Category Archives: Music

Thokozile Collective. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ladysmith Black Mambazo arguably were bought to the attention of the wider world in 1986 when the sound of Paul Simon’s internationally acclaimed album Graceland was heard by an audience willing, desperate to investigate the muscle of music from a country and its indigenous people who had long been in the shade of popular recording; and yet as the listener takes in the beauty and exuberance of Thokozile Collective’s seriously cool self-titled debut album, that sound from the sizzling memory of Africa once lauded, marks a return to the ears as the U.K. based sextet roar into action with a Jazz beat legacy intact.

Thokozile Collective. Album Review. full post

(401 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Jon Gold: Guanabara Eyes. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

To set your eyes on the vision before you, to take in the natural beauty of the largest natural harbour in the world and understand the depth of history fought over in its name and the loss of what was once a flourishing and diverse eco-system, is to feel a bitterness of humanity’s actions in the face of environment.

Environment is everything, without it we flounder in space, our attempts at creating a lasting heartbeat of memory is negated by the damnation that the beauty we could have utilised to educate and inspire the release, the song and the tune in our heart.

Jon Gold: Guanabara Eyes. Album Review. full post

(325 words, 1 image, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Lindsey Buckingham: 20th Century Lindsey. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Lindsey Buckingham 20th Century Lindsey (CD) Box Set - Picture 1 of 1

To look back at what we achieved in the past and see it without blemish is a sign of arrogance that we can ill afford to entertain; to be humble and acknowledge that we could have taken a different approach is to understand that whilst we may be lauded by the fan, it is our own personal critic we should be aware of…no regrets, but justifiable frustration that perhaps the strength we looked for in that moment was indeed just the start, the prelude before the explosion of the sublime to come.

Lindsey Buckingham: 20th Century Lindsey. Box Set Review. full post

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

Andrew J. Newall: My Lucky Charm. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We tend to think of the concept album as one that can be seminal, gargantuan in its outlook, full bodied in say the realms of Pink Floyd, Green Day, Jethro Tull, The Who, and even the magnificent aspirations of the smooth voice from R ‘n’ B and Soul’s Marvin Gaye in his undeniable classic What’s Going On, but we forget that at times the concept is more than just an anthem, a set of songs placed together to rock a stadium and declare, almost punk like, of the disaffection and destruction of a human soul in a theatrical sense, but it is also a celebration of an oral tradition; a bringing together the life of someone not in the public eye but one who is just as every bit the hero or heroine deserving a tale.

Andrew J. Newall: My Lucky Charm. Album Review. full post

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

Linda Moylan: The Fool. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The artist’s control is paramount when it comes to insisting that they do everything possible to complete the vision that they have played out in their head a thousand times, to deny the creator the image, the sound, the farsighted concept is to be seen surely as a crime against unique talent, as a complaint to The Fool who forbids and the Jester who rejects.

Linda Moylan: The Fool. Album Review. full post

(366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Pete Lambert: I Told You A Story. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

People will tell you a story for two different reasons, one is to exact a sense of sympathy, the other is to inform and display understanding; however, your words are taken though in the end cannot be down to your expression and sense of truth, but in the way the recipient feels the tale resonates with their own experience or their belief in you.

Pete Lambert: I Told You A Story. Album Review. full post

(420 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

The Georgia Thunderbolts: Rise Above It All. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Album artwork for Rise Above It All by The Georgia Thunderbolts

F.E.A.R. as an acronym works well in our current state of human existence, and yet most will see it as an instruction to turn tail, to quit when the going has not only gotten hard, but more challenging a period of instability and cruelty of spirit than perhaps we have faced in the last 80 years; instead the approach, which is just as difficult, even as testing, but ultimately more satisfying, is to rise and meet the gruelling tasks head on.

The Georgia Thunderbolts: Rise Above It All. Album Review. full post

(421 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Danni Nicholls: Under The Neem Plum Tree. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Inspiration is such a gift that invariably the best kept preserves that we squirrel away in our minds come from those we are often closest to, in spiritual deed, in family pastimes.

Danni Nicholls exemplifies the almost delicate way in which a family’s influence during play can stimulate a love for certain kind of groove in the young, the experience introduced at an influential stage will bind them to the beauty, to the desire of exploring, changing, altering in style that which catches their ear; and in her wonderfully composed album, Under The Neem Plum Tree, Ms. Nicholls sharply focuses on the artistic inheritance handed down from her Grandmother and the songs that made the family sing with joy.

Danni Nicholls: Under The Neem Plum Tree. Album Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Mark Harrison Band: Fools & Clowns. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you’re going to get stuck in the middle with someone then you should always demand that it is someone who fill your mind with ideas so complex that it makes you a better person; but too often we fall for the empty musings of Fools & Clowns…the near unhinged chants of the deranged and the hopeless that somehow, like sirens, catch us in their nets and cause us to sit long legged and loose limbed on sides that we know we normally would avoid.

Mark Harrison Band: Fools & Clowns. Album Review. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Visions Of Albion: The Heat. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is about withstanding pressure, but we must remember that despite thinking of ourselves as diamonds, we are not coal to be forced to perform a miraculous physical alteration, a metamorphosis that sees us shine and gleam; we are human, the traits, the anxieties, the illusions, and the moments of brilliance are born of a different kind of pressure, one created by The Heat, but also the cold whispers of affection and love.

Visions Of Albion: The Heat. Single Review. full post

(349 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)