Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *

To have it all and yet be humble, to possess the voice and heart of a lion and yet be as sensitive as a field of poppies in full bloom or as wondrous as the first sighting of a masterpiece on an artist’s easel, to see it all unfold before your own eyes, that is one of the great gifts of existence and one that the music fan rarely gets to witness or the reader of poetry and the great British novel can only guess at.

For the process is almost invisible, the thoughts and the structure remain unseen and the closest it actually comes to being evident, being observed, is when it is captured in the live arena, when the glare of the unpolished mistake is perceived and noted.

Live, Elijah James is one of the finest it is to witness, a tiger in the clearing, unafraid to roar, a poppy stretching out to greet the warmth of the new day, on stage it has to be said he is magnificent. In the studio, he replicates that emotional prowess with great charm and an underbelly of cool; mix these two states of proficient, dramatic and elegance together and you have the ensuing result in Elijah James and The Nightmares E.P., Live From Elevator Studios.

Like many of the buildings that have withstood the attention of commercial change and the knee jerk reaction to accommodate the slow relentless march to a sense of gentrification, Elevator has history, even modern passion that can be felt when you walk through its doors, and yet to turn that into a place where Elijah James and The Nightmares could turn out one of the E.P.s of the year is not down to luck or happenstance, it is worlds colliding and the resulting collision is spectacular.

The four songs that are framed by voice and terrific musicianship from all involved, Movie In Your Eyes, On A Stage, That Girl Of Mine and Man-Made Masquerade, don’t just compliment the ears, they whisper at any time of day, that this is a state of mind worth hanging round, that the lion, proudly looking over its domain, roars and frightens the timid and the cowardly and installs faith and truth in those with honestly written through them.

Live From Elevator Studios is the right lift you need, each floor decorated and attended by a man who truly is gift to music.

Ian D. Hall