temperature of his work at a point where it feels wildly fortunate to be able to hear it being played, to be invited to see his city through the eyes of one who has lived every battle and fought against every whim and latest thing.
It is to his latest E.P., Liverpool Hipster Scene, that this man of observation once more brings his watchful eye over the music he creates, only this time he makes sure that the result is one caught up in the relentless pursuit of purity, no weight of excess, just the decency of performing the low-fi sound and relishing in the consequence of transparency to which a guitar, vocal and a mic become king of the studio and set the scene on fire.
Across the songs The Girl Next Door, The Bloom Of The Wild, The Poetry From The Dead, Tragic Magic Tragic, as well as Liverpool Hipster Set, purity isn’t just part of the overall charm, it is a statement to the world that not everything in life needs to be polished out of recognition, that a statement can be, and must be first and foremost an occasion of truth.
An excellent example of how Brian Bordello’s work is to be maintained and given its due deserving appreciation, The Liverpool Hipster Scene is, for Brian Bordello, alive and well and sounding sharp.
Ian D. Hall