Kevin Critchley, As I Disappear. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In all of us there are times in which the urge to disappear, to walk away from all that surrounds and consumes us, when its either overwhelming to the point where one day your best friend suddenly finds you have left the country and are now contemplating eating lentils and enjoying a spiritual uplifting moment in Tibet or at the very least your loved one might come across a journal in which you have kept with an eye on the future in which cutting logs outside of a wooden cabin in the depths of the Canadian wilderness.

Kevin Critchley, As I Disappear. Album Review. full post

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

RWBY, Season Two. Web Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lindsay Jones, Arryn Zech, Kara Eberle, Barbara Dunkelmen, Miles Luna, Jen Brown, Samantha Ireland, Michael Jones, J.J. Castillo, Adam Ellis, Gray G. Haddock, Shannon McCormick, Katie Newville, Jessica Nigri, Mounty Oum, Patrick Rodriguez, Kerry Shawcross, Kathleen Zuelch.

From, the very first episode, from the very first minute the fans of the RWBY are not disappointed. The creator Monty Oum has thought out this season very well and with a story to tell about the others as well as the main characters, the audience is now given further insight into each of the member’s back stories and what they are fighting for and that is only to the benefit to Monty Oum and the production team.

RWBY, Season Two. Web Series Review. full post

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

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2014)

The Human League, November 2014. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are not many bands around whose music manages to be impossibly and wonderfully timeless and yet still sound as if it is as fresh as a newly plucked rose being placed into the hands of a loved one, there aren’t many but then there are not that many bands like The Human League.

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(621 words, 1 image, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

The Widow

The superficial feel of a day merging into the next is highlighted more in December.

The few short hours in which the remaining, decaying leaves on the ground

deposit their skid-like dead mark forever in the winter blasted ember,

only to be eaten away by the snow and harshness of the chilling, frost biting sound.

December is the widow of our years.

It fights for all its worth against the final reckoning,

but it knows that soon, very soon, it will sleep forever and in no more tears

The Widow full post

(187 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Mellowtone, Ten Years. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The name alone evokes images of nights in the more entertaining and laid back venues in Liverpool, the relaxed atmosphere of the afterglow of an easy afternoon turning its hands to the time of the extraordinary and the anxious furtive glances of a night in which elegance and style are only part of the running order. For Liverpool’s Mellowtone, the homes have been many, the acts numerous and always welcome but there is really is only one Dave McTague.

Mellowtone, Ten Years. Album Review. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Live Lounge, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool. 30th November 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

St. Andrew’s Day falls with the appearance of a widow placing her mourning garments around her as she prepares to bury her late and possibly foolish husband. Unlike the party atmosphere that surrounds St. Patrick’s Day or the feel of stirring independence in the Welsh national day or even the somewhat mixed feeling that surrounds the flag of St. George, passionate, inspiring and rousing in the right hands, a force for undisguised hatred, intolerance and shame in others, the Saltire anywhere outside its natural borders, seems to usher in the thoughts of the cold blast of air that comes with the dying days of the year that December holds fast to its bosom.

Live Lounge, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool. 30th November 2014. full post

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

Thom Morecroft, On All Night. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ultimately all that can matter from a single release is whether it grabs you first time round and playfully suggests that you go and investigate the hopefully inevitable album or E.P. that comes a few weeks after. In the end the complete work is where the reveal into an artist’s soul and thoughts lay. Like a Shakespeare sonnet being read aloud in an English class and discussing it with knowledge without having read any of the others, the whole body of work is where the real insight comes into play.

Thom Morecroft, On All Night. Single Review. full post

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

Kiki Dee And Carmelo Luggeri. Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To get to The Atkinson Theatre’s Studio in Southport you have no choice but to pass paintings by various artists, all in the Victorian mode. They are worthy of taking a lingering pause by, they capture the imagination and make you think; they nurture a blossoming idea of what the ideal should be, they might not be the first paintings you think of but then what is until you behold it for the first time and it takes your breath away.

Kiki Dee And Carmelo Luggeri. Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds, Live Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

It is one of the most profoundly moving and stirring pieces of music ever captured for posterity, taken from a story by H.G. Wells which has captured the imagination since it was first published and in which Jeff Wayne has for over 35 years brought to life in its deserved glory. However music aside, the death knell for The War of the Worlds has been sounded across the void of space.

Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds, Live Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(645 words, estimated 2:35 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Jo Harvey Allen, Barry Corbin, David Dencik, William Fichtner, Evan Jones, Caroline Lagerfelt, John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson, Jesse Plemons, James Spader, Hailee Steinfeld, Meryl Streep.

Some films just have the ability to leave an audience member completely unnerved by the message of stark truth that they can feel as though have been hit several times with a jack hammer across the stomach and yet have them pleading for more.

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

(695 words, estimated 2:47 mins reading time)