Author Archives: admin

The Witchfinder. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tim Key, Daisy May Cooper, Jessica Hynes, Daniel Rigby, Tuwaine Barrett, Michael Culkin, Dan Renton Skinner, Rosie Cavaliero, Dan Mersh, Vincent Franklin, Joplin Sibtain, Sharlene Whyte, Karl Theobald, Katy Wix, Julian Barratt, Reece Shearsmith, Justin Edwards, Ricky Tomlinson, Cariad Lloyd, Angus Wright.

If comedy is subjective and can rise and fall with whatever the fashion of the day dictates then at some point, we must expect almost every historical scenario to be discussed as potential for a sitcom, or at the least as backdrop and discussion in which to drive the genre forwards.

The Witchfinder. Television Review. full post

(573 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Megan Black, Deadly Is The Woman. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

So Deadly Is The Woman that they can break your heart, can teach you how to fly, and have you searching your soul and question your mind. So deadly is the woman that anyone can lose their heart to them, and the spells cast, innocent, provocative, sensual, demanding, fearsome, calm and collected passions and mournful cries of nostalgia, all combine to leave their mark underneath the skin; like a tattoo that is visible on the surface but has been inflicted beneath the hide, you are branded for life, for good or for ill, you are hers.

Megan Black, Deadly Is The Woman. Album Review. full post

(359 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Rain Perry, A White Album. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The focus has once more landed with a critical thump on the idea of what may constitute heritage, what blood runs through our veins, and the question some take with Umbridge, and others celebrate as they embrace all the possibilities and truths of human existence that come with it. To discuss race and family in a civilised manner, away from the ghouls and the ones who see the subject as a chance to set the world afire is a rare opportunity to truly understand how we came to be, and one that sits at the heart and ties of Rain Perry and her latest recording A White Album.

Rain Perry, A White Album. Album Review. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Fear Of The Calm.

The quiet

was deafening.

The silence

roared in my face

as the workman

signed off

on another job,

smiling as the payment cleared.

In fear of the calm,

the hammer and nail

withdrawn,

I turned on the radio

to thunderous applause

only to understand

that the sound

was just static,

unstill, crowded white noise

and not the end of a concert

that I had missed.

Ian D. Hall 2022.

Fear Of The Calm. full post

(72 words, estimated 17 secs reading time)

Yova, Nine Lives. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Physically we are more than just a single person bound together by bone and skin, psychologically we are more than the sum of our parts, we are complicated, we are problematic, confounded by beauty, confused by our place in the overall scheme, determined to be the best we can, but finding we cannot deal with the guilt that it takes to stand out; it is almost as if this one life we have is barely enough to deal with all that is thrown at us, all that is expected, and all we desire.

Yova, Nine Lives. Album Review. full post

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

Bibby, Can’t See The Light. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The dark is at times comforting, a place in which to feel the warmth of another with more intent, where secrets are whispered, where traumas are held with a sense of symbolic belief, but no matter the comfort felt, the dark is a place of mutual blindness, a gesture of impaired attraction; for when we can’t see the light, the information becomes skewed, it is reliant on the trust imparted at the time, when the dark had us in its thrall.

Bibby, Can’t See The Light. Single Review. full post

(338 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Trout Fishing In America, Safe House. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We need humour more than ever, we must embrace word play, we should demand to see the absurd in the actions of leaders and wannabes and be able to ridicule them without once ever thinking we might be taken to task  for daring to laugh at their decisions, but most of all we should be able to laugh at ourselves, to ridicule the ego and deflate our own self-importance, the self-pity of grandeur; however whilst this should be the case it should never be done with cruelty in mind, for we can amuse without ever being abusive, we can laugh without ever dragging our own minds into a realm of the bleak and the dull.

Trout Fishing In America, Safe House. Album Review. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Stephen Doster, Over The Red Sea. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Imagine being caught between two great trains of thought, both compelling, both arguments are convincing, fascinating, forceful, and dynamic, and yet they are geopolitically, geographically, socially and diametrically opposed to each other; just how do you stand in what might be considered a reasonable choice, and yet find yourself feeling the nag, the small element of doubt that pulls at your being, wanting to believe in both worlds but knowing you are going to have be brave and oppose both states of mind.

Stephen Doster, Over The Red Sea. Album Review. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

David Neville King, Ginger McCain. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Current events produces meaning, history creates art, and in a city where the two are often seen hand in hand, art and meaning are to be heralded as they allow the artist to truly appreciate the fluid nature of capture a scene and unveiling it for an audience who will gaze upon its beauty with pride and awe, and then go searching for the meaning underneath, and whilst such focuses of attention are always subject to personal interpretation, there can be no doubting the swagger, the sense of impenetrability that comes with certain times that evoke a sense of charm, of art in motion.

David Neville King, Ginger McCain. Single Review. full post

(369 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

David Neville King, Black And Blue. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are urged to ride the punches doled out by life, gas-lighters, and psychopaths alike out as a mark of growth, of tolerance, that turning the other cheek is a noble expression of understanding, but sometimes what is frustratingly endured only leads to us being beaten Black And Blue, that the bruises of the experience never truly disappear, they just fade until we are only reminded of them when we next receive a knock on the same spot and despite the bandages we place upon them, the prayers and sympathies alike, it is inevitable that we will always find those bruises catching us unawares, that they are there as a permanent reminder of what we endured.

David Neville King, Black And Blue. Single Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)