Landon Lloyd Miller, Light Shines Through. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To own your name is the ultimate action of any rational mind, to deny such an experience of personality, to decry the limelight, the searchlight of existence is to be forever welcoming the shadows.

The nom de plume and the group embrace is a noble release, it offers sanctuary in a world too eager to tear down the reserves of the soul and offer temptation in the form of recognition, the riches of identification, especially in a world framed by creation and by possession of artistic rights. Yet, to own our words, our gestures, our thoughts and titles of the moments we have brought into the world is not so much about possession or proprietorship, it is the registering of the fact that we were here, at this time, and this was our contribution to society, to community.

Landon Lloyd Miller, Light Shines Through. Album Review. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Geoff Carne & The Raw Rox Band, The Love Gun E.P. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For Geoff Carne it was never about what was left, it was always about continuance, the sheer love of creation, so even in the wake of retirement by the colossus that is Mike Hatz, Geoff Carne took the road unbroken and alongside The Raw Rox Band, Arby ‘Slash’ Rockman, Jim Black, Zoki Jovanoski, and Bob Calvery, the muscle, the memory, the music has found a place which honours that what was, but is unafraid to march forward, to take perhaps a different, and in the case of the new E.P. Love Gun, more uninterrupted and giant resounding sound.

Geoff Carne & The Raw Rox Band, The Love Gun E.P. E.P. Review. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Graeme James, Seasons. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Seasons come and go, some with the bluster of a damaged ego, some with a lazy haze that seeps into the bones and makes us lay in hopeful pastures overlooking bubbling swimming streams. The personality of each season may not be of concern to the vast majority of humanity, more troubled by the unease of the monthly, daily, change of events, but it must be noted that as the cold anger of February and the war like heat of August shape our lives, so to do the seasons, the high council of climate and time, have the right to be felt and appreciated by even the smallest of creatures.

Graeme James, Seasons. Album Review. full post

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

Calum Gilligan, Footsteps On The Broken Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Those Footsteps On The Broken Road that we hear beside us belong to the soul that wants to take our hand and accompany us to a place where love is not a crime or considered weak, where sunsets never fail to be beautiful, and each new dawn is one that holds mystery and adventure; the footsteps may be travelling a broken road, but the stride is conscious, the pace steady, and the company unbroken. 

Calum Gilligan, Footsteps On The Broken Road. Album Review. full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Roving Crows, Awaken. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Whilst others may question our motives, we must always be aware of our own vibrancy, of our own values, for what others may see as intention, as reputation, is in actual fact character, it is honour and integrity moulded together by those who see with more than just their eyes, who feel with more than their gut instinct, it is those who have heard the call of Awaken, and who sleep only to dream.

Roving Crows, Awaken. Album Review. full post

(350 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Daytime TV, Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life was simpler once.

Not the cry of the technophobe lamenting the surge in technology, but the nostalgia of a truth that whispers that humanity has lost its ability to understand the complex arrangements of social cohesion, that we talk a big game, we commend ourselves on our defining character of peace, love and understanding and lifting up ones neighbour, but that we truly are devoid in the large percentage of being truly empathetic, that we have lost touch with our essence because we have embraced a more tactile relationship with the space in between true physical and emotional conduct.

Daytime TV, Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching. Album Review. full post

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

Ali Sperry, In Front Of Us. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We either lash out unthinkingly when we are confronted with pressure that upsets our being, our equilibrium, or we take a step back, we allow what has played out before us to be filtered, to be challenged internally before making what we believe to be action based on rational and intellectual judgement. It depends on the provocation, it changes from confrontation to confrontation, from conflict, row and quarrel, and what is often In Front Of Us is not the same as what we have passed on the way.

Ali Sperry, In Front Of Us. Album Review. full post

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

Gabria, Gesungene Geschichten. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Those Sung Stories are more than just an aide memoire, they are more than the sadness highlighted by the verbal communication of the memento mori, the spirit of another time influencing the heartbeat as it soars, as it falls, sung stories are the framework of society, of how we have come together in terms of community, they tell of battles waged and won, they tell of storms survived, they inform us of how we can be proud and free in the face of aggression, in the face of despots and dictators.

Gabria, Gesungene Geschichten. Album Review. full post

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

Tankard, A Thousand Beers. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Raise a glass in celebration, smash your metal Tankard into another’s metallic stein, for in true fashion of observance and memorial, the anniversary of the one of the finest, most fun live, and the salutation of all that makes Teutonic Metal an absolute fest of glory. It is one to revel in and glorify without any sense of shame, without batting an eyelid as the bottle top is removed and the liquor of life pours without discrimination, so to the release of A Thousand Beers is to be acknowledged as a box set that ties together the first set of outstanding albums by Tankard under the Noise Records label.

Tankard, A Thousand Beers. Album Box Set Review. full post

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

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: India Fisher, Paul McGann, Rakia Ayola, John Banks, Shiloh Coke, Mark Elstob, Chris Jarman, Lara Lemon, Michelle Livingstone, Yasmin Mwanza, Cyril Nri, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Theo Solomon. Andrew James Spooner.

For the majority who don’t delve deep into the mythos and background of Doctor Who, the name Charley Pollard is possibly a whispered name only vaguely caught as reference when Paul McGann’s incarnation of the man in the blue box from Gallifrey lamented those he had lost along the way as he faced the unknown in a forced regeneration as the Time War raged, as the War Doctor waited in the shadows.

Charlotte Pollard: The Further Adventures. Audio Drama Review. full post

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