Category Archives: Music

Neil Campbell: The Turnaround. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

One of Liverpool’s most endearing and enduring talents is a force of nature that resides in the humility of acceptance and vision, and to hear the music and imaginative insights of Neil Campbell as he offers his latest album, The Turnaround, to an audience well versed in his application, but who still find the beauty of surprise awaiting them with heartfelt adoration.

The composer and the player, a fulfilment of the harnessing energy at the will of the elemental originality that is focused on each form and collective gathering that the music requires, and whether on his own or in an ensemble, the pieces are brought together with precision and an attitude of dramatic peace and generosity.

Neil Campbell: The Turnaround. Album Review. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Sabeth Pérez: Searching For Beauty. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Though we might deny it, though we may be tempted to embrace the darkness and the often ugly rituals of humanity’s excess, to pour and scroll over the doom mongering that comes with our obsessions with social media worst scenarios, the way we linger in the presence of that which blooms, which grows with abundant colour and determination; for we cannot help but admire that which goes Searching For Beauty as it eases the tempest of the soul.  

Sabeth Pérez: Searching For Beauty. Album Review. full post

(370 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Spear Of Destiny: Janus. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How often are we afforded, granted the opportunity to look upon our work and think that it could be seen in a different light, given a fresh look with modern introspection and a familiarity which gathers pleasure along the way.

Named after the Roman God, Janus regales in that sense of exactness as it showcases re-recorded and revitalised tracks from the period of 1987’s Outland, and 1988’s The Price You Pay, Janus is an album of transition in Time, it doubles down on expectation, it alludes and then insists on a greater sense of purpose as one does when looking back with renewed vigour.

Spear Of Destiny: Janus. Album Review. full post

(395 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Una Quinn: Little Anthem. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We perhaps stand to attention when a stirring piece of music that symbolises our country plays out across parade ground filled with uniforms and young faces, some may find solace in the perpetual myth created by the hymn like state of music, the solemnity of each note created; or maybe we find ourselves at a gig of our choosing and applauding wildly when that anthemic blast of nostalgia washes over our minds and we cheer, we sing along, and take heart at the meaning and what it sparks in our hearts…

Una Quinn: Little Anthem. Album Review. full post

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

Ancient Psychic Triple Hyper Octopus: Put Emojis On My Grave. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a fine line between human creativity and the application of AI in our pursuit of inventing art and designing future sculptured appreciation; it is a line that encompasses the use of the improvised and the experimental to the absolute degree, and one we must be careful in which we employ our own narrative.

Ancient Psychic Triple Hyper Octopus: Put Emojis On My Grave. Album Review. full post

(378 words, 1 image, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

April Moon: Forgiveness Juice. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

April Moon’s roots continue to grow and flourish, and in the duo’s latest recording, Forgiveness Juice, the scale of their imagination and undaunted vibe is once more to be seen by the listener as overwhelming and persistent gracious spirit.

Following on from the impressive The Other One Was You, Jaime April and Jason Moon took advantage of the aligned stars and the drama free experience of inhabiting two Liverpool studios to bring to the public another sense of guitar-driven irresistibility, influences of ear-catching pleasure fill the air, and as the Forgiveness Juice E.P. washes over the listener, the sound of a soul being refreshed can be heard raising merriment and pushing the pair further into a realm that has just as big a wide open appreciation for beauty as much as the Saskatchewan skies.

April Moon: Forgiveness Juice. Album Review. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Sue Harding: The World. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The mystery and the cryptic unknown that flirts with furtive secrecy as the tarot cards are laid to determine, or at least pinpoint your fate across time, have beguiled many, and lured many more to a place where The World itself seems to stop in time as it breathes in contentment and delivered understanding that there is more to our time than just being numbers and clocking in to another’s tune.

Sue Harding: The World. Album Review. full post

(348 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Shadow Captain: Abbesses. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

We have been denied much over the last five years, we live in a time when the fracturing of the artist’s soul has become not only normal, but lauded by those with an intent bent in destruction and chaos, and instead of taking arms against these agents of turmoil and manufactured confusions, we hide underground, our retorts spoken softly as not to offend the words of people we should not care of, we creep around the Abbesses of the Paris Metro, we slink in the darkness of New York’s Subway, just so we can be assured of not being accused of bringing love to a world of hate.

Shadow Captain: Abbesses. Album Review. full post

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

Gary Moore: Live – From Baloise Session. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some legends are taken far too early for the public to comprehend, the sense of unfinished business looms large in the conscious.

What we hold onto is the hope that those who have featured long in our lives have left us more than memories, they have squirreled away nuggets of gold in which the listener is given more than anticipated promise, they are endowed with faith; for the passing of a hero, especially one so prolific as one of the true greats of the Blues, Gary Moore, will always have something for the fans even in the event of Time’s inevitable passing.

Gary Moore: Live – From Baloise Session. Album Review. full post

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

I, Claudia: Storms & Silver Linings. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Storms gather, it is in the very fabric of existence that we must expect upheaval, but if we weather the storm, if we seize the silver linings on show as the lightning illuminates their positions and meanings to us, then we may find something unexpected, a tale of the unforeseen presented as a gift to us.

I, Claudia’s message in Storms & Silver Linings is one of impressionable intimacy, and for the woman behind the name, Claudia McKenzie, the intricacy of arrangements and vocals beguile the senses for the first time listener and confirm certainties of those who have followed the maker of the self-confessed chaos and essence.

I, Claudia: Storms & Silver Linings. Album Review. full post

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