Author Archives: admin

Graeme James, Seasons. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Seasons come and go, some with the bluster of a damaged ego, some with a lazy haze that seeps into the bones and makes us lay in hopeful pastures overlooking bubbling swimming streams. The personality of each season may not be of concern to the vast majority of humanity, more troubled by the unease of the monthly, daily, change of events, but it must be noted that as the cold anger of February and the war like heat of August shape our lives, so to do the seasons, the high council of climate and time, have the right to be felt and appreciated by even the smallest of creatures.

Graeme James, Seasons. Album Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Calum Gilligan, Footsteps On The Broken Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Those Footsteps On The Broken Road that we hear beside us belong to the soul that wants to take our hand and accompany us to a place where love is not a crime or considered weak, where sunsets never fail to be beautiful, and each new dawn is one that holds mystery and adventure; the footsteps may be travelling a broken road, but the stride is conscious, the pace steady, and the company unbroken. 

Calum Gilligan, Footsteps On The Broken Road. Album Review. full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Roving Crows, Awaken. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whilst others may question our motives, we must always be aware of our own vibrancy, of our own values, for what others may see as intention, as reputation, is in actual fact character, it is honour and integrity moulded together by those who see with more than just their eyes, who feel with more than their gut instinct, it is those who have heard the call of Awaken, and who sleep only to dream.

Roving Crows, Awaken. Album Review. full post

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

Daytime TV, Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life was simpler once.

Not the cry of the technophobe lamenting the surge in technology, but the nostalgia of a truth that whispers that humanity has lost its ability to understand the complex arrangements of social cohesion, that we talk a big game, we commend ourselves on our defining character of peace, love and understanding and lifting up ones neighbour, but that we truly are devoid in the large percentage of being truly empathetic, that we have lost touch with our essence because we have embraced a more tactile relationship with the space in between true physical and emotional conduct.

Daytime TV, Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching. Album Review. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Ali Sperry, In Front Of Us. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We either lash out unthinkingly when we are confronted with pressure that upsets our being, our equilibrium, or we take a step back, we allow what has played out before us to be filtered, to be challenged internally before making what we believe to be action based on rational and intellectual judgement. It depends on the provocation, it changes from confrontation to confrontation, from conflict, row and quarrel, and what is often In Front Of Us is not the same as what we have passed on the way.

Ali Sperry, In Front Of Us. Album Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Gabria, Gesungene Geschichten. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Those Sung Stories are more than just an aide memoire, they are more than the sadness highlighted by the verbal communication of the memento mori, the spirit of another time influencing the heartbeat as it soars, as it falls, sung stories are the framework of society, of how we have come together in terms of community, they tell of battles waged and won, they tell of storms survived, they inform us of how we can be proud and free in the face of aggression, in the face of despots and dictators.

Gabria, Gesungene Geschichten. Album Review. full post

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

Tankard, A Thousand Beers. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Raise a glass in celebration, smash your metal Tankard into another’s metallic stein, for in true fashion of observance and memorial, the anniversary of the one of the finest, most fun live, and the salutation of all that makes Teutonic Metal an absolute fest of glory. It is one to revel in and glorify without any sense of shame, without batting an eyelid as the bottle top is removed and the liquor of life pours without discrimination, so to the release of A Thousand Beers is to be acknowledged as a box set that ties together the first set of outstanding albums by Tankard under the Noise Records label.

Tankard, A Thousand Beers. Album Box Set Review. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: India Fisher, Paul McGann, Rakia Ayola, John Banks, Shiloh Coke, Mark Elstob, Chris Jarman, Lara Lemon, Michelle Livingstone, Yasmin Mwanza, Cyril Nri, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Theo Solomon. Andrew James Spooner.

For the majority who don’t delve deep into the mythos and background of Doctor Who, the name Charley Pollard is possibly a whispered name only vaguely caught as reference when Paul McGann’s incarnation of the man in the blue box from Gallifrey lamented those he had lost along the way as he faced the unknown in a forced regeneration as the Time War raged, as the War Doctor waited in the shadows.

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Tears For Fears, The Tipping Point. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

They say everybody loves a happy ending, the chance to feel the warmth of humanity as a couple drives off into the sunset and all that witnessed the relationship go through its ups and downs to reach a point where the story ends; the freezing of a moment captured forever on celluloid, the last line of a saga in the written word, the final upbeat note framed forever as the song fades…and yet what seems to fade can come roaring back, a fashion of expression returns, a revival of a play not performed for thirty years, a major name in music returning after an almost twenty year studio album break…not everything fades to emptiness, and for the fans of Tears For Fears, not everything is perhaps as it may have seemed.

Tears For Fears, The Tipping Point. Album Review. full post

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

Leadfinger, Silver & Black. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A dominating spectrum of colour, one that could be seen as a response to the times we find ourselves in, an overwhelming sense of formality and richness to which people wish to portray in certain settings, or even the reminder of the heavenly body, our closest neighbour in the sky is bathed in the dark blackness of the solar system permanently on one side; whatever Silver & Black means to a person, it must be appreciated as being influential, it must be acknowledged that is stands out, an impact of force that acts as a counter to the blinding light of false security.

Leadfinger, Silver & Black. Album Review. full post

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