The New Girlfriend, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz, Isild Le Besco, Aurore Clément, Jean-Claude Bolle-Redda, Bruno Pérard, Anita Gillier, Claudine Chatel.

It is a peculiar thing that in the 21st Century the world of tolerance and acceptance has moved on so much that pre-Second World War, post Victorian and Edwardian Society would be outraged and scandalised by what they see our generation doing to their so called superior ideological landscape.  It is with a smile in the heart to believe that the 21st Century in many cultures can at least stand up and be counted for doing the right thing and to knock down the pillars of moral susceptibility in an old regimes point of view.

The New Girlfriend, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Alison Green.

If there is one musician to capture the ear of anyone fortunate enough to find themselves at the International Pop Overthrow, then arguably Canterbury resident Alison Green is that performer. The sound of honesty, the smoke filled aroma of something tangible and laden with meaning stands out as being on the side of majestic, pleasing on the ear and yet filled with a charm that is both seemingly shy and powerful enough to break down imposed barriers.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Alison Green. full post

(1620 words, estimated 6:29 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Drew Sturgeon And Mark O’ Connor Of The Fast Camels.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

There is no doubting the sheer immensity that runs through the heart of one of Glasgow’s finest 21st Century bands, The Fast Camels.

A popular favourite of many who come to Liverpool during the month of May for the International Pop Overthrow, The Fast Camels have endeared themselves and seared their music into the hearts and minds of many who find their way to the Cavern Pub and Cavern to enjoy a relentless blast of the pop groove and psychedelic affair that the band offer.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Drew Sturgeon And Mark O’ Connor Of The Fast Camels. full post

(1433 words, 1 image, estimated 5:44 mins reading time)

The Pressure Of A One Act Performance.

To watch or observe a friend on stage

that is the true question that never gets answered.

Whether you simply enjoy their performance,

and laugh and cry at their antics,

the feeling of sympathy when their character loses their way

and the cheer of adulation when they rise to be the hero

you have always known them to be, the simple act

of watching and then forgetting all they have been through

to bring that moment of truth to the part,

shrug it off and never worry where it  may

The Pressure Of A One Act Performance. full post

(311 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Super Motherload (PS4), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Super Motherload is an action adventure puzzle platform game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and PS3. XGen Studios was established in 2001 in Edmonton, Canada and have since developed and released numerous games for console, mobile and Flash including Defend Your Castle on WiiWare and the Flash game Motherload which is the prequel to Super Motherload.

The story is written by comic book writer Kurtis Wiebe and includes multiple storylines which branch out based upon the choices of the player and even result in multiple game endings with the story revolving around an alternate Cold War era set on Mars.

Super Motherload (PS4), Game Review. full post

(1791 words, estimated 7:10 mins reading time)

Micke Bjorklof & Blue Strip, Ain’t Bad Yet. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Six albums down the line and Micke Bjorklof & Blue Strip Ain’t Bad Yet, and listening to the new offering from the Finnish Royal Blues family, there is no reason to ever believe that they would ever have that moniker attached to them.

Ain’t Bad Yet is an album of great masculine sensitivity but with that hugely desired effect in Blues, one of sheer guts and magnitude, enough of the former to deliver yet another sharply focused piece of writing, more than plenty in the latter to hold the responsibility along with many of the bands Nordic neighbours of keeping the Scandinavian music renaissance of the last decade going and in style.

Micke Bjorklof & Blue Strip, Ain’t Bad Yet. Album Review. full post

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

Alex Woods, I Am Not Lost. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The conviction in anybody’s voice when they declare themselves to be completely sure of themselves is as heartening to hear as it is desperate to hear the soft, perhaps muted and terrified cries of someone who proclaims to the world that they are lost. Whether in spirit, direction or in purpose, that sense of loss, of sole grief at the way that Time has at being erased is as palpable an experience to sit and listen to as the joy that one who has always known their purpose was to entertain and enthral gives the listener.

Alex Woods, I Am Not Lost. Album Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Harley Quinn Volume Two: Power Outage. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There always seemed to be an issue in the D.C. world of graphic novels in comparison to its other dominant rival and even the less fashionable, less well known comic book makers at the time, its representation of women, aside from those in the Wonder Woman and Cat-Woman titles, was woefully lacking and in many cases perhaps even tiresome and undeserving. There really was no edge to them, nothing other being seen to be seen; there was no equality and no female hero or anti-hero worthy of looking up to.

Harley Quinn Volume Two: Power Outage. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(554 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

When The Chihuahua Chews Over The Options (And Walks Away).

There is an upside to having suffered with nightmares

all my life, the terror that has had me screaming out

at four in the morning as the feeling of cramp

sets in and the heart jolts me awake in some antique form

of Hypnic Jerk and the pain is compounded

by the

sweat of salted tears that kiss my lips and

run down past my nose,

gliding as if on a mountain range,

a single skier running over every pore but

with no tricks up its sleeve.

 

When The Chihuahua Chews Over The Options (And Walks Away). full post

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

Erja Lyytinen, Live In London. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The 100 Club in London may be the scene of many a clandestine gig that has caught the music lovers of the city unawares over the years but one name certainly caught the attention of the audience when she performed there. Thankfully now it is a gig that can be heard for what it was in the new release, Live In London, one of sublime entertainment and guitar to fuel the passion of 21st Century Blues whilst paying homage to the true greats of the previous century.

Erja Lyytinen, Live In London. Album Review. full post

(480 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)