Author Archives: admin

Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, Sidelong. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We wait seemingly at the crossroads of history, our engines not exactly revving, our minds certainly not on the road ahead, we are sandwiched between the idea of making it through to other side whilst the other three lanes that have drivers twitching in their seats and reaching down into their saddles bags for a bottle of bourbon, their sidearms and an old wrecked copy of the local A to Z. The landscape being made oblivious to all, and yet somewhere out of nowhere the anger and the passionate are given a home as Sarah Shook & The Disarmers rattle the cages of the ignorant and joins forces with the vulnerable.

Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, Sidelong. Album Review. full post

(472 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Vair, A Place In Time. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The thrill of listening is not one that should ever be dismissed as sleight of hand, a trick or an illusion of the senses, each note after all is like a word in a poem, it is fought over, it is a war between what might be perceived as popular and what is right; the politics of movement over the commonly accepted and often unappealingly fashionable.

Vair, A Place In Time. Album Review. full post

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

The Trouble With Political Pygmies…

The trouble with political pygmies…

 

I wish it was the start of an expansive joke,

the dig in the ribs,

the head back laughing,

the sly smile from a circumspect, normally

vigilant lady caught off guard,

the barman and the best friend slapping

you on the back till your spine hurts

and becomes bruised by morning

but it is all worth it as the laughter

sees the room united in contempt

for the butt of the joke

and in solidarity

to the one who supplied the punch line.

The Trouble With Political Pygmies… full post

(128 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremmer, Tom Kanji, Asha Kingsley, Elliott Kingsley, Melanie La Barrie.

No matter the story, if it is told with a sense of thriving passion then it has the ability to nurture life, to explode with an array of colours, light and images, it has the never ending possibilities to ensure that the imagination is always keen to explore and that the mind, the most important and beautiful tool than humanity possesses, is kept open to embrace change and hungry for more.

The Story Giant, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

No, Not Tomorrow.

Tomorrow

I will not find myself wallowing in nostalgia,

I will not give in to seeing a sunshine bloom

where a dying rose sags

and slowly fades

away,

losing colour, curled up and closing in on confusion

of why it is no longer loved;

for tomorrow I will not disappear in melancholy,

why would I,

when I can do it beautifully

today.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017

Permanent link to this post (69 words, estimated 17 secs reading time)

Nikka & Strings, Underneath And In Between. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The image of the smoky back rooms in which the lively catch the attention of the sparkling and the animated, the streets of Harlem jumping with the new sound, proud of what the music speaks of, and somewhere on 121st Street the vivacious tones of a voice raised by an angel and given permission to wink and be coy like a devil sings songs of beauty, happiness and regret in equal measure.

Nikka & Strings, Underneath And In Between. Album Review. full post

(548 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

The Doomsday Kingdom, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Always pertinent, never short of imagery, some bands create albums that are always going to stand the test of time, no matter the genre, simply because they invoke the picture of Time, of humanity’s walk to destruction or to sincerely hoped redemption with clarity and transparent lucidity.

It is in that lucid thought that the nightmares and dreams force themselves to the forefront and The Doomsday Kingdom’s self titled album is no different; it soars with the same intelligent clear thought found so abundantly on many metal albums but one that really gets to grips with the idea of mortality and destruction, even as undercurrent carried by the thoughts of Candlemass’ Leif Edling.

The Doomsday Kingdom, Album Review. full post

(436 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Ashley Reaks, Growth Spurts. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Culture is always under threat, it is the way some find easiest to deal with thoughts that frighten them, the enlightened, the free thinkers, the progressive, the radical, call them what you will but some people like to stamp down on such liberal and open to new ideas, not because they are necessarily evil, not because they are even frightened of the possibilities such art would take but because they have become too entrenched in their own opinions and intolerance to change. Culture is not vapid, it is not weak, but it is fluid, it is all about acceptance and being inspired by any member of society who can find art in the beautiful.

Ashley Reaks, Growth Spurts. Album Review. full post

(385 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Lisa Ward & The XYY, 27. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Defy everything. Make a stand somewhere in the sand and resist conformity and disregard those who dare suggest that just because you’re A does not mean you cannot be Z, that because you are from one place does not mean you cannot live in another, that just because one culture decides you must live in their guarded room does not mean that you cannot explore the playground when they are looking the other way; defiance is the only way that they truly learn and it is always good to see a band stand up and be counted in such a way.

Lisa Ward & The XYY, 27. Album Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Four A.M. My Front Doorstep.

Four  A.M. Tuesday morning,

not a time for the weary and dead

to be awake, a pregnant

pause

on the step outside my stone palace,

my brick inflicted mortuary

and a drag of my small but fast burning cigar,

the smoke burning my throat, but the taste,

the flavour at four A.M.  is a delight,

it conjures up images of battles won and victory

taken for a test ride, one not covered in the manual,

for my notebooks don’t have such validation,

I am not meant to win, I am not the kind of person

Four A.M. My Front Doorstep. full post

(281 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)