Author Archives: admin

Dan Owen, Stay Awake With Me. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We fall, we rise, it is a circle that never ends, it is a loop n which there is no escape, for in such motions we must embrace all possibilities that Time can throw at us, and which our minds and souls must strive to endure and relish within. It is in the small hours, when the urge to reach out and find solace with kindness and the words, Stay Awake With Me to a loved one or hopeful Muse ever praying on the end of silent lips, that we rise the highest, for in that moment we seek redemption in another’s eyes, we seek the song to which even Icarus could have grasped before falling to Earth, his home-made wings blistered and burned by the kiss of the Sun.

Dan Owen, Stay Awake With Me. Album Review. full post

(417 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Rick Kemp, Perfect Blue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Perfect Blue is one in which captures the light it seeks with undeniable clarity, no other colour arguably resonates more emotion in the human mind, except for the revolution in the red but it is to Blue, this reflection of water, sky and mood in which perfection is sought. It takes overwhelming character to frame the human sensation in the pursuit, it can lead to a road in which the blue becomes the blues, and not the kind in which the 21st Century Renaissance of the genre has demanded, but more akin to the downbeat and almost dying glory of a faded existence.

Rick Kemp, Perfect Blue. Album Review. full post

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

Middle Finger Spirit.

 

A gloved white middle finger, missing

the rest of the pack lingers

for a moment

at the far-right extreme of the shelf,

piercing nostrils hooked

on polish, can smell the residue

of a frenzied cleaning session,

but there is always a spot missed,

uncared for, rushed, each shelf

she demands being cared for,

the books must always be in order,

never to allow a single mite

of seeded dust to be encountered;

with a bitter smile of contempt, her finger

swipes a molecule of dust, and the maid knows

Middle Finger Spirit. full post

(163 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Northern Flyway, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We never used to be so out of tune with the call of nature, but then of you tear down the countryside, if you pull up trees and spray poison after poison into the soil and the air, if you turn greenbelt land into concrete monstrosities just to placate the bloated figure of economy, then it could be thought of that nature, in all her glory, has abandoned us.

Northern Flyway, Album Review. full post

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

Elis Macfadyen, My Home In Argyll. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Home, there should be nowhere safer, comforting, it should be a place filled with rejoicing, memory and the soft song that fills every room. Not everybody is able to experience this, not everyone has the means or the companionship to be able wallow in the pleasure of staying in, yet for some home is where ever the see the sun rise, the beauty on the pastoral charm as dew breaks on the grass and fields; home is everywhere and some make it sound soulful where ever they look upon.

Elis Macfadyen, My Home In Argyll. E.P. Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Allan Yn Y Fan, Ym Mhontypridd Mae’n Nghariad/Gorthrwm y Gweithiwr. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Tradition can be a fruitful reminder of what binds us as a family, as a nation, or if we are fortunate, as a species, the practise of the art forms, of singing with one beautiful voice, of keeping a belief and hope in the struggle of linguistic oppression.

Tradition has its critics, those who suggest nothing short of a bonfire of the vain and institutionalised will wipe the slate clean, give a new reason in which to overthrow the settled and comfortable; however, without tradition, the world is poorer, less fuelled by a common sense of purpose, it doesn’t have to be the tradition which keeps society at each other’s throats, just the custom of declaring a love, of keeping the habit alive so that others can dream.

Allan Yn Y Fan, Ym Mhontypridd Mae’n Nghariad/Gorthrwm y Gweithiwr. Single Review. full post

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

Yvonne Lyon, Everything’s Fine. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The world is a perplexing place of indecision, double-talk and hidden conversational meanings, we never truly say what we mean, hiding perhaps behind the facade of wishing for a quiet life and knowing that damage to another’s soul is never truly rectified. An erroneous word uttered, a seemingly innocent remark placed in jest to the audience, and the suggestion that comes back with authority and pursed lips, is that Everything’s Fine, nothing is wrong.

Yvonne Lyon, Everything’s Fine. Single Review. full post

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

The Heart Of Everton’s Badge To The Grand Old Lady, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul Duckworth, John Burns, Carl Cockram, Keddy Sutton, Joe Shipman, Aimee Marnell, Scott Lewis, Adam Byrne, Victoria Hammond, Erin O’ Connell.

In a city where football is the main topic of conversation, where old ladies carrying their shopping home from The Strand in Bootle, to the young children playing on the streets of Toxteth and the public houses rammed full with those who cannot get a ticket to the next game, congregate and chat about the near religious experience they had watching Kenny Dalglish, Joe Royle, Andy King, the young and older version of Wayne Rooney and Ian Rush ply their trade on the stages of Goodison and Anfield, the city of Liverpool always has room for a play about the love of the game and the characters, the fans who make it what it is.

The Heart Of Everton’s Badge To The Grand Old Lady, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(593 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

The Equalizer 2. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Denzil Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Orson Bean, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Jonathan Scarfe, Sakina Jaffrey, Kazy Tauginas, Garrett Golden, Adam Karst, Tamara Hickey, Jim Loutzenhiser, Rory Benjamin Smith, Ted Arcidi, Karen York.

The Equalizer 2. Film Review. full post

(568 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

The Spy Who Dumped Me. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, Gillian Anderson, Dustin Demri-Burns, Mirjam Novak, Jane Curtin, Paul Reiser, Ivanna Sakhno, Fred Melamed, James Fleet, Carolyn Pickles, Justin Wachsberger, Kevin Ezekiel Ogunleye, Tom Stourton, Roderick Hill, Olafur Darri Olafsson.

When a film doesn’t know what it wants to be, perhaps the best thing that an audience can do is allow it to flow naturally and under its own progression. Putting a film into a genre specific box sometimes doesn’t fit, too many square edges, a piece of corner missing, and allusion to subtext which has no space to breathe; and yet flow it does, it somehow squeezes past defiance and nestles in the hole it has walked with confidence into and refuses to budge.

The Spy Who Dumped Me. Film Review. full post

(528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)