Category Archives: Music

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It could all come down to consistency for some, but in the end is there much difference Between Wine and Blood?

For New Model Army, the difference may be down to taste but what they have done with this double C.D. package is something that captures the very best of both worlds. Six brand new songs, six reasons in which to cheer the original work of Justin Sullivan, Michael Dean, Dean White, Marshall Gill and Ceri Monger, six songs in which reminded the listener of the past, specifically around the time of Thunder and Consolation but also in which carries the extremely good work that appeared on the Between Dog and Wolf album.

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Winter In Eden, Court Of Conscience. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a quiet solemnity and gravitas in the frozen landscape that winter offers Humanity but which is shamefully overlooked by modern society in its constant pursuit of the need to be seen to be productive, productive in the disturbingly wrong way, not the industry of creative endeavour in which a field stuffed with snow captures the bleating sheep unawares and provides the captured moment for the ever present photographer. Nor in the way that a sudden snowfall on a busy city can bring it grinding to a halt causing people to stay indoors and forcing them to rest a while, perhaps talk or at least wrestle with their conscious on how Winter was at one time a chance to take stock and to mourn those lost before the snow, not to sell stock and forget to mourn the passing of time.

Winter In Eden, Court Of Conscience. Album Review. full post

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

Rob Jones & Rob White, Thirty. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some acts just exude a sense of calm proportion to the daily grind, to the stuttering headache caused by the constant bombardment of noise that comes out of every office block, tin pan alley and thoroughfare. The insanity that a shrill voice at the end of a telephone or the damaging bluster of those who see the price in everything but for the life of them cannot see the value of a moment of gentleness that is worth more than whatever they earn over the course of a day.

Rob Jones & Rob White, Thirty. Album Review. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

HammerFall, (r)Evolution. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It almost feels as if there an element of greed attached to the way the Scandinavian countries have dominated the world of Metal in recent times, greed or perhaps something more profound, something that would have been seen as verging on the edge of musical insanity only three decades ago. If the late 70s saw the emergence of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, then the epoch that we live in, this time of feeling of global communication but complete disconnection from the way we live our fleeting lives should be seen as the time of a new dominant force, the second Viking Invasion, a lot more Metal, and the only pillaging is that of the U.K.’s and America’s ever loosening grip on the title of the home of the genre.

HammerFall, (r)Evolution. Album Review. full post

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

Rachel Newton, Changeling. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Folk tales have immense power, they somehow have a way of burrowing below the skin and becoming part of the fabric of the inner workings of the mind. They nestle at the heart of worry, of being something that somehow Humanity is susceptible to other worldly influences and transformation, the trick of the fairy folk is the way they can steal a baby and leave one of their own in its place causes suspicion and distrust. Whether in the Cornish tradition of Mên-an-Tol or other Gaelic influences, the Changeling is something that captures the fertile imagination.

Rachel Newton, Changeling. Album Review. full post

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

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sheffield is famous for many things, especially its music. From the Human League to Pulp and all points in between and all those to come after, the silver runs through the veins of its people like a smelting pot of finely cast talent and bronzed off honesty.

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

No matter what, fans of Beverley Craven will always have the near perfect image; the sound of a beautiful and sensuous voice embraced so hard around their memories that not even a fairly average album could shake their belief in her. Which is good, for Beverly Craven is one of those artists that you want to love, that you want her to take you by the hand and lead you down many roads and personal alleyways in which have made her music so enticingly intimate and friendly down the years.

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

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 21st 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)