Axum Folk Ensemble: Crossing Borders. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Crossing Borders is at times best approached without words, the sense of anxiety that can be swept aside by just listening without a verbal exchange hindering the process of acceptance and a guarantee of understanding with simple gestures and a flourish of music acting as a serenity to progress and further advancement.

To see beyond the self-imposed margins that bind us to the comfortable and the content is not a gift, it is a right of every person, a need to push the boundary of existence, to speak less but create more unblemished sound, and as the eight strong membership of Axum Folk Ensemble provide with proof intact and dynamic cool in the new E.P., Crossing Borders, so the need for the listener to expand their own horizons becomes imperative.

Axum Folk Ensemble: Crossing Borders. E.P. Review. full post

(335 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis: Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

What can be summoned through the simplest of human acts in a certain setting can lead some to believe that grave luck may follow, or to others a sign that from the sense and realm of the ethereal comes a kind of guidance, that the spirits who heard you Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard are there not only to aid, but spread fortune in your favour.

Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis: Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard. Album Review. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Peter Gabriel: In The Big Room. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

As a performer there is nowhere to hide when the music starts, as the focus of the event the world suddenly becomes smaller, expansive as the imagination runs riot and the ideas take on epic proportions, but perhaps more intense, sharp, extreme and passionate as the eyes stare at you, imploring for beauty to be revealed, for a secret world to be understood. There is nowhere to hide, not even In The Big Room.

Peter Gabriel: In The Big Room. Album Review. full post

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

Bluenose B: Truth Is King. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The truth is not always honest, it can be a variation of whatever the beholder and speaker feel in the passing is relevant, ideal, and more believable; this is the world in the 21st Century operates…not in black and white terms, but in shades of opinion, and rarely does it capture the truth of existence.

It is then to the artist to apply a letter of stringent authenticity, of offering trust in their vision, and never wavering from certainty, and into this world of music direction, of genuine reaction to the art of recreation and subtle revisiting haunts, words, and times to which Bluenose B, otherwise known as Stephen Lawson, reveals that Truth Is King absolutely.

Bluenose B: Truth Is King. Album Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Paul Dunbar. Gig Review. Music Room: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are names in Liverpool that just draw you in, that leave you with remorse when you cannot find a way to blow off life’s expectancies and attend a show, a performance, a sense of the masterclass they, and those alongside them, offer with grace and sincerity, whilst rocking the plaster dust of static existence to the four winds.

Paul Dunbar. Gig Review. Music Room: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Jenny Colquitt. Gig Review. Music Room: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

After the drama of a cold winter, the sunshine that seemed to bleach the sadness and concerns of Liverpool away for a while at the end of February day was one that bought a huge reflex of musical entertainment to the crowd, almost wrapped in awe, to the support set of Jenny Colquitt at the Philharmonic Music Room as she opened with expertise and charm ahead of Paul Dunbar’s album release.

Jenny Colquitt. Gig Review. Music Room: Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Medusa Quartet: Weaving Gold In Broken Places. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Chinese art of Kintsugi is one only appreciated, it could be argued, in Western civilisation for the aesthetic it provides, the beauty in the eye of the beholder, rather than its intended purpose of repair and healing; and whilst the sense of uniqueness to each restored item is astonishing, it is exquisite and pleasing to the eye, but it betrays the point of Weaving Gold In Broken Places is to feel the metaphor of restoring the humanity, the goodness of the person who may have succumbed to addiction, to manipulation, to being broken by life.

Medusa Quartet: Weaving Gold In Broken Places. Album Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

After The Flood. Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sophie Rundle, Lorraine Ashbourne, Matt Stokoe, Nicholas Gleaves, Philip Glenister, Tripti Tripuraneni, Heider Ali, Maui Connock, Faye McKeever, Jacqueline Boatswain, Leo Flanagan, Jill Halfpenny, George Bukhari, Ian Puleston-Davies, Alun Armstrong, Steph de Whalley.

We think of what happens after the flood as more of a clean-up, no matter how large the operation, rather than discovering a truth, that we can just scrape the residue from the top layer of the surface and find peace, calm, a forgetfulness of harm and all will be well, that we will by definition come to appreciate the inevitable sense of reorder once more.

After The Flood. Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Alan Triggs: Time. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is always about Time, the upbeat song that has you dancing with strangers at three in the morning, the melancholic pulse that finds an audience during the daylight hours as others play and frolic, shout, scream with excess, whilst the chosen few finds solace in the temperament and the quiet heartbeat of a person finding the words accurate enough to show their raw and human emotions.

Alan Triggs: Time. Single Review. full post

(342 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Andy Fairweather Low: Gig Review. Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If Paradise is supposed to be nice, then for the audience who packed themselves into the Philharmonic Hall Music Room, the sound of Andy Fairweather Low performing the first of his two night run in the venue, whilst taking on the ensemble in the main hall who had filed in for a rendition of Tubular Bells, Paradise does not come close to describing the former leader of Amen Corner’s appeal, it is a dream of glory and delight wrapped in gentle expression and forthright commitment to the beauty of the song, praising to heaven humanity and the love of the artistic pursuit.

Andy Fairweather Low: Gig Review. Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. full post

(439 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)