Category Archives: Music

Danny Bryant, Temperature Rising. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There on occasions, admittedly as rare as finding that the speck of dust that you thought you had been seeing in the corner of the lens of a telescope is in actual fact a new star blazing away in the Universe, that an album will come along, announce itself with sincerity and then stomp over everything you knew. Not only will this action be like running at top speed into a stationary elephant but you will welcome it in to your life as if nothing else matters.

Danny Bryant, Temperature Rising. Album Review. full post

(419 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Peter Harrison, Memory And Remedy. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Memory can be an alien feeling, a series of synaptic misfires in which what you remember, perhaps selectively, is not the whole story; the blanks are filled into your advantage and the medicine of regret taken half-heartedly and with a grimace.

Memory can also be a cathartic beast, especially when used as an artistic expression in music, poetry, literature or art; it can be useful to in the endeavour of creation and is far more productive to the soul than the initial outburst of anger that comes from certain situations. The sombre and sober reflection casting its eye over the words, the stroke of paintbrush or the shrewd addition to a multitude of musical notes are memory enhanced and in Peter Harrison’s debut E.P., Memory and Remedy, recall and recollection have a new champion in which to listen to and admire.

Peter Harrison, Memory And Remedy. E.P. Review. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Mike Zito And The Wheel, Songs From The Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The people behind Ruf Records really have got to the very root of being able to capture the love of live music down to a tee. Not just on one artist, but on a collection of musicians who exemplify the point of seeing a band or solo artist live, striding the stage like ancient Athenian warriors ready to pounce on the admiration of the crowd with a small tickle of the guitar. Unlike ancient Athenians’ war like efforts, no blood is shed from the 21^st Century axe but in the hands of Mike Zito and the Wheel, what is shed, what is let loose, is inhibition and what is gained is an emotional connection. In Songs From The Road, that connection is bought straight into the most inaccessible of arenas, that of the front room or dull long journey in which music is the only escape.

Mike Zito And The Wheel, Songs From The Road. Album Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Hilary Scott, Freight Train Love. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The train is perhaps the mode of transport most closely associated with romance. Not the modern train in which style has been replaced by the uncomfortable pursuit of getting from A to B without ever making eye contact across a table and the small sign of an innocent smile breaking the ice, but the train in which romance and heartbreak go hand in hand, in which a long journey goes by in the blink of a friendly eye or in which becomes part of life’s own dystopia and the stuff of great rock, country or folk songs.

Hilary Scott, Freight Train Love. Album Review. full post

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

Robert Reed, Sanctuary. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some moments in Time are so perfect that they almost defy anything or anybody ever repeating the experience. To try and ever emulate the goal scoring ability of Kenny Dalglish would be near impossible, to match the passion, madness, extraordinary beauty and intensity that Vincent Van Gogh bought to the world of art should never be echoed and such should be said of Mike Oldfield’s seminal and musically comprehensive work Tubular Bells.

Robert Reed, Sanctuary. Album Review. full post

(436 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Nicola Benedetti, Homecoming, A Scottish Fantasy. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Many issues or ideas live in the realm assuredly marked fantasy, they are kept alive with unhindered love but perhaps with a certain amount of sadness or melancholic abandonment, they wither, they die and are forgotten, only half remembered through the mist and freezing fog that clears momentarily upon waking. The sound of a forlorn piper heralding the start of another day without whimsy and the never achieved fantasy is where most dreams end up and yet in the hands of Nicola Benedetti, the classical violinist, fantasies are more than kept alive, and they are nurtured and respected.

Nicola Benedetti, Homecoming, A Scottish Fantasy. Album Review. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Philip Sayce, Influence. Album Review.

Philip Sayce, Influence.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You only have to hear the start of the gentle rhythmic hum of the guitar to know that what you are about hear is so close to off the scale that there hasn’t been a machine invented yet to take the enormity of it.

Philip Sayce, Influence. Album Review. full post

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

Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There are very few things in life that are better than a detective story. The thrill of going down avenues and drawing your conclusions from the clues presented to you and whilst the likes of Poirot, Wallander or Morse are missing, the best kind of detective is on hand, the listener, who is privy to every detail in the latest album by Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun.

Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun. Album Review. full post

(447 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

K’s Choice, The City Of Music Two. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The humble compilation album can take many forms. In now what seems at times the dim and distant past, as distant to the younger generation coming through now as Sir Edmund Hilary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Everest to those growing up in the 1970s, the past when to have your say in music meant taking the pick of the songs you may have proudly bought or even embarrassingly hidden away due to the absurdity of the song and placed onto a C90 tape and perhaps even then handed over with much ceremony to the person you perhaps fancied, the compilation stood for something pure.

K’s Choice, The City Of Music Two. Album Review. full post

(641 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

Ashestoangels, With Tape And Needles. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Albums can pass you by, as if you are not careful, can days, family and friends. Family and friends might forgive you, Time is as likely to absolve you as is it to climb aboard the Orient Express and order several cups of Russian Caravan tea before the train leaves the platform in a cloud of comforting smoke, so it leaves the album as the only one that is sure to pardon your stupidity completely as long as you find it eventually.

Ashestoangels, With Tape And Needles. Album Review. full post

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