Brasy, Brasy Live. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is about discovery at all times, the moment it doesn’t then either you have become the modern epitome of a fulfilled Renaissance person or more likely life has ceased to be one in which you crave and the only journey you take is between work, television and bed.

The rich harmonies of Polish group Brassy though are something to take great cheer from and with their stunning album, Brasy Live, the journey can take an unexpected twist and causing a deviation which makes you look at the scenery in a much more positive way.

Brasy, Brasy Live. Album Review. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Christina Skjolberg, Come and Get It. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The U.K. holds Joanne Shaw Taylor very close to its Rock/Blues heart, America does the same with Beth Hart and seemingly from out of the cultured wilds of Norway, Christina Skjolberg is ready to cause the same natural sentiments across Scandinavia and beyond and if her debut album Come and Get it is anything to go by.

Christina Skjolberg, Come and Get It. Album Review. full post

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

Roses Aren’t Red…

The roses I always offered you were never meant to be red

but the prick of the dull knife against my skin stained

the delicate petals and clung tightly to the thorns in my side until

Gravity forced them loose and you watched them drop to the floor.

 

The roses made you feel alive, and yet the blade cut into me deeper

than any barbed carefully placed slash I could ever imagine presenting

and only sheer will stopping me from being a stain

more permanent than a drop of blood limply jumping from a thorn.

Roses Aren’t Red… full post

(189 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Shetland: Dead Water. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Steven Robertson, Alison O’ Donnell, Mark Bonnar, Julie Graham, Alex Norton, Clive Russell, Nina Sosanya, Leanne Best, Marnie Baxter, Steven Cree, Anne Kidd, Kari Corbett, David Hayman, Erin Armstrong, Stewart Porter, Gerda Stevens.

Shetland: Dead Water. Television Review. full post

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

A View From The Bridge, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bruce Alexander, Andy Apollo, Jason Carragher, Callum Coates, Daniel Coonan, Julia Ford, Scott Hazell, Lloyd Hutchinson, Denise Kennedy, Tom Peters, Joe Ringwood, Shannon Tarbet, Liam Tobin, Daryl Wafer.

Arthur Miller’s plays are such that to miss out on a production of them is simply not good form. All you really need to know about life in the United States in the 20th Century can be found in the writings of one of the keenest minds of the time and his look at certain frailties of life, emasculation, deceit, dishonour and the destruction of a system that was corrupt and hopelessly out of touch with his thinking, are repeated over and again in the hope that someone, anyone might understand what is going wrong in the country.

A View From The Bridge, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(661 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Sonata Artica, Pariah’s Child. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It used to be noted that an album must be worth at least listening to if the band had obviously spent money on the cover. The use of dramatic and in some cases exceptional pieces of art that would adorn the sleeve was a good indication that the group or artists were proud to have something memorable on the front rather than a picture of the band, something in which to capture the whole essence of what was to come. Marillion, Pink Floyd and Magnum always knew how to employ the method and now the eighth album by Sonata Artica, the wild and untamed Pariah’s Child joins that list of recordings that backs up the theory.

Sonata Artica, Pariah’s Child. Album Review. full post

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

Kaiser Chiefs, Education, Education, Education & War. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Kaiser Chiefs promised a hiatus and that is what their fans got and thankfully the time has come again for the Yorkshire band. With new addition Vijay Mistry on drums, Ricky Wilson, Andrew White, Nick Baines, Simon Rix have conspired to make sure that the past few years away have not been for nothing, that they have worked what ever made them go arguably off the boil somewhat out of their system and will see their fans relish as if have been offered the keys to musical sanctuary in the form of Education, Education, Education & War.

Kaiser Chiefs, Education, Education, Education & War. Album Review. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Scavenger. Big Finish Audio Drama Review 184.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Tariq Bhatti, Kate McEwen, Anjli Mohindra, Tania Rodrigues, John Banks.

Space, perhaps the most dangerous place that Humanity’s eyes can ever see and yet the peril, the threat of the black canvas is one in which at some point surely anybody who has ever lived has dreamed about seeing. To take in the whole majesty of the speck of rock we cling to, to dare to take a chance on seeing for ourselves the neglected sphere for all its beauty and destruction, surely that makes space worthwhile.

Doctor Who: Scavenger. Big Finish Audio Drama Review 184. full post

(590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Dwight McCarthy, perhaps one of three decent men who inhabit the world of Sin City, has a new face but that doesn’t stop him from finding trouble by the truck load or even getting involved with the women of Old Town once more in the third book in the Graphic Novel range by lauded artist and creator Frank Miller.

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Molotov Jukebox, Carnival Flower. Album Review.

The gradual rise to prominence of Molotov Jukebox is becoming a journey almost as fun and rewarding as the final destination. Following up previous E.P.’s Double Dare and Bang, divided by a flurry of energetic singles, a performance at Glastonbury, and acting appearances on both the big and little screen by lead singer Natalia Tena, Carnival Flower has been a long awaited debut L.P. from the swing band.

Molotov Jukebox, Carnival Flower. Album Review. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)