Author Archives: admin

Dire Straits: Live 1978-1992. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Undoubtedly Dire Straits should be thought of one of the most dynamic and talented groups to have graced the studio and the arenas of the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, a sound caught in the whirlwind of zeitgeist, an image that had listeners obsessed with the way the guitar evoked such a feeling of drama and fierce complex emotions, how it tied with the lyrical poetic form of anguish, of nostalgia, and the combination of what was bordering on Progressive with the length of songs that were unveiled in each studio album, or the form they took in expanding a narrative.

Dire Straits: Live 1978-1992. Album Box Set Review. full post

(491 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Nordic Viola: Elsewhere, Elsewhen. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

However much we hold onto the beauty of the southern aspect of Europe as being a dream of existence within our souls, the sense of sultry evenings and flowing wines, of warmth keeping our blood alive, we must acknowledge, that the north of the continent has its own history which runs in our D.N.A. The sagas might not be as well versed amongst the population as those that scintillated and remained from Rome or Greece, but they persist, they have meaning and we must accept that ancient civilizations and their ability to enthral through art is just as important as that which the likes of Ovid or Aristophanes excelled.

Nordic Viola: Elsewhere, Elsewhen. Album Review. full post

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

Black Grape: Orange Head. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life’s beige acceptance has meant that we are now outraged by people who a decade ago would have been left by the wayside as non-entities, as the fools they have shown themselves to be, and we are the ones to whom have paid the price for the simpering maladjustment of grandeur we have afforded them.

Black Grape: Orange Head. Album Review. full post

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

We Apologise For Any Inconvenience. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Deborah Findlay, Adam Gillen, Ruth Everett, Asif Khan, Gerard McDermott, Rosie Mellett, Hasan Dixon.

When we think of strange happenings at train stations our minds could be drawn to the terrific tale by Charles Dickens, The Signal-Man,  and the second adventure in the spooky Sapphire and Steel series, for our lives in the last two hundred years have been altered by the arrival of the ability to travel across country in a matter of hours rather than the days and weeks it would have taken to journey for example from London to Inverness even at the end of the 18th Century; but also time has a way of causing ripples, and where better than a place where mechanism and modern ingenuity meets the stagnation of patiently waiting for life to continue.

We Apologise For Any Inconvenience. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

Sick. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Gideon Adlon, Bethlehem Million, Dylan Sprayberry, Marc Menchaca, Jane Adams, Joel Courtney, Chris Reid, Duane Stephens, Logan Murphy.

The inevitability of it all is such that not even a pandemic can stop the forces of a home invasion film revolving around the descent of grief and the need for revenge.

Sick. Film Review. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Quantum Leap (2022). Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, Ermie Hudson, Susan Diol, Georgina Reilly, Walter Perez.

Time has moved on but somehow remains the same when it comes to searching for a new idea when it comes to entertaining television viewers, and for those who were struck by the sense of excitement and particular novel storytelling that brought the original run of Quantum Leap to the screens, to look upon what is essentially a sequel, one that is written with a new sensibility and direction  driving the narrative, it can be daunting, perhaps even disrespectful to that which made Scott Bakula a house hold name and further enhanced the popularity of Dean Stockwell.

Quantum Leap (2022). Television Series Review. full post

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

Afton Wolfe: The Harvest. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How we use language is a guide to how we see humanity, the more it is flourished, how it insists upon growth and diversity, the way it is structured with words that adaptable, malleable, full of strong conscious words that make a person weep with exultation and dream of peace, then the chances are that the language used is one of a truth that has been truly embraced.

Afton Wolfe: The Harvest. Album Review. full post

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

The Pope’s Exorcist. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Franco Nero, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Laural Marsden, Cornell John, Ryan O’Grady, Ralph Ineson.

All the devils are here…or as cinema would have you believe.

The fact that William Friedkin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist is lauded as highly as it should not be seen as an open door for others to attempt to match its ferocity of film making in a subject matter that leaves little to the imagination and at times a bad taste in the mouth as its religious fervour is one of corruptibility in the face of cinematic dogma.

The Pope’s Exorcist. Film Review. full post

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

Kalandra: Bardaginn. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You don’t have to understand the words spoken to acknowledge their meaning. You don’t have to recognise the language to absorb the proposal, or the aim of the dialogue and conversation intended; all that is required is to tell the difference between the struggle and the light in someone’s heart for you to feel the empathy in your soul for their song.

We live in a time of mass confrontation, all sides flexing muscles that have been hidden through diplomacy and friendship, suddenly raw and exposed and dripping with sentiments that threaten the safety of all caught in the crossfire of the oncoming storm and battle.

Kalandra: Bardaginn. Single Review. full post

(325 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Kirsty MacColl: See That Girl. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To wander with interest through the life of an artist’s complete work is a privilege of time, but it can also be one filled with the melancholic sadness as the listener is reminded constantly of what might have been, how they might have been able to See That Girl or young lad who grew to be one of the most encompassing artists of the listener’s life pass on far before their time.

Kirsty MacColl: See That Girl. Box Set Review. full post

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