Partners In Crime: N or M. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: David Walliams, Jessica Raine, James Fleet, Matthew Steer, Christine Cole, Ed Speleers, Roy Marsden, Alyy Khan, Andrew Readman, Robert Hands, Issy Van Randwyck, Chris Myles, Pinar Ogun, Aoife McMahon, Hannah Waddingham, Danny Le Wynter, Tam Williams, Saffron Hocking, Trevor Cooper, Susan Brown, Joanna Horton, Josh Cook, Paul Cawley, David Moorst.

The culture of spying in the days leading up to and during The Cold War was one that has excited many writers to try their hand at creating at the ultimate spy and whilst none will ever match Ian Fleming’s heroic and suave James Bond in terms of intelligent writing and a character that screams excellence on and off the page, it doesn’t stop others from having a go at taking on the genre.

Partners In Crime: N or M. Television Review. full post

(580 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

We Shall Overcome.

We shall overcome.

We shall overcome

the cold and damp, the rain and bitterness,

the silver dagger and bullet

of hidden abuse that gets hurled our way

and we shall stand tall whilst all around us

kicks us whilst we are down

and all because one hand reached out

through the despair

and one set of eyes didn’t see us as

a problem to be swept away

and one pair of ears listened;

for we shall overcome.

We shall overcome.

We shall overcome

because

We Shall Overcome. full post

(183 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Ultratron (PS4/PS3/PS Vita), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

Ultratron is a retro arcade twin-stick shooter game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. The game is a spiritual successor to Robotron 2084 and is certainly inspired by the games from the era of the classic retro arcade shooters of the 1980s.

The story revolves around the last human in the universe being killed by evil killer robots with nothing but bad intentions and must be stopped, although the only thing standing in the way of their plans for universal domination is the last remaining humanoid droid.

Ultratron (PS4/PS3/PS Vita), Game Review. full post

(1752 words, estimated 7:00 mins reading time)

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If the rust ever starts to show in music from Liverpool, if there is ever a doubt to the sheer strength in depth available to the lovers of the well smashed drum skin and tumultuous cymbal, of the well heeled bass guitar being unheard in the darkening skies, that the possible mix of vocals, mournfully erotic violin and the hearty sax ever disappearing from view in the city that gave modern music to the rest of the U.K. Then the end is quite possibly near and the fifth horseman would be seen galloping down the Anfield Road with a backing tape in his back pocket and a karaoke machine strapped to his leather saddle.

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool (2015). full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

August has almost once more disappeared round the darkened corner and the obscurity that sometimes threatens to come with the September evenings as minds somehow turn towards the winter festivities three months too early, is racing with the speed of a timepiece set far too fast to cope with the chimes playing in the background. Yet through Time’s optical focus, a gig audience is able to see how the future might play out in years to come.

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Bass Reflex, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

It most certainly is an art form, it is abundantly creative and dealt with in a manner befitting the electronic world but it always seems to be one that plays more into the hands of the dance floor, the club scene that that where live music is the King. To stand on a stage and take a laptop computer and remix songs which have touched the heart of the listener and give them something of a mashed up hybrid, a sense of the unenlightened and devoid of the song’s enormous power.

The Bass Reflex, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

She Says Dance With Me.

The beat provided by the laptop on stage

needed two men to seemingly

twiddle the knob

and press the bells

in which the girls came tumbling down

towards the front and make the monitors

and speakers blush and have

the onlookers either look

on in amazed silence at the agility

and flexibility

of the main girl as she taught

the boy who caught her eye

just how to make love

without touching skin

or making the bed in the morning,

the awkwardness of Saturday

She Says Dance With Me. full post

(259 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

45 Years, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtney, Dolly Wells, Geraldine James, Richard Cunningham, Hannah Chalmers, David Sibley, Sam Alexander, Max Rudd, Michelle Finch, Camille Ucan, Kevin Matadeen, Paul Goldsmith, Charles Booth, Peter Dean Jackson, Lucy Temple, Richard Banham, Ellie Tivey, Martin Atkinson.

The idyllic nature of a good marriage can be measured in not just years but how these years came about. To reach any number of years with stories and comfort is one thing but when it can be undermined by a figure from the past, one long unthought-of, the presence of them can be un-nerving, even after 45 Years.

45 Years, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: O’ Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R. Marcos Taylor, Carra Patterson, Alexandra Shipp, Paul Giamatti, Elena Goode, Keith Powers, Joshua Brockington, Sheldon A. Smith, Keith Stanfield, Cleavon McClendon.

Regardless of what you feel about Rap/Hip-Hop or any of the divisions contained therein, Straight Outta Compton is one of the most brutal, interesting and creative films of the year. A film which for which many might find uncomfortable viewing, some perhaps even painfully so, but it is the flesh that is opened up, the topics of discussion which have un-nerving parallels with American society today which makes it a must see film.

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Motorhead, XXXX Bad Magic. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never dismiss a grand master too quickly, never lose any sympathy for the old devil and high priest of British Heavy Metal and above all if the thought of ever believing that Lemmy is finished musically, remember this, there isn’t a deity in the whole of creation that is ready for him yet and who doesn’t want him to groove and pound the bass for all it is worth till the Sun finally expands and swallows the Earth, for they don’t give a XXXX about bad magic, only that it sounds good.

Motorhead, XXXX Bad Magic. Album Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)