Dune (2021). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, David Dastmalchian, Babs Olusanmokun, Golda Rosheuvel, Roger Yuan.

To adapt faithfully for cinema a novel so revered, covered in glory, and one that wears the word epic as if it were a robe sewn by hand for someone with more money than a small nation, is to perhaps court feelings of unrestrained excess, to forgo modesty in favour of magnified extravagance, and no matter how noble the intention, no matter how faithful, there on screen will be the accusations of pretension.

Dune (2021). Film Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Suzi Quatro, The Rock Box 1973-1979: The Complete Recordings. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Undoubtedly Suzi Quatro will go down in history as one of the godmothers of Rock ‘n’ Roll. That she broke through in a time of Glam Rock means little, for this musician could have forced her way into the charts and into the national collective psyche at any point, and yet she strode the stage as a colossus of the period, a million racing hearts cheered her on, captivated by her drive, her presence, and the generosity of spirit, the woman who came from under the shadow of her sister’s band, The Pleasure Seekers, and stormed the world, who spun like a Catherine Wheel fuelled by an nuclear power source.

Suzi Quatro, The Rock Box 1973-1979: The Complete Recordings. Album Box Set Review. full post

(542 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Carbon Black: We Remain. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you have something to say, then say it, or as old journalists used to insist on quoting The Duke of Wellington, “Publish and be damned”.

There is no sense in being coy in a world that has lost its way, in which has embraced the vacuous void of human impression, in which we have allowed, permitted, atrocities and carnage to take hold in our name, whilst slowly, unmistakably, seeing our souls wither, still conscious but barely able to withstand the pressure placed on its fragile shell-like existence.

Carbon Black: We Remain. Album Review. full post

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

Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie, We Have Won The Land. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is almost seen as a rite of passage, the sense of returning to a place where the traditional encompasses the message of despair, of hope being removed by darker conglomerate forces, and the song that catches the feeling of tough times being endured by resilient men and women in the perpetual struggle to be free.

Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie, We Have Won The Land. Album Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Robin Trower: No More Worlds To Conquer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Alexander wept as he found he had little left to overcome and occupy, Robin Trower, the iconic British Bluesman who was one of the forces of genius behind Procol Harum and has performed with legends such as Jack Bruce and Bryan Ferry, on the other hand still has much to put down in sheet music, still has much to say and translate into the voice of his trusted guitar, that his new album’s title might seem a tad premature, for while the label might read No More Worlds To Conquer, surely there are realms in which the master can place before the uninitiated his sizeable and overwhelming musical talent.

Robin Trower: No More Worlds To Conquer. Album Review. full post

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

Killing Eve. Series Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Edward Bluemel, Camille Cottin, Robert Gilbert, Anjana Vasan, Adeel Akhta, Imogen Daines, Steve Oram.

All good things must end, and all celebrity obsessed, all public fascinations must finally be allowed to go out in a blaze of glory.

There have been few series that have caught the public’s imagination as much as Killing Eve, and perhaps even less that when it comes right down it, when it is actually scrutinised and boiled down to its component parts, is willing to take the audience on a trip that appeals to base function and highbrow voyeurism in a tale that is seems complicated but is actually a wonderful, well-planned tease.

Killing Eve. Series Four. Television Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The Peaness, World Full Of Worry. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The understanding of someone’s self-loathing is arguably often too complex to get to grips with, especially in a place where the often overbearingly optimistic tend to reside. A concern, a World Full Of Worry in a minefield of burden populated by those without disquiet in their minds, for those that live in comfort of mental health it is a small sentence but one that traps the load ever tither on those who carry the cares of others on their shoulders.

The Peaness, World Full Of Worry. Album Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The Ipcress File. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton, Tom Hollander, Ashley Thomas, Paul Higgins, David Dencik, Joshua James, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Anastasia Hille, Brian Ferguson, Matthew Steer, Nora-Jane Noone, Corey Johnson, Ifran Shamji, Anna Geislerová, Paul Bazely, Marko Braic, Tamla Kari, Mark Quartley, Alexandria Moen, Ben Turner, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Anna Schumacher, Gaby French, Shireen Farkhoy, Nigel Hastings, Therese Bradley, Claire Cox, Chris Lew Kum Hoi.

The Ipcress File. Television Review. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Canny Band. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Sometimes in life you cannot but help hold your breath, you don’t realise you are doing it, you just stand in awe at what is unfolding in front of you and the reflex action, that momentary last inhale, takes care of all the rest; only at the last second do you find the release and marvel at how stunned, how appreciative of the moment you have been.

The Canny Band. Album Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Paul Iwan, Present. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you are feeling comfortable in all that you do, it could be argued that you are doing it wrong; especially when it comes to art and expression.

Creation should never be easy, it should never be without memory, without anxiety, it has to be an operation that it is filled with tense words, feelings, emotions, it must be demanding, it has to be physically commanding on both the heart and the soul; creation requires sacrifice, and that noble gesture must be Present at all times for the one who is on the other end of it so they too can feel the pain, the delivery, and the justice of what the artist speaks of in their truth.

Paul Iwan, Present. Album Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)