Category Archives: Music

Madness, Can’t Touch Us Now. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are not many bands that have the special relationship with their fans that Madness have enjoyed and continue to revel in. Even after almost 40 years, the rapport between the members of the group, their cool glance at life during the endearing decades in which they have placed their bowler hats and well manicured smiles and sometimes sarcastic roll of the eyes, and the audience, has never once wavered, so much so that as the decades have fallen away, as age has withered us, it can be suggested that to Madness, Can’t Touch Us Now, is the cherry on life’s nutty cake.

Madness, Can’t Touch Us Now. Album Review. full post

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

Nick Ellis, Daylight Ghosts. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Never dismiss the softly spoken, never believe that the quietness in a person’s soul is indicative of their passion, their drive or their worth, for even the most still of volcano’s are capable of absolute destruction, wrath and sincere, serene rage; it is just that in the hours in which the sunshine almost obliterates the shadows attached to the body like some hangover from Peter Pan, Daylight Ghosts cannot be seen, but they can be heard to be real by great and unbound by chains effect.

Nick Ellis, Daylight Ghosts. Album Review. full post

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

Touchstone, Lights From The Sky. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter where the past ends up, it becomes the present for a reason. Past glories never truly fade but they do become the bench mark to which future endeavours are judged and scrutinised over and in respect that always seems to be a moment in which can be looked upon as surreal, almost bogged down; nobody is ever the same person ten years on, what an individual did or didn’t do a decade ago is not indicative of the person they are today, the same should be said of music, musicians and bands.

Touchstone, Lights From The Sky. E.P. Review. full post

(461 words, 2 images, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Rain May Fall, Silence & Ruin. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To keep quiet, to keep the peace, can often be close to martyrdom, it can be seen in the eyes of some as being too much on the fence, not wishing to antagonise either story being told; in truth it should be laudable but as the heavens open and suppression reigns, so Silence & Ruin can be the master of all.

Rain May Fall, Silence & Ruin. Album Review. full post

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

Angela Paterson, Down To The River. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It has always been the life blood of any society, without the river there is no growth, no substance, no heart and it so often gets over looked unless you live along or near the banks of any great river, the ones that lead to the sea, the oceans; the rolling waves, the banks that overlook the lazy waters, where badgers, toads, good natured rats and the half sighted dear mole play, it is no wonder that we should all make the most of going Down To The River.

Angela Paterson, Down To The River. Album Review. full post

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

Andrew Finn Magill, Branches. Album Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Serenity is an elusive flower, it is all around us, breathing deeply, urging us to look deep within our souls and spread the feeling onwards, like a happy virus, it seeks us out to be admired and worshiped but then like any God, hides itself away in the darkness when the going gets a little too much, a little disturbing, the shutters come down and serenity is mistaken for the pursuit of money and fame. Happiness always comes at a price, peace never should.

Andrew Finn Magill, Branches. Album Review. full post

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

Si Cranstoun, Old School. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Too often the world ignores en masse the great sounds of yesterday, the insanely good song writing of three or four generations back. This is either out of ignorance or malice, either way to disregard, almost dispense with the richness of the past, is akin to saying that only words and actions recorded in the last decade are viable, that mean anything and all other forms of communication, of sound, are irrelevant.

Si Cranstoun, Old School. Album Review. full post

(439 words, 5 images, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Various Artists, The Amatrice Project. Album Review.

142 seconds is all it can take to destroy hope. We may think we are masters of our destiny, the Captain who steers their own flotilla along the steam tossed rivers and seas but in reality we are the whim of other people’s decisions and the Earth’s volatile nature; we are trapped between those that care and those that have no compassion. For the people of Amatrice, compassion and help is something they desperately need and as with any humanitarian project, the world of art steps up to be counted.

Various Artists, The Amatrice Project. Album Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Adventures Of Captain Of The Lost Waves, Hidden Gems. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Theatre is as much about experimental as it is the reliance on the original and the long standing, the deep rooted and the childhood memories of how fresh the mature and seasoned felt when you first experienced it. It is the playful and the daring to look behind the curtain, the realisation that Dorothy Gale was wrong, there was no conjurer and purveyor of cheap illusion hiding in Oz, it was magic all along and magic that drives the sensational and theatrical to unveil its Hidden Gems.

The Adventures Of Captain Of The Lost Waves, Hidden Gems. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Beth Hart, Fire On The Floor. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The act of sensuality is not lost, it has not become driven out into the cold and left to starve in a parking lot somewhere off the Pacific Coast Highway, shrouded by the deep greens and ambers of trees spoiling for a fight against the depths of a winter to come, sensuality is always around, it just has been overshadowed by the unremarkable and insidious. It takes a rock star of breath-taking quality to break through the over sexualised hype, a musician of conviction whose voice is the calling card to have lyrics gush in embarrassment at the attention they receive.

Beth Hart, Fire On The Floor. Album Review. full post

(505 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)