David Grubb, High Rise. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The bow stands quivering upon the first note and the static electricity starts to flow with the type of snorting, bellowing irritated expression one would normally expect to see on a half tonne bull asked to manage a china shop for the day whilst running on a treadmill. It is the electricity of a long held desire to bring something beautiful into the world, something of one’s own true reflection and worth; something that might have people look upon as being pure and worthy. In Scotland’s David Grubb’s debut album High Rise, the innate beauty is matched by the scorching intensity of someone ascending up the musical ladder with greatness ready to be attached.

David Grubb, High Rise. Album Review. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Mission:Impossible-Rogue Nation. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Livepool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, America Olivo, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Hermione Corfield, Jingchu Zhang, Simon McBurney, Tom Hollander, Jens Hultén, Rachel Ritfeld, Anastasia Harrold, Jorge Leon Martinez, Nigel Barber, Jessica Williams, Wolfgang Stegemann.

When the last Mission: Impossible film was released there would arguably have been many that silently sobbed into their pillow throughout the night after having watched it and who would vow silent vengeance should the world see a fifth instalment of the seemingly well past, over worn, near threadbare series of films.

Mission:Impossible-Rogue Nation. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Livepool. full post

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

Toneless.

In black and white

she let the steam from her coffee

rise above the page boy haircut,

dance for the shortest

time around her eyes,

deep, beautiful, the sparkling seduction

of a desert song at dusk

and let the sigh of ages push

the coffee to its farthest shore

and the small bubbles of indifference

pass in their wake

like small tug boats caught in an

ocean storm.

 

I see her in monochrome,

the shadow of the day

falling over her face, the small wisps of hair

Toneless. full post

(252 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

Lamb Of God, VII: Sturm Und Drang. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There’s a lot to be said for the way that Lamb of God go about their business. Two or three decades earlier they even would have arguably been placed in the exclusive grouping that held Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth as the American bombardment to the British Metal invasion that was aiming their mighty guns at world domination. However as the band’s latest album VII: Sturm Und Drang clearly shows, the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and their acolytes have made it their business to keep the flag flying on a genre that has lost out heavily to the resurgence of the European, and in particular the Scandinavian element, in recent years.

Lamb Of God, VII: Sturm Und Drang. Album Review. full post

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

The Falling, Women And Children First (Burst/ The City). Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It was the maxim of honour, the unshakable code that respectable people lived by and in times of war, disaster or even the offerings of pleasure, it was the denial of self-interest that kept an ideal alive; the notion of Women And Children First, the chivalric tone of reverence to those that were thought defenceless and one of the only good things to come out of the Victorian hangover that has been in place despite the changing face of Britain since the end of World War Two.

The Falling, Women And Children First (Burst/ The City). Single Review. full post

(345 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

The Sneaky Nixons, Coup De Grace. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The rage and fury that dominated the headlines as Punk took on the establishment in the 1970s seemed perhaps, with a few very obvious exceptions of talented genius, to be one more of the best of marketing campaigns to shock and embarrass the nation into feeling the anger of a disaffected youth. One that had been badly let down as the decade wore on but who in turn had been used by those seeking to capitalise upon the market appeal rather than the sound and words of resentment that was being hurled like a four letter word at the faux outraged on television.

The Sneaky Nixons, Coup De Grace. E.P. Review. full post

(522 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Spin.

Unlike Robert the Bruce,

I feel no sense of accomplishment when watching the industry

of the spider as it spins its fine silken dance at the bottom

edge of my library window.

I sit there watching it recreate the try

and try again routine in the vain hope of catching the elusive

as each morning I brush away the web

but never seeing the many fold truth of its endeavours.

 

I am not inspired by its work,

quite the opposite, for I feel it puts me to shame

Spin. full post

(218 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Lizzie Nunnery Returns To The Playhouse Studio With Narvik This September.

Following the critically-acclaimed national tour of Plastic Figurines this spring, North West theatre company Box of Tricks returns to Liverpool Playhouse Studio with their co-production of a bold new play with songs, Narvik, by award-winning playwright Lizzie Nunnery from the 8th to the 19th September. Inspired by tales from naval veterans, and stories of her grandfather’s time in the Navy, Nunnery’s latest play brings to life a powerful story of love, guilt, heroism and betrayal.

“If I was to throw myself beneath that tide… If I was to let the water take me, ’til the cold felt like heat, like love…”

Lizzie Nunnery Returns To The Playhouse Studio With Narvik This September. full post

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

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is but a tale in which we are the masters of our own sharpened pencil and in which higher powers will always have an eraser, a bottle of correction fluid and a redaction machine handily placed in which to make us disappear if need be, or at the very least make our lives seem worthless and out of control. It is in this action that words and deeds become heroic or they become creatures in which the under fire find a kindred spirit; either way words are power, in whichever hands they are handled.

Fables: The Great Fables Crossover, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Southpaw, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence, 50 Cent, Naomie Harris, Victor Ortiz, Tyrese Gibson, Miguel Gomez, Beau Knapp, Rita Ora, Clare Foley, Dominic Colón, Jose Caraballo, Malcolm M. Mays, Aaron Quattrocchi, Lana Young, Danny Henriquez, Patsy Meck, Vito Grassi, Tony Weeks, Jimmy Lennon Jr., Charles Hoyes, Clare Foley, Mark Shrader, Adam Kroloff, Skylan Brooks, Patrick Jordan, Cedric D. Jones, Jim Lampley.

Southpaw, Film Review. full post

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