Therapy?, Cleave. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

The urge to smite your enemies is a powerful emotion in which some say you must resist, others take the softer approach, the more forgiving road in which the best way to treat those who have done you wrong is to think of their lives and see the problem through their eyes. To cut down and smash your anger aside or to hold close those who seek to destroy you, either way is up to you, but the impulse to Cleave is a craving that is only satisfied with songs of thunder and the rage of lightning surrounding your ears. It is after all, the finest form of Therapy?

Therapy?, Cleave. Album Review. full post

(467 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Subhasis Bhattacharya, Tablananda. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Without principle, Art is meaningless, even in the rich persuasive power of anarchy, there has to be a semblance of order, a sense of the unique and enlightening; for if there is no educational, instructive Progressive suggestion then there cannot be a world, however brief, of harmony.

It is in the unexpected harmony of the logical progression of sound that a type of anarchy exists as arguably the foremost Tabla players of his generation, Subhasis Bhattacharya, brings his latest creation, Tablananda, to the ears of an audience who adores him, and the surprising fresh and distinctive style in which will undoubtedly charm new appreciation from those who have not been introduced to this persuasive and principled discipline of music.

Subhasis Bhattacharya, Tablananda. Album Review. full post

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

Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There should be no offence taken, no reason in which the past cannot forgive the indiscretions of youth and whilst we must all account for the wrongdoings, the possible law-breaking we have committed, none of us can judge without admitting in person and with hand on heart, For My Crimes, I understand yours.

Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes. Album Review. full post

(358 words, 1 image, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Beyond Belief, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Adam Davies, Elani Edipidi, Jennifer Essex, Charles Sandford.

It is a dream of many, a fantasy in which the body, the mind, lives on forever. The notion that we can somehow conquer time, that we can endure the ravages of disease, ageing, war and eventual death, and see the future unfold, all the advancements, the hope of peace, the continuing cycle of our offspring with no repercussions, just a state of bliss, the heart endlessly beating, the mind forever wondering.

Beyond Belief, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

A Final Discarding Of Faith.

 

Her fingers clicked

through the beads, one

by one, a silent prayer in progress

as the bus grunted in disjointed answer

to her hope of forgiveness and eyes

staring penance.

Her gaze never wavering from the unfolding

scene of life, horror in her mind

as I saw only animated Time.

Unseen

to me, something must have caught her eye

and slowly, with pain etched deep

in her face and a tear forming,

she put down her faith

and forfeited the remainder

of the journey, taking flight

A Final Discarding Of Faith. full post

(107 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

Matt Breen, All The Time. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For all the intrusiveness and demands that the internet makes on our time, it has one great, thankfully creative good in which it cannot be faulted; the knowledge that a musician that you have seen grow and loved, and despite distance, can still make an appearance on your computer device of truth and thrill you with their latest creation.

Matt Breen, All The Time. Single Review. full post

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

Plymouth Rock.

 

Shall we visit

Plymouth Rock

and feel the weight of time

eat at our souls, the memories

of patriarchy in silent

judgement looking down

their collected noses,

a decree of continued disappointment

and an unmoving…

…unwavering opinion steeped

in Victorian moral uptight stone;

the Plymouth Rock, not for me

and the ship that carries my worth,

I will land close by,

for a few hours

and then depart, taking my cold

memories with me.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Plymouth Rock. full post

(82 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview With Les McKeown.

Living legend, in a world that seems to be abundant in such a phrase, an expression of the way we perhaps look at celebrity in this modern age and where at times the word itself becomes obscured by overuse and sometime denigration, to be able to talk to a man who was, and remains, a pivotal figure in British Pop history, is to find that much vaunted idiom a true, humbling and heartening experience.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview With Les McKeown. full post

(2345 words, estimated 9:23 mins reading time)

The Goldhawks, Quadrophenia Live!. Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are few albums that emphasise and capture a moment in British history as well as The Who’s Quadrophenia, a work not just of outstanding cultural reference but a recording that simply blows others in its class away, outstanding lyrics, music that causes the brain to absorb the depths of imagery, and one that just feels every moment of angst for a generation betrayed by growing up in the shadow of the aftermath of World War Two. Of freedom of expression, but not knowing how to harness it enough to overthrow the shackles of post war hypocrisy completely; in short they don’t make them like The Who anymore, and they don’t make albums as raw, as telling, as beautiful as Quadrophenia.

The Goldhawks, Quadrophenia Live!. Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Black ’47, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rae, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene, Jim Broadbent, Ciaran Grace, Colm Seoighe, Olivier Biwer, Kieran Boland, Antonia Cambell-Hughes, Dermot Rowley, Diarmuid de Faoite, Fiach Kunz, Joe Lydon, Geraldine McAlinden, Aiden McCardle, Liam McEvoy, Keith McErlean.

In the best traditions of the revenge film genre, Black ’47 must surely sit as a truly incredible example of writing, not only in terms of its absorbing, harrowing storyline but in the judgement it passes on the nature of greed and neglect for our neighbours, our souls and what they are worth when we can idly sit by as people die in the streets as the hunger and cold eats away at their resolve and their lives.

Black ’47, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)