Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
For all that the British like to imagine that they have more in common with their Southern European friends, that the heat that comes off the African plains and enthuses the life of those who call the Mediterranean home is more linked to their D.N.A, than anything that comes from the Northern reaches of Europe, the blood of Scandinavia, it only takes a listen to the charms of groups such as Boreas to understand just how much that position is reversed.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Winter is a time in which the lands of the North feel the cold winds more and the thoughts of the bleak and mistrusting frost is ever present in their minds and the image of the sun is but that of a shining glimmering bauble in the sky, neither use nor ornament in the fabric of the lives of those in desperate need of warmth on their backs and in their hearts. Warmth therefore is searched for in other directions and if the heat of a blazing fire cannot be found then the soul of a musician is the closest possible alternative and in Jonathan Markwood’s new album Black Against The Sun, that alternative is more than complimentary, it is a guiding inevitability.
I fear for your soul, as you lurch
and stumble, in the manner of
Frankenstein’s Monster, stitched together
with bloated handcrafted hate
and led by money through the nose,
led by old school isolationism,
led by ignorance
and greed, the I want led by the I have…
I fear for your soul.
I fear for your heart, the once at least
caring side displayed by a Camelot King,
a chair-bound, three times anointed knight
and the fun loving Sax man,
all had their breakages, their misfortunes
Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10
There are times in life when the feeling of the familiar is coupled almost exclusively with the feeling of retro, of returning to a state of mind which not only raises an eyebrow in the way of celebratory congratulations, it also applauds the innocence of the idea in to which the artist has offered up to the audience.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is thankfully always a storm of bright young things making their way across the Irish Sea and enthusing music lovers with their passion for a well constructed song and interesting poetic lyrical, the U.K. is so much richer for their enthusiastic zeal and delightful ardour. The ability to be nothing less than creative and understand that vision is more than just giving someone a good time for an hour but it is in itself a form of education and original learning is the life blood of all who roam the tempered sea and post their findings homeward, whether in e-mails or as the case maybe in Letters To Willow .
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The image of the table, be it ever so humble or overtly grand, is one of symbolism and deep meaning, it offers a level playing field when interacting in the undertaking of dining, it is the structure that aids performance when working and it is the object in which cards are laid down upon, the representation of honest conversation and a barrier to the awkward response.
The dynamic in a house can alter when a table changes, the grander the table, the more notice you take of it and what surrounds it, the more meaning it garners and as the theatrical stories that Staffordshire band Clutching At Straws suggest, This Table Changes Everything.
I hear your voice in the darkness
and it reminds me of cold autumn rain
as I hitchhiked north
and saw the white threat of
angry spellbound snow
on the distant
Canadian mountain range
and I find myself crying
for the memories
your words placed in me,
as I once became the new kid in
the small Oxfordshire town,
as I was the new kid
on the highway finding temptation,
and the glory of a lift with a beautiful woman.
It is the gentle sweep, brush like,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is a particularly modern way of thinking but one that is nonetheless welcome as a distraction, as a way of encompassing art into both the daily life and music into the realms of everything that you, a memory aid for the busy lifestyles of the 21st Century of where you were at certain junctures of your time on Earth, the soundtrack to your life.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Snow White may have been the fairest in the land but she was not always wise in her choice of suitors. Happily married to Bigby Wolf, once enamoured by the charms of a Prince and former slave to the whims of dwarves, Snow White’s past comes back to haunt her as the truth of one the captors found in the ruins of Fabletown is revealed. It is a secret that will divide and break hearts, the mirror didn’t just speak the truth, it was able to crack glass.
It’s hard being a shadow,
especially though I tell myself
I’m not an illusion,
that the ghost in me
that is ignored,
that is playfully abandoned
from time to time
exists and feels pain like a Winter’s breath
on a fading scar,
rising with pinched assault
and damnation in the dead
of lost cause night…
I am not an illusion,
a conjured trick of morphine,
a dream,
a nightmare that an addict once had
in bleak black and white stereotype,
the noir in the film…