Category Archives: Music

Only Child, Straight Lines. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

We see connections every day of our lives, but we might not actually realise we are doing so until someone else takes the time to hold our heart and keep our minds enthralled long enough to show us that the pieces have been in place for so long that the physical synaptic fires have only to respond in a certain way and the edifice of control, of subterfuge and lies can come crashing down around the ears of those who seek to damage the ordinary person’s will and peace.

Only Child, Straight Lines. Single Review. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Ariel Posen, Headway. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are often trapped by the belief that we must be continually making large strides to be making any impact on the world, that we are noticed and admired by the heart-straining considered effort which eventually destroys the body too quickly, rather than the slow but steady pace of the ones who put one foot tentatively in front of other and who leave a more discernible path for others to follow.

Ariel Posen, Headway. Album Review. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Shadow Captain, April Moon. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Ahead of his new album being released, Liverpool’s Shadow Captain’s introduction of April Moon is to surely be considered, timely, focusing on renewal and one that understands implicitly the relief that a new spring moon can have on the soul in what has been an intolerable period of darkness.

There is something largely spiritual about the heavens when the northern hemisphere starts returning to lighter days, the moon seems to take on the glow of the healer and the protector after time in the dark, and so it is to art, that all-encompassing compassionate guide, that the moon’s presence seems to add so much hope and beauty within.

Shadow Captain, April Moon. Single Review. full post

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

Israel Nash, Topaz. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No one knows everything, and for many the absolute mystery of existence is what fuels their desire to at least make their opinion known, or at least ruminated upon to the point of existential angst and frustration.

In isolation, there perhaps remains a vestige of the mind to acknowledge the urge to express yourself honestly and with care, to protect oneself from the nagging voice we mistake for insanity or is it rather the clarity of our thoughts speaking without interruption? If it were madness to believe that creativity and art cannot exist in a time of darkness, then rather curse those who argue for its demise, we should perhaps preserve them in amber, or at the very least protect their souls with Topaz.

Israel Nash, Topaz. Album Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Soo Line Loons. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The world says, “Be true to yourself”, and the spoken message that goes unnoticed after whispers, “and hang the consequences”.

The problem with passion and talent is that on occasion those that urge you to succeed, often feel neglected by your absence when you start making headway into your chosen field of creativity. It is the one direction railroad that takes you far from home, leaving the past, quite often, behind and wondering where you moved on to.

Soo Line Loons. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Thunder, All The Right Noises. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Making All The Right Noises means nothing if you cannot deliver upon your actions. You can create a sound that stimulates your own imagination, but if you dare not bring it to the people, then like the untethered thought, it will just fly off into the ether, disappearing quicker than a ripple of polite applause at a talent contest that nobody wanted to attend.

Thunder, All The Right Noises. Album Review. full post

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

Henry Bateman, Seinfeld Street. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

An anthem for the lonely, at any other time in history it would have sounded as if the narrative had come of the pages of one of the great American novels, the protagonist of the piece finding their way through the wilderness to great acclaim, and which stood for an allegory of the way the nation had come through its own trials and tribulations. Yet like so many unique experiences during a time that we dared to believe would never be, it is a fitting reminder of the sheer agony and pain, the dashed hope, and the seizing of beauty in even a drop of rain, that is exemplified by Henry Bateman in his new single, Seinfeld Street.

Henry Bateman, Seinfeld Street. Single Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Dorothy Bird, Kaleidoscope. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The patterns may change, the colours remain vibrant, but our daily lives, our hopes and desires are held hostage by the ones who makes the Kaleidoscope turn, and what we are left with is the maze of mirrors that create arrangements by design but never giving the whole picture; like the person who shares only success but never failure, the object is skewed in the favour of the turning and twisting the machine.

Dorothy Bird, Kaleidoscope. Single Review. full post

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

Mathieu Boogaerts, Boogaerts En Anglais. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In any walk of life, the hardest everyday occurrence to overcome is the language barrier, even for those who profess to speak the same mother tongue can often misinterpret the smallest act of communication, it is how hostilities begin, it is how wars start, and how suspicions are raised; the way we look at someone and then judge them for the way they speak, the local dialect they use, the words they offer in love and in violence,  are always one that can be misunderstood, misconstrued and forever lost to time.

Mathieu Boogaerts, Boogaerts En Anglais. Album Review. full post

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

Sananda Maitrey, Pandora’s Playhouse. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Pandora has received, perhaps unjustly, a bad rap from the lovers of myth and the historians of alternative creation, her name stirs images of the woman who bestowed her gifts upon the world and watched as all the ills that flew out of the box inflicted havoc and misery on all who lived, leaving only Hope as the saving grace for Humanity to hold onto their fingers grasping at the air it circled in, not realising that Hope often is the vulture, the carrion of all that remains in the heart.

Sananda Maitrey, Pandora’s Playhouse. Album Review. full post

(444 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)