The Routes Quartet, Windrose. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The string quartet is one of delight, harmony within the bow and the wood, a sound that carry heaven upon its shoulders and yet break your heart as easily as a first school crush. Many make much of the virtue of four guitars working in tandem or the beat of a double sided drum kit banging out in unison the call of the wild and the snare of a trap well laid, yet a string section, regardless of whether in pairs or by the full blown orchestral promise, can take your heart to places it never knew possible and the mind into the realms of deep fascination for the sheer synchronisation possible.

The Routes Quartet, Windrose. Album Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Broken. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sean Bean, Adrian Dunbar, Muna Otaru, Mark Stanley, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Rochenda Sandall, Paula Malcolmson, Paul Copley, Vanessa Earl, Steve Garti, Jerome Holder, David McClelland, Aoife McMahon, Naomi Pickering, Lauren Lyle, Anna Friel, Faye McKeever, Debra Michaels, Matthew Wilson, Thomas Arnold, Daniel C. Bishop, Eithne Browne, Clare Calbraith, Ned Dennehy, Jack Harper, Phil Davies.

 

Broken. Television Review. full post

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

Feeling Alone In A Crowded Room.

When you realise

that you have been nobody’s

afternoon idle dream,

that the role of shining knight

was reserved for whoever rode

the biggest horse

or that you cannot imagine

that the world would not be happier

without you in it, that your smile

counted for nothing

on a good day,

then everything else just falls into place,

that you are part of the ninety-nine

percent, even though

you feel alone;

truly and irrevocably in the way

in a room shrouded in people

Feeling Alone In A Crowded Room. full post

(92 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Nickelback, Feed The Machine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It doesn’t take much mental acumen to notice that the machine is getting bigger, more intolerable, extra insidious; you would have to be without sight and the ability to listen to know that life is less about freedom and more of being ground down and used for fertiliser. Pink Floyd may have welcomed you to the machine but Nickelback have shown in their latest release just how to Feed The Machine.

Nickelback, Feed The Machine. Album Review. full post

(440 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: All The Glittering Blades. Television Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Joseph Mawle, Jonas Armstrong, Lydia Wilson, Anna Burnett, Matthew Lewis, Ellie Haddington, Maeve Dermody, Jack Bannon, Joseph Harmon, Gerry O’ Brien.

No matter where you put a man, in a cell or out of harm’s way, the Victorian thinking was they would all eventually revert to a type, that each person could not escape their basic human trait. Good or evil, eventually your character would show and for those caught between the two, being in your guard was not enough.

Ripper Street: All The Glittering Blades. Television Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Upon A Brethren’s Arm.

We have allowed ourselves

to drown,

consented across the board

to be consumed

and driven mad

by want

and excess,

accepting

that

the bar code

that once was inked

and tattooed

on a brethren’s arm

is now

a status symbol

to purchase

things

more easily.

Ian D. Hall 2017

Permanent link to this post (51 words, estimated 12 secs reading time)

The Memoirs Of The Invisible Anarchist.

 

She should have turned back. What was the point of this journey? In my mind I realised that she could have been anyone, she might have been telling me the truth from the moment I boarded the Greyhound bus in Cleveland, she could be on her way to Paris to study art by the Seine, to see the world in the same way he had desired, needed to do. The bus was certainly cheaper to get to Philadelphia where she said her sister lived, to pick up her tickets to fly to France and then go on to study the fine art she breathed whilst spending her free time underneath a bridge or two, perhaps sitting within a tossed baseball of the Eiffel Tower or sitting drinking coffee in one of the numerous cafés that lined the Parisian walkways.

The Memoirs Of The Invisible Anarchist. full post

(2480 words, estimated 9:55 mins reading time)

Stone Sour, Hydrograd. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When you move away from the epic and the glorious, from the style of the concept album you sometimes open yourself up to criticism, that the complex web you wove into an album is now beyond you, that the songs are almost to mainstream and easy on the ear; that by taking a step back to rediscover your roots what you do instead is turn around and start walking backwards to a place where people forget what you brought into their lives.

Stone Sour, Hydrograd. Album Review. full post

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

King King, (She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is always the question that hangs in the air when it comes to love, for some the question of how much is too much and how little can you survive on is one of perpetual thought and arguably sent the sentinels of reason and philosophy scurrying into madness; never truly getting that to answer that question takes Rock and Blues’ greatest minds to answer.

King King, (She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’. Single Review. full post

(399 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Cascadia Fault Line, Left Behind The Clock. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is an eternal key on view when you look at what is Left Behind The Clock. Along with unpaid bills, with the half written reply to a letter that has long since gathered regret and insignificance and the key, half remembered in a world of digital progress and lightning speed responses; to take the time to use the key and wind up the cogs and springs is a simple pleasure that should never be left to chance.

Cascadia Fault Line, Left Behind The Clock. E.P. Review. full post

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