Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. (2017).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If Science Fiction teaches us anything, it is that Time is but an illusion, a structure devised to keep order, to make sense of the day to day and the minutes that come and go as easily as lightning captured on a camera. Time though is about what is in between, the second hand giving way to the power of the one that speeds by rapidly, not for some the elongated minute or hour, but instead the infinite; for it does not take a day or an hour to fall in love, but the second, fleeting, invisible and beautiful.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. (2017). full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Girls With No Faces, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Girls With No Faces at Studio2, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Obstacles are no permanent barrier, they only require the smile of the determined to shine before too long, like walls of made of clay and governments fashioned in panic, before they fall to the inevitable bull dozer being driven at full speed and aiming right for the weakest spot.

Girls With No Faces, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(485 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Change, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Change at Studio 2, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The Change is coming, it just requires belief to see it through and whilst at times it feels as though you have to wade and poke at the sandy dregs of ignominy to find it, once it is there in your face, there is no hiding from the feeling and the option is to embrace it with everything you have.

The Change, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(396 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

In Defence Of Boxing.

It is a spectacle,

Pugilistic sound

a symbol of machismo,

punching above your weight,

of pound for pound brutality

and possible damage to the brain,

never seen the point, never been one

to see the ring

to show how much my worth

as a man or a human being

should be defined;

and yet I also don’t see the point

in racing round a track with a tank full

of petrol, I see no need to carry a ball

underneath my arm

and have my earlobe ripped off,

In Defence Of Boxing. full post

(166 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)

Queens Of The Stone Age, Villains. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Devil may have your back but who is leading you by the hand, sometimes it is hard to know who the real Villains are.

The return of Queens of The Stone Age to forefront of rock always seems assured, the years in between are inconsequential, they are just the time served to truly relish in the works by the band. Some might call it criminal to spend so far away from the limelight, the constant need of some fans, of any group or solo artist to have a continuous grip of the soul of their favourite performer; however the time spent away is always well spent in a group of the magnitude of Queens of The Stone Age. The Villains and the heroes of the peace always have always been on the same side, they just utilise their time differently.

Queens Of The Stone Age, Villains. Album Review. full post

(424 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Donald Black, Bho m’ Chridhe (From My Heart). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Arguably the biggest crime against art is not that committed by the sneering critic, by the one who feels it is their duty to act like a frustrated and embittered teacher, to admonish anyone who has the heart to play and create something beautiful and ever-lasting. It is not the critic who commits the crime, it is the performer when they don’t play with the passion injected into them with the skill they have been blessed with.

Donald Black, Bho m’ Chridhe (From My Heart). Album Review. full post

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

Ian Felice, In The Kingdom Of Dreams. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are very few emotions that can top the feeling of blissful melancholy that weeps and twists through the body and the mind; anger has its place, sadness its time, happiness is always far too fleeting to be substantial, and fear is only there to control you, rise above that particular beast and courage falls into place.

Melancholy is deep, it resides perhaps in between states, between reflectively joyful and realistic downbeat, it is the medium and the gravity of all and one that arguably resides most powerfully In The Kingdom of Dreams.

Ian Felice, In The Kingdom Of Dreams. Album Review. full post

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

Four In The morning, Pavement Blues.

 

Four in the morning, pavement Blues,

a single small, hurried cigar

becomes a second,

longer lasting, what the Hell

moment of pleasure in the dark

quiet Bootle street,

a realisation that I am not

responsible for a stranger’s happiness

despite wanting to see

every stranger smile,

four in the morning

pavement Blues,

a missing guitar

but the harmonica pulses

and sends out a beat

to which only the deaf

appreciate and fondle under their bedclothes

when their wife is away, dreams

Four In The morning, Pavement Blues. full post

(115 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Darrel Treece-Birch, Healing Touch. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is no fear that we cannot overcome, there is no sense of failure that cannot be found and be shaken out of its apathy and allow those under its oppression to breathe once more; all it requires is a Healing Touch.

The inner conflict we face is heightened by the feeling that we have lost our way with who we really are. It could be argued that we are nothing but a paycheck waiting to happen, a transfer between the hope of a one night stand with friends doing all the pursuits of pleasure and laughter we want to achieve, and the system that binds us, the threads that pull at us, keeping us down, making sure we don’t rise off the Earth; some call it gravity, perhaps a better word would be despair.

Darrel Treece-Birch, Healing Touch. Album Review. full post

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

Beaumont, Honestly. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Honesty is a virtue, not many people can pull it off with sincerity or without the guilt riding along on its coat tails, pulling back the emotions and looking openness in the eye; for many, honesty is bordering on cruel, they wrap it up in sentiments of the well worn phrase “I don’t sugar coat my words” or “I tell it how it is”, without even giving a thought to how the other person might react. Honesty is a virtue, but being unkind and purposely vicious in the same sentence is the most despicable of acts.

Beaumont, Honestly. E.P. Review. full post

(527 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)