Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The Carnival of Madness tour picks its bands carefully, almost with grace and tremendous forethought, for how else is it possible to believe that the bands on stage at the Echo Arena in January’s dying whispers could quite easily host a night headlining some of the city’s other venues and the same cranking of intensive hard rock sound be felt quivering in the spine.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The American railroad system was once upon a time a boon to the country, a piece of engineering wonder that straddled the distance between the Atlantic and the Pacific with pride and wonder, it helped put small towns on the map and paved the way for expansion that was unsurpassed for years. No sooner had it been completed than the great American love affair with cars began in earnest and small town America found itself strangled and cut off from the rest of the country, forced to join in or to become a back water of neglect and social abandon.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Lofty ideals are to be lauded but inevitability they fall down, they crumble to dust and mud and in the end even the mightiest most noble truth comes crashing down because of instability in keeping an archetype principle alive.
With Bill Willingham’s Fables series, the ideal has always been within the reader’s grasp, a succession of books that ranks so highly in graphic novel lovers affections that it shares its crown with only the likes of Locke and Key with ease and panache. The ideal though takes a turn in the 20th of the graphic novels through the epitome to be found in one of ancient Britain’s most enduring tales, one passed on to even greater heights in Thomas Malory’s tale of Le Morte d’Arthur, as the thought of Camelot comes into play.
The America I remember has been stolen,
it doesn’t seem to be the way
it was when I first laid
eyes on the French mistress
holding a light to the world’s
repossessed and charmed poetry fanatic.
The bars look uncomfortable now
and not welcoming to the stranger
at the door, clad in clothes
of home but willing to
change, to leave the will behind
and play the game, until it suits
to change the rules, one message at a time.
The America I loved, still love, for passion
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
A concept album is an experience in which some fans love to immerse themselves into and others, arguably with more demands on their time or the relentless march of the quick sound bite has taken its progressive toll on the concentration levels might curse their fortune to have to take in the new Dream Theater album, The Astonishing.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It takes a lot of courage to take the poetry of W.H. Auden, arguably one of Britain’s finest 20th Century poets, and turn it into a Folk song of equal and impressive strength, then for Phil Hare nothing it seems is impossible to play with, to give a slice of extra soul too, and as he enters The Twilight Tone that exists between good natured ambience and angry response, that marriage of emotions is beautifully crafted and well preserved, an almost symbiotic relationship that just keeps giving.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is something endlessly fascinating about hearing a set of songs that you know have been stripped down and given no treatment whatsoever except that of the genuine love and respect from the musician or band taking on the arrangements. That no extra appear, no overlapping of voices to dissuade the listener from taking an even keener approach to taking in the hopeful message or the downbeat regret that music offers. It is a fascination that sits well at the heart of Miranda Sykes’ and Rex Preston’s album The Watchmaker’s Wife.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is magic within the mind of Geoff Johns that somehow seems out of phase with the rest of humanity, for who can argue against the man who turned round the fortunes of Aquaman and revitalised the whole D.C. universe, if that is not magic then the whole concept of art is somehow askew.
Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * *
Cast: Martha Shrimpton, Olivia Hirst.
As you enter Unity One, there is nothing much on stage to give any hint as to what may lie ahead. A coat stand, table, two chairs and a piano – what does stand out however, is the very modern looking microphone placed stage right that is used very cleverly by our duo to begin the piece by creating sound effects. With the use of a loop station they fill the space with noises of the wind and different animal voices that create the effects of a farm.
I let time run down on the day,
for the Moon requires
a period of mournful solace
at the passing of the ignorant Sun.
Shrouded in black, making sad overtures
to the recently deceased
and wringing hands in public,
the Moon acts accordingly
in the night time sky
as it basks it relative heartache
and symbolic woe, the stars
unaware of how glad the Moon
is to see the back of the Sun.
The night claims the power
over tide and dominates