Jethro Tull: The Jethro Tull Christmas Album – Fresh Snow At Christmas. Album Box-Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album - Fresh Snow At Christmas - Gatefold ...

Of all the ways you might expect the art of the Progressive to go, to slip comfortably into the realm of the festive spirit might be the one guess you would never offer to the eternal quizmaster.

It might not be obvious, but if there is one band whose history has circumnavigated almost every genre that can be touched upon with a flute leading the way, then Jethro Tull have every right to surprise and enlighten the audience and the fan alike by immersing their unique observation into an album devoted to the ringing of the bells and the signal to good will to all included.

Jethro Tull: The Jethro Tull Christmas Album – Fresh Snow At Christmas. Album Box-Set Review. full post

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

KAIVS: After The Flesh. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The genre is not for everyone, but Death Metal exists because of a natural requirement to explain humanity’s darker elements in such a way that could be considered more theatrical than what the art of cinema for example could depict, even literature of such gruesome imagination would be relegated to a store cupboard out of the reach, and yet in the hands of masters what comes across in audio is sculptured visibility, it is the virtuosity of carving out a figure to which can leave the listener, the fan or the enquiring novice, gaping in wonder at the sheer strength of musicianship given a voice of anger and fierce outlook.

KAIVS: After The Flesh. Album Review. full post

(365 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Albatross (On the Wing).

Floating
Dreaming
Here on my slow island bed
Lost in the seas
And the Albatross Skies
So High

What- What is there to do?
Nothing I want to see
Except for the crested waves
Crashing off the mirrored versions
Of me

Floating
Dreaming
I witness you there
Circling with the Albatross
Touching the opaque wispy clouds
So High

Alone, Here I Lay
Youthful hands behind my head
On crumbling dreams
On Petit Bot Cliffs
Gentle-Airless
A rumble from distant wings

Floating
Dreaming
Where will I go to
When this dream is over
Where will you land
Now that the world is so high

What-What is there to do
Nothing I want to hear
Except for the sound
Of your
Mournful forgotten cry.

Albatross (On the Wing). full post

(102 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

Dean Johnson: Hoopla. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The commotion of excitement is always palpable; sometimes though you must actively ask the question to which the other person in your vicinity might cut down the animation you feel and display agitation and coldness to the familiar…the response will not fit your enthusiasm, but it will inspire something deep down in your poetic soul and create art, create a new world driven from the negative pressure once felt to the beauty of positivity.

Dean Johnson: Hoopla. Album Review. full post

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

Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We hail the king, but it is to the everyman, the artist, the grass roots, and the masses that we owe allegiance to. The aristocracy of the humble and the public attention belong to those not with crowns but the kings and queens of delight and observation, those with true power, that exercise it with greater acclaim than those who garnish themselves in adoration because of an accident of birth.

Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King. Album Review. full post

(374 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Alison McMorland With Jo Miller And Kirsty Potts: Some Ballads Of Anna Gordon – Mrs Brown Of Falkland. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Adaption doesn’t always come with understanding of the original text; indeed, in many cases the sense of history and time is lost because the adapter has made it to personal, they have come into the project and captured the self-worth rather than the voice of that in which they intend to honour.

Alison McMorland With Jo Miller And Kirsty Potts: Some Ballads Of Anna Gordon – Mrs Brown Of Falkland. Album Review. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Alice Allen: Bass Culture – Alice Allen: Live At Celtic Connections 2024. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The ability to work in the stream of conscious is a skill that doesn’t get enough commendation, to set out and complete an idea without reworking it to the point where it becomes sterile for the performer is a devotion to the belief of human ingenuity and unquestionable imagination at our disposal.

To do so though in the arena where the live performance hangs on the outcome of limited rehearsal and utilising only the new product to showcase your proficiency and musical power is beyond commendable, it is to be admired throughout.

Alice Allen: Bass Culture – Alice Allen: Live At Celtic Connections 2024. Album Review. full post

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

Stephen Doster: A Passing Train – A Compilation. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

As children we might have sat on a wall somewhere and waved to the train as it passed by at speed, if we were fortunate to be seen by a friendly driver, we could be rewarded with a recognition of our interest with the sound of a horn, a blast of a whistle, or even at one time the enveloping steam from its funnel, and it would be the highlight of our day, a simpler time, a more enjoyable way to see the world as we understand the metaphor of life as we see A Passing Train go by.

Stephen Doster: A Passing Train – A Compilation. Album Review. full post

(464 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Sandra Newman: Julia. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Julia, Sandra Newman, Paperback - Picture 1 of 1

It is impossible to add to a classic novel…that of course is a pretentious statement that screams there is no need for change, that the older the book, the more it is sacred and revered, and untouchable.

Books and lies are very much at the forefront of Sandra Newman’s colossal Julia, a work of fiction that lays bare the perspective of the female participant and object of affection and hate of Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984, Julia Worthing to the point where the original book is remembered for other reasons, that the boldness of Ms. Newman in her writing as she envelopes Julia into a tale matching Smith’s but taking it further, showing the complete descent of rule and the horrors committed in the role of Government when left to rot in the hands of mad people, liars, and psychopaths.

Sandra Newman: Julia. Book Review. full post

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

Beans On Toast: Wild Goose Chasers. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Album artwork for Wild Goose Chasers by Beans On Toast

An album created with the intention of showcasing the voice and lyric with just one instrument aiding its delivery is a force to be reckoned with. Such is the confidence of the writer that the message will be acknowledged and understood without the listener being overladen with the sense of the sweeping through each instruments place as it attempts to magnify and highlight, to empathise the sound rather than the human expression of timbre control and unwavering faith.

Beans On Toast: Wild Goose Chasers. Album Review. full post

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