The Look Of Silence, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It may come as a surprise to many who watch Joshua Oppenheimer’s latest documentary about the systematic murder of a million Indonesians in the 1960s that it is a genocide in history to which the vast majority of people may have no idea happened. Unlike the actions that led to the Khmer Rouge, the barbarity of events that saw six million people exterminated in the death camps of Europe or the slow destruction of the ethnic American people by the United States Government, the act of murder of a people based on ideology has never really entered the minds of those encumbered and immersed into a world with no Cold War to focus their minds.

The Look Of Silence, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

For The Fallen At Snake River.

It’s the stuff they don’t tell you about in schools

that when you find out about them, the sheer arrogance

and mocking laughter that comes off the screen

or jumps out at you

from a previously unread book that realise with distaste

and agony that yet again the liars have composed the score

and the tune has become unpalatable.

 

How is it possible that education does not prepare

you for the crimes in Indonesia in nineteen-sixty-eight

that were before your time

but so much closer than the radical deeds of a supposed heretic

For The Fallen At Snake River. full post

(249 words, estimated 1:0 mins reading time)

Shovel Knight (PS4/PS3/PS Vita), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Shovel Knight is a side scrolling action adventure platform game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. It has been a long journey for Shovel Knight from March 15th 2013 when the game hit Kickstarter looking for crowd funding. This was so successful in how it was received by audiences that it did not just fund the game, but also all of the accompanying stretch goals for more platforms and features to be supported as the initial figure of $75,000 was by far surpassed with a funding total of $311,502 from a total of 14,749 backers. This level of crowd funding success certainly speaks volumes about just how much of a place there still is for retro experiences in the videogame industry considering that the games entire premise revolves around being an 8 bit throwback to a classic generation of games, but is Shovel Knight as classic and authentic as the games of yesteryear from the 8 bit generation?

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

(2398 words, estimated 9:36 mins reading time)

Sean Taylor, The Only Good Addiction Is Love. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Addiction comes in many forms and can either be a blessing or indeed more than likely, a curse which cannot be satisfied and saps you of energy, conscious and proper thought. Obsession and a sweet craving for the music of Sean Taylor should be seen as a good and necessary need, a compulsion in which to break would be bitter and leave the music lover despondent. For Sean Taylor, it seems, The Only Good Addiction Is Love and it is fulfilling and brutally charming whichever way it is looked upon.

Sean Taylor, The Only Good Addiction Is Love. Album Review. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Steve Logan, Deliverance. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

The thought of Deliverance can run very deep, even in those that perhaps shun away from a society that might ridicule their beliefs and place their dreams into a box with a single x attached to its side; deliverance, sanctuary and the chance to be yourself in escapism are all notable and worthy aspects for those that really want to be different, want to have their own script to work from. It is the sign of a free person that aspires to the act of deliverance.

Steve Logan, Deliverance. Album Review. full post

(435 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Theory Of A Nice Salad.

I hit upon a theory one warm night in mid-June,

just a simple thought but one

that nagged at me all through the next day,

one that I wish I could have had years ago

and saved me from a lot of bother

as I chased after women

when I was younger.

 

The theory, I must impart this to my boys,

unless they grow up as men to whom the carrot,

the sprout and the Quorn  appeal,

is that if when round the women’s house

The Theory Of A Nice Salad. full post

(377 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Steve Thompson And The Incidents, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Steve Thompson at the 02 Academy in Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Steve Thompson at the 02 Academy in Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are bands performing in Liverpool that to be brutally frank, you would climb off your sick bed to go and watch, or at least make sure the venue would let you take in a bed, a team of nurses and a glowering doctor, full of self-importance and unhappiness, as part of the ticket price. For Steve Thompson and the Incidents, sick bed or not, the chance to take in the sincerity and prized affection for the music on offer is perhaps enough to tempt even Lazarus out of retirement and have him storming the barricades, the arm pumped in appreciation and singing each well delivered line as though his very life depended upon it.

Steve Thompson And The Incidents, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(459 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Last Line Out, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Summer evenings can be a time of quiet introspection surrounded by friends. Amongst the jokes, hilarity and loud musings between acquaintances, mates and lovers, the calm of summer’s heat can get in your head and considerations and plans are laid out in a row of certainty. You could do that, you could sit there as the sun finally burns itself out and the crispy smell of human bacon stirs into enough life to meander lazily home, or you could make your way to a gig given by Last Line Out and really enjoy the evening.

Last Line Out, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(375 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Listen Up Philip, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Jonathan Pryce, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway, Keith Poulson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Yusef Bulos, Maïté Alina, Lee Wilkof, Eric Bogosian.

It is said that writing is the closest occupation to resemble death that is possible. The ability to sit at a type writer and keep perfectly still as the brain searches for the tired muse for hours is enough to drive the sane to such introspection that their world becomes one that could be seen out of step with the rest of humanity.

Listen Up Philip, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

West, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Jördis Triebel, Tristan Göbel, Alexander Scheer, Jacky Ido, Anja Antonowicz, Ryszard Ronczewski, Andreas Nickl, Polina Voskresenskaya, Hendrik Arnst, Tony Dunham.

The battles in Europe may have been won but the war for hearts and minds in the ideological minefield was gathering pace and with Berlin divided in a more brutal fashion than even Germany as a whole suffered, so the divisions between East and West grew, hatred was stoked up and paranoia was increased.

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

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)