Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10
The soft delicate guitar fused with a the coming out of a serene waking dream and accompanied by a set of vocals that could lull you into believing all is well with the world is perhaps the only way in which to pay respect to Mark Harrison and his new album The World Outside.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The dreaming spires that greeted Adam Barnes’ E.P. Blisters seem to bow in reverence once more as the young musician from Oxford releases his debut album The Land, The Sea & Everything Lost Beneath.
It is obviously only an analogy, however for anyone who has spent time in the jewel of the South of England or indeed may be only acquainted with the city through watching episodes of Morse, Lewis or Endeavour will realise that apart from the architecture, the scholarly learning and the chance to sip ale in some of the finest public houses in the country, the music world rarely gets a mention unless it is in the hushed tones of worship at the feet of long since departed composers or in the greater admiration of Radiohead. For Adam Barnes to buck that trend is nothing more than a true delight.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
You can only imagine what goes in the minds of musicians before the On-Air sign goes to red, the dawning realisation that this is the moment in which to shine or even fall, the many questions that buzz like pregnant Queen Bees and spawning more and more self-interrogations and pricking the conscience in their own self-defence.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The news that Tori Amos had hit a sort of wall in her music must have by-passed everyone who has listened to her music over the last couple of years and last few albums. Taking time to listen to anything she has produced in that time period can only lead to the scratching of heads and slight bewilderment at the thought. For in Unrepentant Geraldines Ms. Amos has produced yet again arguably one of the finest albums you will hear all year.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When you find something so entrancingly unique, so wonderfully odd and unconventionally offbeat you just have to embrace it, nourish it and hope that it stays the distance and others see the musical imagery on offer. It arguably doesn’t come any more unique than Whiskey Moonface’s debut album One Blinding Dusky Dusk.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
You don’t get much fresher than Kenny Wayne Shepherd when it comes to bringing out an album of exquisite note only a few short months after being part of the supergroup The Rides’ magnificent piece of work Can’t Get Enough. For fans of Kenny Wayne Shepherd that really shouldn’t be a surprise as Goin’ Home is an album that is delivered with the same strutting style, the same admirable honesty as you would hope to find attached to each person who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It can be infuriating when going to the theatre, in any form or of any size, hearing a superb piece of music which captures the play in all its glory and then realising that you will probably never be able to hear it again unless the company get together and try to evoke the feeling that was hopefully felt by all.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Unlike say New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles or Boston, you have got to have spent time in Pittsburgh to fully understand and appreciate its magnetic charm, both as a city and its history and for the culture that has developed out of the bars, theatres and dreams of the people who make the Steel City what it is. The other famous cities that litter the thoughts of those dreaming of seeing America with their own eyes are all visible in the daydreams of those willing to stretch their legs and their minds, Pittsburgh though has to be seen physically to be appreciated and appreciated it would be.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Something old, something new, something borrowed, lots of things blue…The Voodoo Sheiks cover all the bases with their new album Borrowed & New.
Borrowed & New sees The Voodoo Sheiks lead with something rich, diverse and ultimately a pleasure to wriggle into, an album of many different features but with one goal squarely in mind, to give the Blues a good going over and rock the life out of it, to give it a good shake and tell it to misbehave, to disobey the sometimes tight regulation attached and play up all night long. In that Andy Pullin, Slowbox Dave, John Coombes and Adrian Thomas tear into the Blues, their own temple building songs and tracks by some of the greats, and start to put up the adjoining and naughty beat alongside.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If you can remember the 60s then as saying goes, you can’t have been there. You can’t have seduced by the sound that ensnared a generation and made the smallest hairs on their arms spring to attention as if a thousand watts of electricity had been pumped through every individual strand. Of course if you were born after the 60s and have had to make do with the stories of those who professed to having been at Candlestick Park, the Isle of Wight and the other hundreds of magic moments in which the 60s music hung round and the highlighted sores on society they captured.