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!
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The rumblings of disaffection, of disillusion at the deluded so called Democratic process that runs deeper and with more insidious bite to it than any time in modern history may not come to bite a particular class of the so called ruling elite in time to save the rest of us from allowed tyranny but at least it is being heard outside of the Westminster Empire, even if those inside are seemingly immune to the rising tide anger that is crawling up the Thames in what can only be considered as the next big stink.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There are moments, polished, sincere but approachable and with the sly upturned grin of an aged valet who anticipates your every whim and desire; that you have to wonder whether fate, destiny or kismet knows exactly what you need at the exact right time. When listening to John Jenkins and That Sure Thing’s album, Intruders, it could be tempting to take a sneak peak out of the window and check to see if providence is keeping a wary eye on you.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Every decade, as every year, is important, but some stand out in history more than others purely because of the times and memories associated to them. For 1989, not only was it the beginning of the end in terms of the cold war but it was the end of a decade in which could have seen the world truly destroyed by political stupidity, arrogance and fear. The decade saw strife world-wide, anger, decimation, terror, political brutality…but also the emergence of hope in the unlikeliest of places and driven forward by the most unlikely of men or women.