Category Archives: Music

Rhys Marsh, Sentiment. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Sentiment, the reaction to something that grabs the musical spirit and allows it grow over time into a positive and perhaps enlightening response that allows the human imagination to remember where they were when they first heard a particular song and the imagery that flashed before their eyes.

Iain Till, The Rise And The Fall. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When Iain Till found himself back in the performance arena, not quite gladiatorial provisioned but still armed with a sense of hope, proportion and wielding a deck full of songs, he perhaps would not have expected to reach the point where the release of the E.P. was to be considered the norm. The climb is a hardy beast full of pitfalls and the descent, well that is only too carefully planned by hubris to really ever keep an eye upon. Such is fortune’s way of preparing for The Rise and the Fall.

John Cee Stannard & Blue Horizon, Bus Depot Blues. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The light at the end of the tunnel is always best illuminated by missing the last bus home. The dejection and disappointment of having to walk the miles from the last chance saloon to the cold and unfriendly home is always punctuated by the chance to listen to whatever music infects your ears and take in the natural air that dances sickly in urban abundance as you walk the walk home and keeping the eyes firmly fixed on the way ahead; only your ears press ahead with learning something new.

Onward Chariots, Take Me To Somewhere. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Although it will never be proved, there must be a length of rope so vast and strong, a fastening so binding between Liverpool and New York, that makes these two almost empiric like states arguably the greatest cities in which music has such a power over its inhabitants that its influence reaches back and forth over time and tide and the listener is only required to do one job, to listen carefully!

Damien Rice, My Favourite Faded Fantasy. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The intervening years away from the full blown effects of playing in a studio have done nothing to dispel the shrouded mist that plays with the subconscious thought that Damien Rice is a man of lyrical immensity and an artist who paints the clearest pictures with just a well placed finger on a guitar string.

Thomas McConnell, Please Don’t Slow Me Down/Crocodile. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is almost possible to see the cogs whirring round and the musical knowledge come pouring out in a steam of fervoured imagination as you listen to Thomas McConnell’s latest digital single, Please Don’t Slow Me Down and Crocodile.

Shebeat, E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In a city that celebrates its music in much the same way it celebrates its sporting heroes, there are always going to be those that gets more press than others. It is the way of things, it perhaps cannot be helped but at times it might feel disingenuous to those that add so much important flavor to the world, regardless of where they play or for how long.

Cottonwoolf, E.P. Review

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It may seem a strange affair to consider, perhaps even rum in some music lover’s eyes, but not every rock/R&B fan likes Led Zeppelin. It seems to be a permanent question that hangs on the mouths of the pop fan like a drip feed tube giving nutrients to a coma patient, you like rock, then you must like Led Zeppelin. Whilst the Midland’s band might not be everybody’s personal liking, there is a young band who has climbed the slippery slope out of Leeds and who tickles the taste buds of musical sincerity with their debut E.P. Cottonwoolf.

Dana Fuchs, Songs From The Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Roads are there to be travelled, no matter how long and straight it looks, it will lead somewhere. The road to Hell paved with good intentions, the sunny side of the street or the enclosed, tempting and quiet cul-de-sac in which you may never depart; all have their points of interest and all should contain a reason to be there. For the superbly talented Dana Fuchs the road is one in which Ruf Records have placed her vibrant live set down for all to hear and in Songs From The Road everything sounds sweet, vivacious and only enhances the Florida musician’s reputation.

Eddi Reader, Back The Dogs. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When Eddi Reader sings, the only logical thing to do is listen. To take that organ of beauty that sometmes rattles round the head and open up to the sense of music ceremony that is on offer.

There are many female musicians and vocalists that sit with some justification on the realm afforded them by the British public, their voices carry nectar that others, including many men, cannot hope to attain. However as Ms. Reader has proved time and time again and latterly with this year’s album release Vagabond, her voice is just divine. The cool sensual velvet touch that resides in the Scottish singer’s throat, that if captured in a painting would have Constable or Turner blushing with pride with the comparisons handed round, sparkles and plays with memory with seduction.