Category Archives: Music

Katarina Pejak: Pearls On A String. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We covet the strangest of rarities in our pursuit of beauty, we adorn our skin with gems but often our hearts and souls go without such finesse; such is the skewed way we consider wealth we would rather glorify gold and silver as a mark of our good fortune and populace than ever offer merit to that which may have come from a more unexpected place, which to some could be an irritant, but which holds an artist’s eye with a fonder, more alluring sense of style, and whilst Gold may ravish, it is Pearls On A String that highlights sensuality and natural instinctive charm.

Katarina Pejak: Pearls On A String. Album Review. full post

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

Gun: Hombres. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A thousand Harley Davidsons roaring in unison as they escort a squadron of Spitfires as they prepare to take off could only dream of capturing the elegance of cylinders being fired as fiery and significant Scottish rock band Gun once more appear before the listener as the Hombres to whom the sound is always in capable hands, in souls ready for action, in minds attuned to the fight ahead.

Gun: Hombres. Album Review. full post

(342 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Session A9: The Magic Roundabout. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To Generation X, their childhood was arguably one of the weird and wonderful as television programmes especially that were geared towards their mindset were often trippy and alluded to a sense of the pursuit which would not be tolerated in any other time; and one in particular springs to mind as the former winners of the Scottish Traditional Music Awards ‘Best Live Act’ attest to the heavens their splendid new album, and the lively, animated, passion that expands from within.

Session A9: The Magic Roundabout. Album Review. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Feeder: Black/Red. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The pilgrimage has become a word more associated with its religious connections, with its sense of selflessness and devotion to a God so engrained that you are willing to put the body through torment just to prove your commitment; and yet there is no need to head to Canterbury for a selection of tales that showcase support, to attachment, and an enthusiasm, perhaps all that is needed is the road to Newport, and rather than accompany Chaucer’s muses, we instead find ourselves as escorts to Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose of Feeder.

Feeder: Black/Red. Album Review. full post

(387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

John Jenkins: Bury Myself In The Sand. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We no longer think of the album before us as the finished article, that everything we hear was all that was recorded in the studio at the time the artist spent pouring blood and sweat in the name of releasing their soul; for there are always extras, cuts to the recording, extended takes which often give rise to questions from the listener, and then the tracks that could not be found a home at the time but which later are revealed in a golden hue, in celebration of the artist’s will.

John Jenkins: Bury Myself In The Sand. Single Review. full post

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

Blueblut: Lutebulb. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

We can wait all our lives for that one jazz album to match our own infectious energy, and when it finally arrives, we are either unprepared for the sheer scope of the imagination utilised, or we become struck by awe at the momentous audacity taken in producing the unsuspected brilliance.

There is no halfway measure when it comes to Jazz, and in a flash of cool and deliberately paced musicianship of the Viennese trio Blueblut, that experimental drive pounds at the heart and the mind as if being on a ride through a kaleidoscope of colours and sounds that leave the listener dizzy and panting, straining on a leash for more.

Blueblut: Lutebulb. Album Review. full post

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

Pete Morton: Fair Freedom. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A Golden Thread once pulled would often suggest a loom industriously working to create perhaps the fabled fleece that Greek antiquity held in admiration and coveted appreciation.

It seems as though Pete Morton has been on his own journey, an expedition that has seen the superb lyric writer step back into the shadows and become of sorts an observer of humanity, and in the four years since A Golden Thread was released, there has been an explosion of human activity, of partial societal immobility and a tension that has not been felt bubbling under the skin for a couple of generations. Pete Morton has obviously watched it all unfold, and in his own indomitable style has returned from the shadows and turned on the light for the listener to witness the picture of Fair Freedom that we so deserve.

Pete Morton: Fair Freedom. Album Review. full post

(340 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Dan Patlansky: Movin’ On. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The urge to walk out, to move on, is arguably innate within us all. We cannot solve every problem with a solution that will keep all affected happy, we cannot inspire the masses with just a word of comfort, we will never find a way to truly compel them all to rebel with a stirring speech, and for those who are gifted to deliver such an emotional response, the urge to walk away must be overwhelming; fearing for the world and its wife as they find themselves Movin’ On.  

Dan Patlansky: Movin’ On. Album Review. full post

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

Susan Santos: Sonora. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Driving through the desert has many rules, chiefly amongst them is making sure that the petrol never runs dry, that the music is always on, and that hitchhikers are never stopped for; and yet sometimes we will break those rules for the sheer thrill of adventure, for the appreciation of silence in a natural world, and for the company of stories that might come from that one soul to who the desert was more than a walk in the sun, it was torment of expression to which you find inspiration a willing benefactor.

Susan Santos: Sonora. Album Review. full post

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

Michael Schenker: Is It Loud Enough – Michael Schenker:1980-1983. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are few musicians to whom success is almost guaranteed no matter what group they inhabit, even fewer to whom arguably are the principal focus of what drives the sound across the entire spectrum of their spectrum, and it takes a special kind of genius to do so across three or even four bands.

Michael Schenker is that force of nature, through the Scorpions, U.F.O. and within the groups that bear his own impressive name, and one that is assured to be a tornado that tears through the possible objection and sweeps aside the build-up of negativity that comes from the haters and misanthropes in such a way that the devastation is gleefully enjoyed.

Michael Schenker: Is It Loud Enough – Michael Schenker:1980-1983. Box Set Review. full post

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