The Responder. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Freeman, MyAnna Buring, Adelayo Adedayo, Romi Hyland-Rylands, Mark Womack, Josh Finan, Emily Fairn, Philip Shaun McGuinness, Warren Brown, Ian Hart, Faye McKeever, Philip Barantini, Elizabeth Berrington, Christine Tremarco, David Loy, Rob Pomfret, Jude Cooper-Kelly, Kerrie Hayes, Dave Hart, Lois Cringle, James Nelson-Joyce, David Bradley, Karl Collins, Philip Whitchurch, Amaka Okafor, Marji Campi, Rita Tushingham, Maud Druine, Michael Starke, Jake Abraham, Paul Campion, Christian Waite, Victor McGuire, Kieran Urquhart, Sylvie Gatrill, Matthew Cottle, Dave Hill, Roy Brandon, Harry Burke, Pat Winker.

The Responder. Television Review. full post

(764 words, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)

Annie Keating, Twenty 22. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are presented with two states of existence when we are urged to look at the new year and its possibilities, one of careful and observant hope, and another which can be seen as toxic happiness, the frame of mind which insists all around them pledge to show a face which belies their naked spirit, and arguably causes those others to feel something they would rather not confront.

Annie Keating, Twenty 22. Single Review. full post

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

The Tourist. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Bruce-Franklin, Damon Herriman, Alex Dimitriades, Olafur Darri Ólafsson, Kamil Ellis, Damien Strouthos, Greg Larson, Victoria Haralabidou, Geneviève Lemon, Alex Andreas, Jeanette Cronin, David Collins, Rhonda Doyle, Simon Gligora, Ansuya Nathan, Stephen Hunter, Renee Lim, Lasarus Ratuere, Mark Fantasia, Kyle Robertson, Willian Rodrigues, Jasper Bagg, Brett Blake, Maria Mercedes, Natasha Wanganeen.

The Tourist. Television Review. full post

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Megadeth, A Night In Buenos Aires. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You know exactly what you are going to be exposed to before the needle comes down gracefully upon the spinning vinyl, and yet the bolt of music you find your ears impaled upon is both satisfyingly and dynamically explosive. It is enough to register shock waves of pleasure and joy from across the oceans, it is seismic even after more than a decade and a half after it first appeared in cd form. It is the overwhelming arsenal poised at your heart, the warheads of metal ready to take off and bombarded the listener with strike after strike, the unrepentant wave of hits as A Night In Buenos Aires becomes the theatre of music that is so richly needed in a period of human inactivity.

Megadeth, A Night In Buenos Aires. Album Review. full post

(519 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Beth Hart, A Tribute To Led Zeppelin. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To release a cover of a well-known hit song or personal favourite is considered a modern etiquette, the chance to acknowledge what has guided you, what has inspired you, what creativity has pushed you to the point where your own music is forever joined at the hip and acknowledged as a natural partner, is good manners and appreciated by artist and fan alike.

Beth Hart, A Tribute To Led Zeppelin. Album Review. full post

(547 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Around The World In 80 Days. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, Leonie Benesch, Jason Watkins, Peter Sullivan, Leon Clingman, Anthony Flanagan, David Sherwood, Reza Diako, Jeff Rawle, Richard Wilson, Nicholas Ellenbogen, Lindsay Duncan, Victoria Smurfit, Dolly Wells, Gary Beadle, Charlie Hamblett, Patrick Kennedy, Faical Elkihel.

H G Wells and Jules Verne, two men for whom readers can bestow the title of the Godfather of Science Fiction, perhaps can arguably claim from the beyond that their work has not had the best of treatments when it comes to large screen or television adaptations. It is almost as if the text is too outlandish, too peculiar to capture the essence of their finest works, leaving the fan to console themselves with the imagination and the novels at their disposal.

Around The World In 80 Days. Television Review. full post

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

Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To move forward is to evolve, and yet in the hands of a master, time can become meaningless; 50 years producing music that quite often defied convention, that ridiculed the notion of stereotyping, and refused to be tied to one person, despite critics and fans alike quite often only associating the magic of flute with the name itself, that is the meaninglessness of Time, for Jethro Tull, Time is a scope of illusion and imagery.

Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene. Album Review. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomi Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Sian Webber, Jack Bandeira, Olumide Olorunfemi, Scroobius Pip, Reece Shearsmith.

Despite the seriousness of the storyline, the undertones of institutional abuse and the outright red flags of cruelty, neglect and violence, Andy Serkis’ Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a romp, a graphic book large screen hybrid, a mutation of fine comedy underpinned by the gravity of murderous revenge.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Film Review. full post

(575 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Martha Tilston, The Tape. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The evocative nature of a single word or a modest phrase can unleash scenarios in the mind that are more than just placed there by the artist, they open up worlds that the intended recipient cannot but help desire to explore, and whether by map, by a crude drawing by the naive cartographer or from the promise of suggestion by The Tape, what is revealed is not only a haunting promise, it is beauty declared.

Martha Tilston, The Tape. Album Review. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Goodnight, Texas, How Long Will It Take Them. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is fair to suggest that the word normality should be stricken from the vocabulary of every living person till the end of time, for nothing truly is normal, the practise of our existence is such that time around us evolves, that it contains pressures, burdens, responsibilities, stressful situations, and strains, all of which are forced upon us, and which must consider with great compassion the effect it has on others as well as ourselves. Nothing about human activity on Earth is normal, and during a period of time in which the spirit is tested on an unimaginable scale, to seek normality is to suggest that we question the magnitude of time itself and how we spend it.

Goodnight, Texas, How Long Will It Take Them. Album Review. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)