Category Archives: Music

It’s Karma It’s Cool: 21st Century Meds. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In times to come when social anthropologists write their conclusions of 21st century behaviour there will surely be reams, a sheer scape of text that will reveal that we have been living in a kind of survival mode aided by whatever gets us through the day, that there is no forward planning, just an escape route that gets us from the crib to the retirement home without damaging us too much in the process; driven by a world on the edge, ransacked by governments who dictate new laws to drag us down…it’s no wonder those anthropologists will surmise that we have become beaten and scared into trying anything that lets us feel nothing but numb.

It’s Karma It’s Cool: 21st Century Meds. Single Review. full post

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

Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola: How To Raise The Wind. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Energy is, for some, an illusion of consequence; the artist believing they have found a purpose, the fan absorbing the quantity with relish…but both forgetting that the truth lays in quality, and there the energy can fail, be lacklustre, unfailing in its approach, but not delivering in style.  True energy, the kind that can shift the universe, which can alter the perception of the listener is one of faith, and in How To Raise The Wind by Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola, that faith is rewarded with competition and a sense of wonderful musical purity.

Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola: How To Raise The Wind. Album Review. full post

(388 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Roger Waters: This Is Not A Drill – Live From Prague. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

A statement of intent is delivered by the musician even before the first note is played, and as the listener is thrust into the government’s obscene acts of apathy of the age, as the warning sound that counters the misleading valour of indifference, to feel the venom and sheer anger from a man already past an age where they might be thought of as content in their dotage, Roger Waters uses his strength, his will, to inform that, to paraphrase and tone down, if you like Pink Floyd’s music but don’t like Roger’s politics, then…leave. 

Roger Waters: This Is Not A Drill – Live From Prague. Album Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Blush: Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whilst it is most certainly well within the genre of pop, there is something decidedly Gothic within the heartbeat of the experience; upbeat and all smiles, but deep down there is a marvellous sense of hypnotic, erratic heartbreak that sums up the Singaporean indiepop band, Blush, and their new album Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever.

Blush: Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever. Album Review. full post

(365 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Devon Allman: The Blues Summit. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To live up to the family name in a certain profession is perhaps one of the hardest tasks that any person can undertake; when it comes to the arts it is a near certainty that the individual following in the enormous footsteps will be judged with a degree of unfairness that is almost intolerable, absolutely unfair, and without purpose.

Devon Allman: The Blues Summit. Album Review. full post

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

The Riflebirds Of Portland: Windmills On The Moon. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

With the grandest of smiles it is a welcome to visit once more The Riflebirds but as with everything in evolution and time spent away, what has manifested in its image is, for the listener to discern and discuss, a tantalising rebirth, and an extension of the discography, and in The Riflebirds Of Portland’s album Windmills On The Moon, evolution does not disguise the sheer beauty that comes seductively, inevitably, that is continual and worshiped.

The Riflebirds Of Portland: Windmills On The Moon. Album Review. full post

(402 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Alice Cooper: The Revenge Of Alice Cooper. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The past, as they say, is another country; and yet it can also feel like a completely different world, not only doing things differently there, but having no concept of the shared universal heritage that inherent to all species, all times, all places.

For over fifty years, time has moved on for some, for others it never truly got started, however it never once stood still, and Time has a habit of not only remembering what was once important, but manifesting itself again, repeating itself so that what humanity thought was lost appears as if ordained by the gods to return fully formed and with all the necessary adulation and praise in hand.

Alice Cooper: The Revenge Of Alice Cooper. Album Review. full post

(546 words, 1 image, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Bruce Dickinson: More Balls To Picasso. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

What constitutes a debut album for some, may not have the necessary sense of commitment in the eyes of others, perhaps not even for the artist themselves.

For Bruce Dickinson, riding on an extreme high with a consecutive run of seven top five studio albums with his own band mates Iron Maiden, including the latest release Fear Of The Dark which in 1992 became the group’s second U.K. number one, the opportunity to head back to his own creations in Balls To Picasso might have been one filled with slight trepidation. After all he had already proved his worth as a solo artist in the upbeat Tattooed Millionaire, so what was the issue with delving into the considerable wealth of music at his disposal in yet another immense recording.

Bruce Dickinson: More Balls To Picasso. Album Review. full post

(511 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Shadecrown: 0. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When we step out of the shade we can either be blinded by the possibility of the unexpected, overpowering sunlight, or we can mentally prepare ourselves and place a hand up in readiness for the inevitable, for the strength of the commanding and authoritative entity that offers us life, warmth, and the belief in the potency of the universe.

It is in Shadecrown’s fourth album release, the definitive 0 is invoked,a sense of the dramatic and the influential colliding, merging, and offering a true reveal of the formidable; and as the prospect of a seismic avalanche of doom and death metal adds a melodic spice to the proceedings, so Finland’s continual dominance of the genre plays on.

Shadecrown: 0. Album Review. full post

(344 words, 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Namazu: Ice 800. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something about the raw sound that gives the listener a sense of purpose, a profound delight that what they are hearing is not only from the heart, but from the soul as well, it is the guttural instinct, the call of the survivor as they swim against the tide, away from the shore, because that way they know lays the cannibals of mediocrity, and they have no intention of being served up as a second course in anyone’s dietary or audio process.

Namazu: Ice 800. E.P. Review. full post

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