King King, Exile & Grace. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Friends and loved ones sometimes have a way of sending you into exile, that you have no right to be where you are, that your opinion does not matter, that your dreams are nothing but dust caught in an updraft; it often takes those that you only hear over the wild speakers, those that find a way to install a state of kindness in even the bitterest wind and chained grievance, for those that offer Exile & Grace are to be saluted, for they are the ones that set you free.

King King, Exile & Grace. Album Review. full post

(448 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Her Red Rose.

…And the girl with the red rose

never scolded me

for my fifteen year old naivety;

she simply kept the flower,

slightly doused in Brut aftershave,

till it passed into faded memory

but always keeping the three thorns

close by.

For Ali.

Ian D. Hall 2017

Permanent link to this post (48 words, estimated 12 secs reading time)

Case Garrett, Aurora. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The artist sees the blank canvas and does not merely paint the soul experiences; only the home decorator can and should feel unaffected by what appears before them. When it comes to any art form you surely should have been affected by the narration of life around you before committing to the world your own story, not the straight lines of a single brush destined for the skirting board, but the full on light show of a whole series of brush strokes that are keen to spill, to blend, to merge and make the most fascinating Aurora in the canvas sky.

Case Garrett, Aurora. Album Review. full post

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

Mike Brookfield, Brookfield. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Many shy away from the raw and the passionate, they see the allure but they cannot find it in themselves to feel it in their souls; perhaps fearful or troubled by what could be let loose should they delve too deep into the fire below. The raw is not to be shied away from, it is not to be excused and passed over in favour of something that has been cooked and over produced beyond its initial vision. Sometimes all it needs is its own identity and its own sense of self; it is a vision offered by Mike Brookfield in his uninhibited second album, Brookfield.

Mike Brookfield, Brookfield. Album Review. full post

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

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: David Mitchell, Gemma Whelen, Liza Tarbuck, Harry Enfield, Paula Wilcox, Helen Monks, Tim Downie, Dominic Coleman, Mark Heap, Rob Rouse, Steve Spiers, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Adam Harley.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Ben Elton, one of the prestigious and prolific comedy writers of his generation, was asked to step in and take what was a perhaps seen as a series that confused some, baffled others and had those who had the wherewithal to not only admire Rowan Atkinson but who also understood the intricacies of historical comedy, heavily borrowing dialogue from William Shakespeare, to the absolute heights of the British comedy mountain.

Upstart Crow: Series Two. Television Review. full post

(553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Meeples.

Round and through the Mullberry Bush

the Meeples go,

plastic heads on plastic shoulders

with artificial smiles,

crowing as sure as a cock

at dawn as their synthetic

disguise holds no weight,

no depth,

just concealment as they sympathise

and imitate falsehood, non-neutral lies,

Meeple made, on screen reproduction,

a thumbs up, a like for the ordinary

Meeple as insincerity blends with truth;

sturdy, choke inducing, foot crippling

plastic Meeple, a token

in need to present the human face.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017

Meeples. full post

(86 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)

Tori Amos, Native Invader. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

You can stand in front of the Mona Lisa as it resides deep underground in Paris and you can marvel in the perfection, the composition, and you can be haunted by Time, by the sheer scope of history and the insignificance of what is shadowing the piece before you and you are struck by the beauty, by the sheer audacity of one human being’s attempt to capture something exquisite, a slice of art that is permanent and captivating. You can do all that but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you think it is the most interesting or truly dynamic of works; that it is so beautiful and evocative but ultimately it is not as good as the brain or the heart desires it to be.

Tori Amos, Native Invader. Album Review. full post

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

Blancmange, Unfurnished Rooms. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is one of those great quirks of musical nature that tease out every so often, that when people think of the great synth-pop bands of the 80s, they either naturally gravitate towards those that have come out of Yorkshire or even from down in Essex, the richness of the those particular bands has been, and arguably will always be forever be, enshrined in popular music history, and rightly so.

Blancmange, Unfurnished Rooms. Album Review. full post

(448 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Gristle In Your Teeth.

It is but a selected story

you have listened to

and chewed on its gristle

till the breath stinks

and the sinew pieces rot

in your teeth. Such

is the abuse that the fork

made of the tale that you cooked

up, that I am surprised

there was any room

for the vegetables;

although I did notice that

there was no room for the rosemary

in your serving of the gravy on top.

 

Ian D. Hall  2017

Permanent link to this post (80 words, estimated 19 secs reading time)

Elijah James And The Nightmares, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time was a new album or E.P. launch would be held in the frosted glaze of cameras and a hundred scribes finding a novel way to describe the happiness and pride in the room, the management pouring out champagne and the band assured a million dollar comeback; it was all colourful, it was cynical and it was never truly real. Under the façade of a thousand camera lenses lays one of the truths of life, that nothing is truly what is seems unless you witness it in all its beauty of the humble and quietly talented leaving a bigger mark on the audience than a extravaganza could ever achieve.

Elijah James And The Nightmares, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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