Category Archives: Music

Simon Mayone, Mayone. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Respect and reverence are two states of mind, of attitudes of grace that for some reason in the 21st Century have become emotions to be sneered at, the case for individualism without tribute or honour seems to have dissolved, dissipated into the ether like mist burnt away by the Sun. Even in the art of a cover or an homage, a section of an audience will either punish the artist for having the temerity to tackle what they see as a sacred idol, an untouchable symbol of their youth or their love, or declare without praising the original author of the piece as they fawn over the latest star to come their way.

Simon Mayone, Mayone. Album Review. full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Iron Mask, Master Of Masters. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Two trains of thought arise when humanity is faced with interesting times, that of seclusion, argumentative fear and dominance on one hand, and on the other the backdrop to the epic, the inbuilt memory of tales handed down throughout spoken and written history, the fine line drawn between heroism and cravenness, the Master of Masters and the individuality we seek.

Iron Mask, Master Of Masters. Album Review. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Johnny Coppin, Midwinter/Live In Concert. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In the bleak midwinter…we can either count our blessings or drown our sorrows to the point where we become numb to the pain we have suffered during the year, or to the thought of what is to come. Even if we don’t look upon the ritual of Christmas as anything other than exploitive, there are moments in which the cold or untrusting heart can be swayed into accepting that the year’s end does not mean finality, but the prelude to new beginnings, to accepting change with a song in your heart and with passion to see you through the darkest days.

Johnny Coppin, Midwinter/Live In Concert. Album Review. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

The Suns, Serve 9. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In a time when to serve more than just a bubble is a political no-no, to find a thrill in the distribution of one willing, able, passionate enough to Serve 9, then the year with all its faults and Loki like mayhem, is one to be grateful for.

The Suns, Serve 9. Album Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Beans On Toast, Knee Deep In Nostalgia/The Unforeseeable Future. Album Reviews.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Rarely do we get to even get to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes, let alone to see out of the eyes of mythical gods and deities, but for the first time in decades we perhaps can have an inkling of true empathy for another’s suffering, that like the Roman god Janus, we can see the beginnings of our trials and the transition we have undergone as both sides of the divide yearn for melancholy longing and are concerned over what the prospect of tomorrow will bring.

Beans On Toast, Knee Deep In Nostalgia/The Unforeseeable Future. Album Reviews. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Tarkus The Henge, Luna Park! Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Free thought, it is a priceless commodity to be able to utilise, to experience, to shape your own life, whilst hopefully offering a glimmer of spirit to anyone who watches you live your life for a while. Whilst thought should always be free, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t come without a bill to be paid, a payment in kind if certain political ideologies invade, infest, and desecrate the belief that the artist is not worth the same respect as anyone who strives away in the darkness before unveiling the light that inspires for all.

Tarkus The Henge, Luna Park! Album Review. full post

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

Jonathan Markwood Hoo-Hah Conspiracy, Real Or Imagined. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There will always be those that see life as a strict application of black and white, they dismiss the abstract because as far as they are concerned there is only one way to exist and they will happily tell others that they need to get a real life, to be sensible, to be part of the machine; they believe that you can only be happy if you ignore the creative and the imagined, that to have a fantasy is a waste of time.

Jonathan Markwood Hoo-Hah Conspiracy, Real Or Imagined. Album Review. full post

(359 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Ocean Hills, Santa Monica. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Experience counts, yes you can create a masterpiece without having lived, loved and seized the day by the appropriate metaphor, but the one thing such as classic will always arguably be short of one important factor, the familiarity of existence and having shook hands with demons and angels alike.

Ocean Hills’ Santa Monica is a case in point of how experience can bring out the best in art, offering the listener a snapshot of your life but infusing a belief of fluency to which they were not originally part of; it is the immersive nature of Zoli Teglas and the musicians around him that make this album not only sing a song of awareness, but of know-how, of knowledge and wisdom.

Ocean Hills, Santa Monica. Album Review. full post

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

Sinead McConville & D Cullen, Christmas Ain’t The Same (Miles and Miles Away). Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is no escaping the fact that this year will go down in history as one of the most exhausting, perhaps demanding years of anyone’s life, certainly as a society in the Western world which aside from brief or continued acts of terrorism, aside from natural disasters, have arguably been untouched by any disturbance to the Christmas celebration since World War Two.

Even then we were perhaps fortunate, and have been certainly ever since, that Christmas, that time of year where the misty eyed traditionalist and the loved up optimist shake hands and regale the world with stories and emotion, whilst all around the sound of tills have rang out merrily and in tune to the consumerist drive.

Sinead McConville & D Cullen, Christmas Ain’t The Same (Miles and Miles Away). Single Review. full post

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

Shy Girl, Alias. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

The appearance and aroma of toxicity is in all of us, across the gender divide, across political division, through class, culture and philosophy, even if we preach and display idealism, compassion, empathy, in some small way we are capable of being the most toxic person in a room at one time or another.

Such is the depth of our personality, the understanding that we are more than just a single line joke delivered by the eternal jester, that we are complex and complicated, that we are capable of beautiful highs, and intolerable lows, and that in someone else’s story, we are the villain given many names, “There is such and such, Alias The Devil“.

Shy Girl, Alias. E.P. Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)