Category Archives: Music

Sally Barker, Love Rat EP. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The work may well be considered over when an album is done and dusted and the subsequent tour refined and completed, yet for Sally Barker coming off the back of working on the superb 2015 Poozies album, Into The Well, and performing in front of millions on The Voice, the only true way to see out the year was not to endorse television’s supposed pull on the world of music but to plough headlong straight into another music recording session and amaze her ever growing number of fans with a showcase of her own songs and a couple of delightful covers in the Love Rat EP.

Sally Barker, Love Rat EP. E.P. Review. full post

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

Imaginary Creatures, Danse Macabre. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The dance of death eventually shrouds us all but along the way to be invited to the ball, to be guided and led by the hand to the Danse Macabre is to be enlightened and shown the way of a new breed of Progressive thinking.

For virtual band Imaginary Creatures, being trapped forever on a type of celluloid is not an option, the expression of music that is aching to be released, to be heard in full on their second album Danse Macabre, is one that is liberal and allows the perception that often clouds pre-conception to be disbursed and scattered with the wind, taking the dust of prejudice with it and it is an absolute joy to witness.

Imaginary Creatures, Danse Macabre. Album Review. full post

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

John Jenkins And That Sure Thing, Honeymoon Hangover. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To trust someone to carry out your vision is perhaps the biggest compliment anyone can pay to an artist. It is the acknowledgement that what you hear in your head, what you have written down, perhaps sweated and toiled over and lost many a night’s sleep through, is being created in the way that you know it should be carried out; it is a privilege many arguably don’t quite understand in the modern age as they try to impose their own agenda into the art.

John Jenkins And That Sure Thing, Honeymoon Hangover. Album Review. full post

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

Martha Reich, God’s Eyes/ I’d Rather Be Surprised. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Martha Reich really knows how to grab the attention. Whether she is performing live in front of wide eyed strangers or coming through the ether via the stereo, Martha Reich has it all going on and it is down to a voice that just somehow gets more captivating each time you are privileged to hear it.

Under the banner of Peace Harvest, 2014’s God’s Eyes and I’d Rather Be Surprised resonate with clarity and musical precision, they offer a huge insight into the thoughts of a woman that many this side of the vast ocean may not have heard of but to whom so much should be written about.

Martha Reich, God’s Eyes/ I’d Rather Be Surprised. Single Review. full post

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

Heather Crosse, Groovin’ At The Crossroads. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Not only is Heather Crosse a girl with a guitar, she is a woman of absolute sterling quality and one whose musical adventure on the highway is certain to have others trailing in her wake and with attitude of allowing the music to blast loud and with purpose.

Heather Crosse, Groovin’ At The Crossroads. Album Review. full post

(397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

GentleFolk, Into The Greenwood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It might just go down as one of the most intelligently written and interesting albums of 2015 and yet the likelihood of it being pick’s leaders embracing Green issues with a healthy grasp of what is actually going on in the environmental world. Yet for GentleFolk’s new album Into The Greenwood, the diversion from the absolute and the real is something of an ear catching piece and one in which is not only musically sound but one that has that rare ability to teach and educate at the same time.

GentleFolk, Into The Greenwood. Album Review. full post

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

Iron Maiden, The Book Of Souls. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The daddy has been threatening to come and take pretenders to the throne to the woodshed for so long that it was beginning to feel like an empty threat. The oh so nears, the very superb last live album giving the respect the band deserve, but the studio albums setting the world on fire but not demolishing it to smithereens as they did between 1983 and 1988, now arguably Iron Maiden, with everything that has gone on behind the scenes in the intervening years, have released the best studio album of their career since Seventh Son of A Seventh Son and one that doesn’t just growl in the dark, it rages with constant delight.

Iron Maiden, The Book Of Souls. Album Review. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Seamus Begley, The Bold Kerryman. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are very few things in life that can raise the spirits that have been cut adrift upon a sea that rages with absolute frequency than hearing the voice of a natural poet sing with clarity and the soft stirrings of passionate beauty in their hearts. For County Kerry’s Seamus Begley, the music and the poetry go hand in hand, each one just as vital as the other and the result is one that makes Mr. Begley’s debut solo album a charming and prosperous proposition to behold.

Seamus Begley, The Bold Kerryman. Album Review. full post

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

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

August has almost once more disappeared round the darkened corner and the obscurity that sometimes threatens to come with the September evenings as minds somehow turn towards the winter festivities three months too early, is racing with the speed of a timepiece set far too fast to cope with the chimes playing in the background. Yet through Time’s optical focus, a gig audience is able to see how the future might play out in years to come.

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Motorhead, XXXX Bad Magic. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never dismiss a grand master too quickly, never lose any sympathy for the old devil and high priest of British Heavy Metal and above all if the thought of ever believing that Lemmy is finished musically, remember this, there isn’t a deity in the whole of creation that is ready for him yet and who doesn’t want him to groove and pound the bass for all it is worth till the Sun finally expands and swallows the Earth, for they don’t give a XXXX about bad magic, only that it sounds good.

Motorhead, XXXX Bad Magic. Album Review. full post

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