Category Archives: Music

King King, Standing In The Shadows. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sometimes it seems that you can come across a band that you instantly fall for when you weren’t even looking. As when you stop looking for that one special person and just concentrate on the small things that make you happy and take life on a day to day basis, out of nowhere they come and take root in your life. Such is the effect of Glasgow band King King and their Blues styled rock and their album Standing In The Shadows on the heart that for a while you cannot think of anything better to listen to every night.

Kalmah, Seventh Swamphony. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If any more proof were needed that the Metal scene in the lands that make up the large expanse of Scandinavia, a huge resounding piece of musical evidence makes its way via Spinefarm Records in the form of Finnish band Kalmah and their brand new album Seventh Swamphony.

Status Quo, Bula Quo! Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Even the disinterested and unfathomable will concede somewhere, no matter how begrudgingly and with fists clenched in anger, that Status Quo must be doing something right to have released 30 albums and over 70 singles. The music that in part defined an era for their fans still has the power to get a broad smile from almost anyone at some point, to nod in agreement should it come on a pub jukebox and enjoy the brief respite the simply crafted songs offer. It is up-beat and sometimes can be shockingly great stuff.

K T Tunstall, Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon marks a new line in the sand for K T Tunstall, perhaps the start of new beginning for the Scottish singer/musician as she comes to terms with life and what it offers.

The raw emotion that filters through every track on the album is one that will endear her to her legion of fans as every sinew, muscle and vessel is to put the test, given a reason to howl at the desert moon. Ms. Tunstall takes advantage of this feeling and produces a thoughtful and somewhat considered performance in the studio, whilst all the time seeking answers to some very age old and relevant questions that every human being asks at one point or another during their life time.

Black Sabbath, 13. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

At one point, you can almost catch yourself thinking, and with the greatest of respect to the legend and dearly missed Ronni James Dio, why oh why did Black Sabbath ever fracture and tear themselves apart? The answer quickly springs to mind and you are left lamenting what could have been during that period but like all good tales of good and evil, of heroes and villains, the Black Sabbath story is not finished yet as their stunning new album 13 will attest.

Dementia Senex, Heartworm. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The problem can be sometimes that we by nature become too accustomed in the way we live, some comfortably others not so, that as individuals and as a body of people we shy away from taking risks for fear of being perhaps embarrassed or heaven forbid, being seen as unproductive in a world that has got so quick and busy. So much so, that put your feet up for an hour and listen to something out of a so called comfort zone could be classed as self-indulgent and not part of the new way of thinking.

Rick Senley: Music For Voyeurs, The Long Sleep. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Away from the release of I Am A Man With A St. Tropez Tan’s Just A Ghost, Rick Senley’s avant-garde recording dealing with fractured nature and disturbed nightmare thoughts, stands another album that raises the shackles on the back of the neck whilst gently lulling the listener with thoughts of the time to come to us all, Music For Voyeurs…The Long Sleep.

Gary Maginnis & The Like, Ghost Town Blues. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In the end it doesn’t matter where you are from, that really is not the point as you can be born in one city and then move the next day. What it comes down to is where you have felt comfortable in your life and what you achieve whilst you live there and what you leave behind. The three men that make up the folk band Gary Maginnis & The Like certainly have that left the very best part of them in the North-West of England whilst retaining that singular splendour of Belfast very much in their hearts and in their ability to tell a story, nowhere is this more exemplified by their new release of Ghost Town Blues.

Rose Greenwood (Featuring Mick Wright), Yorkshire Street. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Somewhere in the deepest darkest parts of the North, away from the bright lights of Manchester, the larger, older and sometimes forgotten mill towns that cut into the countryside that borders Yorkshire and its bitter but sometimes friendly rival Lancashire, a sound is stirring. Some great acoustic music is finding its way out of the moorlands and into the thoughts of the wider world.