The Swapper (PS4 Game Review)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Swapper is a side scrolling puzzle adventure game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This particular game has been recognised with a number of high calibre awards since 2011, such as winning the Indie Showcase award at the Develop Conference 2011 and the Special Recognition award at IndieCade 2011, which certainly helped to bring the game to light as Curve Studios has brought Facepalm Games’ The Swapper to PlayStation platforms.

The Swapper (PS4 Game Review) full post

(2236 words, estimated 8:57 mins reading time)

Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne. Mareel E.P. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

 

Never let it be said that in all parts of the Scottish and Irish main lands and their resident islands that there is not spirit of independence running through its mighty veins and boldly pumping heart. Even if the question upon everybody’s lips is of a different type of individuality, of a changed outlook and striking out on your own like an 20-something year old finally declaring its intention to move into its own apartment, the spirit and culture was always there and remain so everywhere you are willing to take a peek into.

Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne. Mareel E.P. E.P. Review. full post

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

Noises Off, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jennifer Bea, Tupele Dorgu, Jessica Dyas, Stephen Fletcher, Kim Hartman, Phil Hearne, Chris Jordan, Jonathan Markwood, Danny O Brien.

The show must go on…even if there are sardines cluttering up the stage, the leading ladies hate each other, one of the leading men wants to kill the other with a fire axe and the Director is left a gibbering wreck, even with his enormous ego, in the wake of being on stage amongst the carnage and destruction that an acting troupe can bring to a theatre. Think you know theatre, then the magical mayhem of arguably the finest British comedy of the 20th Century, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, is one to behold.

Noises Off, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Karen O, Crush Songs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Everybody has a first crush, perhaps even lots of them, that moment in which the stars seem to explode and swirl with the force of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. When the pain and desire of wanting to be with somebody so much is like receiving a blow to the head and in which months, even days later you admonish yourself for feeling the prize berk and abject fool that you feel you have become.  Poetry gets written, often as painful as the first fleeting glimpse in which you saw your crush glance your way and in which smitten may as well be tattooed upon your forehead forever.

Karen O, Crush Songs. Album Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Deacon Blue, A New Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time has arguably finally seen sense and allowed Deacon Blue the standing that was taken away after runaway success in the 1980s and 90s. For if the last release that the band bought out, the very cool The Hipsters, was a sign of intent, then A New Home is something in which to be proud of, not just for the listener soaking up the graphic-like story-telling and soon to be popular songs that will be broadcast and played live for their loyal audiences, but for the band also, for A New Home is something in where fresh and exciting adventures begin and exploration is pre-requisite.

Deacon Blue, A New Home. Album Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It could all come down to consistency for some, but in the end is there much difference Between Wine and Blood?

For New Model Army, the difference may be down to taste but what they have done with this double C.D. package is something that captures the very best of both worlds. Six brand new songs, six reasons in which to cheer the original work of Justin Sullivan, Michael Dean, Dean White, Marshall Gill and Ceri Monger, six songs in which reminded the listener of the past, specifically around the time of Thunder and Consolation but also in which carries the extremely good work that appeared on the Between Dog and Wolf album.

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

New Tricks: Ghosts. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Ann Firbank, Emily Taffe, Louis Mahoney, Julie Graham, Georgine Anderson, Samuel Taylor, Jasper Jacob, Keith Ramsey, Katherine Jakeways, Emma Ballantine, Ruby Thompson, Arthur Shuttleworth, Scott Stevenson, Emma Louise Williams.

New Tricks: Ghosts. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Emily Woodward, Nicholas Briggs, Derek Carlyle, Anna Lukis, Penelope Rawlins, Richard Hope, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Francesca Hunt, Martin Hudson.

 

Who could ever foresee that hairdressing was such a risky business?  The shampoo set that could go wrong, the gossip that turns to grudges being held, the heated dryer rigged to give a nasty surprise, arson! All these are par for the course as John Steed and Dr. David Keel return for the second set of classic The Avengers stories to be adapted by John Dorney and Big Finish starting with the tale, Ashes Of Roses.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish. full post

(620 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Andrew Scott, Dominic West, George Mackay, Paddy Considine, Joseph Gilgun, Faye Marsey, Freddie Fox, Ben Schnetzer, Jessie Cave, Liz White, Sophie Evans, Monica Dolan, Jessica Gunning, Chis Overton. Russell Tovey.

America can provide you with the blockbuster, Europe the art, India the beauty but when it comes to truth, justice, the gritty political outpouring, nobody does it better than the British film industry. Blockbusters are all well and good, the stimulation the senses, they blow the mind. Art and beauty is needed to wrap up the human emotion and give it meaning, realism is what brings it together, what makes the cinema goer believe in and restores a balance in a world that is too eager to make sure that division is seen everywhere.

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

(714 words, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

Before I Go To Sleep, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Anne-Marie Duff, Dean Charles Chapman, Adam Levy, Jing Lusi, Flynn MacArthur, Charlie Gardner, Llewella Gideon, Rosie MacPherson, Hannah Blamires, Chris Cowlin, Kevin Hudson, Nick Turner.

For Christine Lucas, every day is a fresh start. Where others might resolve to begin the day anew and go out of their way in which to make other’s lives better, for Christine Lucas, each day is a torture, a realisation that she has no idea who she is or why she looks older than her suggested mind age of in her 20s.

Before I Go To Sleep, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(638 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)