Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We have a duty to challenge not only others and their viewpoints, but to confront our own perceptions of what we can and cannot do. We should do this regularly, take stock and then if we find we didn’t succeed, then we must front up and dispute the findings and try again, no matter how many times it takes to contest the apparent failing or self-opinion, we must prevail, we must challenge ourselves to be a greater version of what we accept.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We all think we have Time, that when all is said and done we will somehow accomplish everything that we have set out to do, it is a reasonable view, a sense of hope that lifts our spirits when the dark comes calling at night, that we can reach for the pen and sign our names across the balance sheet, saying job complete.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The question remains, just how do you ever fully capture the live gig to the point where it matches in the mind the near mythical status that it has been placed in. An impossible task, almost perfected across time, but one that is rarely 100% conjoined with reality and your own perception of the event that took place.
It perhaps is easier to enjoy a release, no matter how old, when it out of the realms of most who weren’t even born when the album was released, or when the gig took place. To look back with nostalgia is one thing, to immerse yourself in the history of the moment is to seek out what made the band in question such a force of nature.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Somewhere in the film set deserts the ghosts of characters, once clutching a fistful of dollars and harbouring resentment and animosity, believe they have been entranced by the score of Ennio Morricone, a sound filtering across the desert scenes lifts their spirits, the man with no name smiles charismatically and understands that the call heard is not that of the flourish of the Matador as they take to the Spanish ring, but that of the most splendid debut album by Liverpool’s Red Rum Club, one of magic conceived, one of overwhelming cool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Live is where the magic happens, where the sound is rude and beautifully insolent, almost anarchic, not wanting to settle for the polished obedience; like a rebellious teenager showing well-earned righteous contempt to an authority that has lost its credibility and meaning, being rude and raw in a live situation is to be admired and applauded.
It is an approach that sees Hamburg-based Ska-Punk band Rantanplan lift the mood of rebellion with vigour, of organised construction and purpose in detailing their new album as one of creative disorder and style.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
You can expect the unexpected all you like, you can train your spotlight on any area, focus it into the depths of the echoing cavern, direct it into the sky and pinpoint where the stars are dancing to the Universe’s rules. Yet the unexpected shifts direction, it takes on a different hue and shape, and all of a sudden the exposed light finds that all it was aiming at was a black hole out of which comes nothing but intrigue and attraction.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Time can often be a cruel and harsh master, however when it is feeling benevolent, perhaps even verging in the circumspect glow of long-distance memories. It can lead to the sense of wonder, a sense of finery in art which had been neglected, not through the fault of the artist as they don’t control the honest fickle nature of the public, nor the bare-faced cheek of executives and moguls who only see an artist’s worth by what they can gain in hard currency, but through the aspect of understanding that despite Time playing hardball and even hard to get, an artist can still demand the listener’s own perspective as they urge them to take Pieces Of Me.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
It should never be a surprise that the artistic have more than one arrow nestling in their quiver, that they have the sense of delivery that will take them down the avenues in which perhaps would all wish to explore, that the sensitive side of their nature will allow them to take on any creative aspect and showcase their talent.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
When something special comes along, it isn’t always plainly obvious, after all not all in life is heralded by the sound of trumpets capable of bringing down walls, not all is signalled in the heavens as a momentous occasion, it is up to the witness to find the meaning and to spread the word of what has occurred, the heavenly sound or the creative set of Paths opened up before them. The witness is the barer of tidings sent, the first to perhaps hear what the prophets cry, and one that is precious to the touch when performed in front of you.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A new year should always bring with it the twin senses of optimism and hope, whether hand in hand and with angelic smiling faces, cool enough to disarm the concerns of all who approach it initially with caution or in hessian sacks to stop them fighting over who gets to pull the wool over the eyes of the population first; the latter seems to come round all too frequently, flattering to deceive and lulling you into the false sense of security before robbing you blind of faith and wonder. Then there is the former, the place where the view from Flatlands Rising is charming and honest, sincere and welcome; it is a position in which optimism and hope thrive and live carefree.