Category Archives: Music

Short Stuff, Big Blue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It was a tag of derision, playful perhaps, but always one covered in the sentiment of dominance, of authority and a sense of the supreme, to be called short stuff may have been the dread of the day and led to the thought of one day you would show them just what short stuff meant. Now to be thought of being short stuff, it could lead to the person being thanked, congratulated on knowing the difference between good music and music that dominates, that has that keen eye for authority, one that is shrouded in the midst of power and waves of control; it is the stuff that makes up the Big Blue and one that has the upper hand when it comes to covering the classic of the day.

Short Stuff, Big Blue. Album Review. full post

(392 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Solana, Camino. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A feast is what you make it of it, it is not essential to be a 20 foot table groaning under the weight of sugar laden titbits, it is not a requirement for it to be whimpering with bowed legs and deformed curved middle as steaming hot pies, sides of mutton and inedible quiche adorns every square inch not taken up by raised eye brows and Watney’s Party 7 keg. A feast is no less a banquet for having the ability to rein back in the over exposed and indulgent to a point where you feel sated just by having lived in the moment, by taking in the luxury of the simple and honest fare.

Solana, Camino. Album Review. full post

(403 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Marty Manous, Know My Name. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There comes a time in every performer’s career when it must step out of the long and gracious shadow that is Jimi Hendrix and strike a chord and a sense of wisdom of their own; it is never to do down the late great man but rather to suggest that the power of such men and women in the subconscious of music lovers should never should not hold back the ability and prowess of those following up behind. Everybody deserves to be heard, to have their words heeded or enjoyed and everybody, even in a world rapidly approaching eight Billion souls, should be able to say without impunity Know My Name.

Marty Manous, Know My Name. Album Review. full post

(440 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

My Baby, Prehistoric Rhythm. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never let anyone tell you otherwise, but to sit back in silence and reflect upon life, upon a suitable answer, is not a waste of time, it is not unproductive and it is certainly a finer use of time than shooting from the hip and causing destruction, upset and even conflict. Reflection, taking time out to see beyond your own view point is the antipathies to the idealist, it requires restraint and not the knee jerk reaction, it ask for definition, not a slogan and it is one that Amsterdam band My Baby extol in their album Prehistoric Rhythm.

My Baby, Prehistoric Rhythm. Album Review. full post

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

Dan Walsh, Verging On The Perpendicular. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A life without care is something we all dream of, to play the instrument closest to our hearts and woo the world with it. It is the life we should have, it is the life we were perhaps promised as we sat in classes dominated by the old school guard of thrown blackboard erasers and pulled ears, that we were the fortunate ones because the future was going to be rosy, that the coming of the new century was going to see Humanity rise in such a way that many old ideas were going to finally be obsolete. Nothing is ever that straight forward, everything is always going off at a tangent; that we are always Verging on the Perpendicular.

Dan Walsh, Verging On The Perpendicular. Album Review. full post

(429 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Mike And The Mechanics, Let Me Fly. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is the carrying call of all who wish to be seen as being independent, of being able to go beyond the imprint of Icarus and his less than idealist performance, that we all at some point have to beat a drum to the notion of being able to reach out and touch the stars, that we want to shout out, Let Me Fly. It is human, it is the inspiration that carries us all and yet still there are those that take great pleasure in holding the reigns tight and suffocating the spirit out of those willing to dare.

Mike And The Mechanics, Let Me Fly. Album Review. full post

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

Brian May And Kerry Ellis, Golden Days. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Golden Age of anything, be it cinema, music, comic books or even life, it all come with a price, it comes with the responsibility of nostalgia firmly saddled up and ready to trek across the desert with the Sun always blinding the followers as they try to emulate the past.

Brian May And Kerry Ellis, Golden Days. Album Review. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Alex Hulme, Family Tree. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The anger one feels at the injustice of the world can either manifest itself as deliberate inaction or more honestly, as the roar of the wild echoing across Time; it is a simple truth that the greatest of Welsh poets urged his readers to not go into the light gently, that rage is the right of those who are left behind as they deal with the grief and love. Anger after all is just another expression of love, an energy that is unrequited and one that needs to be handled with care; that can be softened by art.

Alex Hulme, Family Tree. Single Review. full post

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

Sara Petite, Road Less Traveled. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Time and distance are fickle beasts, you could spend all day in its company believing you have spent the equivalent of traversing up and down the M6 and all its snarled up traffic at rush hour and yet only find out later only the first hundred yards from outside the driveway to your home actually counted. Otherwise, you accept your own truth that you have walked along the great American Highway a couple of feet, only to be told later that you made the strongest of connections by walking alone from Chicago to Los Angeles; Time and distance, strange bedfellows and always seem to offer the finest of opportunities in the Road Less Traveled.

Sara Petite, Road Less Traveled. Album Review. full post

(412 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Madame Tsunami, Long Way From Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The tsunami, the tumble effect of the roar of the brain in full flow as it conjures up images of Folk music arguably at its finest, the rampant jig adding to the waves of splendour and the cartwheel of a fiddle running aloof, free-spirited across the hills, through valleys and across the wide devouring rivers that forget such moments of beauty; to be a Long Way From Home is to be wild, reckless and full of emotion, after all to be that far from home is to be allowed to reinvent yourself and be free.

Madame Tsunami, Long Way From Home. Album Review. full post

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