Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The world may be in a mess, a state of confusion and disorder in which we are permanently told to feel afraid, to be watchful, to not engage or try to change, that being fearful of the person next to you is natural and to always trust those in charge because, like children, we cannot be trusted to make a difference, that we must follow blindly the excepted so called leadership.
I reach out for driftwood
splintered and damp but at least buoyant
a life preserver
in place of the straight
talking jacket,
splintered, fractured driftwood
as torn as me, as breakable
in this tempest sea,
I’m breaking apart as the water pulls me under
and I can feel the suffocating nausea rise
as the sea lurches, tossing
me hope,
breaking my spirit in a matter of waves,
the waves that wash down my throat,
that I spit out bone by bone,
that I cannot, like an old ancient King,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
To be considered as sounding warm, inviting or even welcoming is to some a death knell, the sound of pleasantries made to be engaging, yet despite the wary nature of such social niceties, to use warm, musically demonstrative and even tender when talking about Dorset’s Ninebarrow is not to be friendly, to add Dorset charm to the world of literature, instead it is to be seen as graceful, elegant and stylish; for in Ninebarrow’s Releasing The Leaves lays the foundation stone of the next generation of Folk music at its very best.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Time is an illusion; it is only the passing of day into night that allows meaning to be understood, 20 years can pass quite simply in the blink of an eye, it is more to do with the Mayfly like effect that we live our lives in that you can be young aspiring sweating teenager one minute and the next knocking at the door of 40, the best of your life revealed only by how you view your actions.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
New Jersey gets bad press, especially in comparison to its near neighbour across the bay, New York, on this side of the Atlantic, but for anyone who has spent serious amount of time there, maybe ventured beyond the calling card of Atlantic City, the brushed walkways and the large unexpected Elephant named Lucy that remains static but a huge draw of things to do that don’t involve gambling, for anyone willing to venture in and see what life is truly about, then in Zakk Wylde you have the perfect man to accompany you as you make your way to Cape May Court House and relax in the release of Book Of Shadows II.
I have no idea who lives
underneath the beard,
I haven’t seen their face
for a generation,
a third of their life,
I haven’t had the pleasure
of getting to see the craggy lines appear
on fermenting grey skin
except underneath the eyes
which have become sterile,
magnified and indifferent
to everything besides love;
but what need is there of love
when you are hiding
the kiss beneath a mop of underside hair
that keeps your chin warm
in winter.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Sometimes a piece of music cannot be contained, it may scream to be allowed out of the mind and into the wide awaiting world and there is nothing that the musician or the audience can do about it, except for sitting back, making sure that all is secure with the area for a while and allowing the sweeping change laid out before them to tactically submit in the shape of a greater force. It is a greater force that comes before the listeners as John Jenkins with Vanessa Murray offers the beautiful yet wistfully dynamic Her Soldier Boy in a unregimented parade of class and vitality.
In amongst the cackles,
the small wheezes that sound
like someone learning how to play
the saxophone,
buoyed by codeine
agitated by symbolism
and wracked with the fury
of an inward tempest,
I found an excitement
that could not be displaced
that would not lay still
and somehow I knew
upon this April morning,
cold and damp, fitful and feverish,
that my head, fit to explode
like an unwanted atom bomb
lost in transportation,
I knew I had an idea…
I gave in
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy, Percy Kemp, Zaid Errougui-Demonsant, Victor Pontecorvo, Michael Dauber, Franck Torrecillas, Chem Eddine, Phillipe Haddad, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Hubert Rollet, Rachid Hafassa, David Colombo, Rabia Elatache, Arthur Vercken, Serge Michel, Anais Couette, Christian Bianchi.
All films have potential, by their very nature they are there to entertain or even inform; some though are baffling to the point of unpleasantness, they do nothing but argue with themselves about their role and like a pair of lovers quarrelling over who last paid for a night out, the position of what could be beautiful is replaced by a dark intrusion and one that brings the film into the arena of the fundamentally objectionable.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are moments in a young musician’s life when the sound they create is not only stunning, it can make the die-hards and the cynical weep behind closed eyes and have them mutter that whilst music may have changed, it remains intact and an endearing presence in some.
In Eleanor Nelly, one of Liverpool’s bright young things, that presence is keenly felt and to admired, even when she is supporting someone different in a book shop in Waterloo. Being able to watch this fine musician up close and personal in amongst the books and rampaging taste of coffee and stirring tea was not only a singular pleasure but one that encapsulated the point of encouraging the young to strive for all they can; for dreams are soon too easily dashed if not nurtured and held on to.