Category Archives: Music

Christopher Shayne, Turning Stones. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sound once came out of the cold swamps, the back beat slow and mystical…or that’s as close an analogy as you would find being perpetrated as a sizeable truth from out of the mind of Jim Morrison. If anything Southern Rock came from the fiery pits of Hell, where the Devil sang with charm and the band were always on fire, the taste in the air was like fine bourbon tickling the throat and that mystical sound, it was there but it pulsed with so much life that it sired grandchildren before each day was over.

Christopher Shayne, Turning Stones. Album Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Anne McCue, Blue Sky Thinking. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The artist is not to be trusted if they don’t listen to the stories that other people tell them, that if they are too wrapped up in their own words and thoughts, then they should be not ignored but at least scolded for their actions. The artist, the harbour of secrets and the keeper of the clandestine, eventually will sing of the tales and make them breathe and one of the finest of these, Anne McCue, is always on the verge of shepherding the story in the right direction and aiming for that distinction of Blue Sky Thinking.

Anne McCue, Blue Sky Thinking. Album Review. full post

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

Carl Moorcroft, On The Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To evolve is to never stand still and be sucked in by the glories of the past, to not give way to the static and constantly biting inactivity which preludes fading away in the minds of others. Some evolve through necessity, some through choice and some, rare beings of personal truth, do it because it is the right thing to do, to them being fresh is to reject the inevitable stagnation that comes with age and the growing boredom. It is a boredom rejected fully and with acoustic skill by Carl Moorcroft and his reflection of musical evolvement; On The Road.

Carl Moorcroft, On The Road. Album Review. full post

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

Sweet Deals On Surgery, The Snake And The Snoozer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never compromise, not where your belief in what your art is trying to say anyway; in other areas of life , concession is the rule of law we must stick to if we are to gain any type of solid ground to which civilisation will flourish but in art, never. If it is provocative then so be it, if it stands out then so much the better and if it has a concept behind it, that magical piece of story-telling to which all art wants to relate to, then let it explode in your ears as if all the thunder that ever raged above the Earth were to reign down in one seismic storm.

Sweet Deals On Surgery, The Snake And The Snoozer. Album Review. full post

(435 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Periphery , Select Difficulty. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Neither in nor out, stuck on the sidelines but called upon because you might add something unexpected, never belonging to a group but also on the fringes of acceptances, to be on the periphery is to feel both isolated, alone but also feel the smallest bit of hope that, like all human beings, that you will come out of the shadows.

Periphery , Select Difficulty. Album Review. full post

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

Darrel Treece-Birch, No More Time. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is always a bonus in life when you come across an artist who is more than willing and able to embrace the Progressive genre with ease and the dedication necessary to make it work, make it sing as if a group of angels had formed together to create a band after hearing the luminaries of the day give pleasure to millions.

Darrel Treece-Birch, No More Time. Album Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Alistair Savage, Alone With History. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

History is such that it not only repeats itself, it has a beautiful and recurring habit of repeating itself till it becomes a cause for celebration and rememberance. History is never dead, unlike many subjects one may be taught at school, history is full of possibilities, the what if scenario much beloved of the anarchic thoughtful student, the plotting of random, separate events to a juncture where they meet, explode and ricochet into a thousand strands; history breathes, history lives and is the mother of all our futures. No matter what you cannot find yourself truly Alone With History.

Alistair Savage, Alone With History. Album Review. full post

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

Gillian Frame, Pendulum. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Pendulum is never still, it keeps going back and forth like a violin bow on heated strings or as steady as a pulse at rest, always ticking, always marking off time and nibbling away at the seconds between experiences, it only takes the randomness of it actually being progressively slowed and forcibly stopped for it to be missed and the pulse to be eulogised over. It is in the cheerful domain of that eulogy into which Gillian Frame pauses and then lets rip in a flurry of excitement, poise and grace; like a Pendulum she is ever present in the thoughts and listened to with ease.

Gillian Frame, Pendulum. Album Review. full post

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

Honey Island Swamp Band, Demolition Day. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The psyche and the brain is so strong, its ability to observe and absorb so much that in times of desperation and heartache it can turn something so terrible, so unimaginably horrific, into a triumph; it is in the ever dependable spirit that the sub-consciousness revels in the chance to stand with honour, no matter just how bad the situation that had been survived was.

Honey Island Swamp Band, Demolition Day. Album Review. full post

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

Mark Harrison, Turpentine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is in the simplicity of music that many battles are fought and won, the everyday alignment of words and images in a harmony that just catches the ear in a motion of peace and the result is that life can viewed as not being so bad; verging on pure, wholesome and more interesting than can be appreciated when revelling in self doubt and unjustified melancholy.

Mark Harrison, Turpentine. Album Review. full post

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