Category Archives: Music

Feral Family: Without Motion. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are theories, wild speculations, and plausible philosophies that suggest that civilisation has started to eat itself, that we are living in a period of time damned by its own intelligence and appeasement to the cracks in the social construct; that our reality is a blind alley to which we have become accustomed and that is grinding on the rails towards its own inevitable destruction.

Ciaran Ryan Band: Occupational Hazards. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Those Occupational Hazards that we must traverse daily, if dealt with in a timely and reassuring manner, can give us a rhythm to our step and a pleasing note in our soul; for should we take heed and learn from the sound they perform for us, we can overcome the warnings, the accidents, and the damage that life has in store for us and begin to appreciate the security in the style and the satisfaction of artistic exposure.

Euan Blackman: Rent Free On My Brain. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Living rent free is an aspiration, or a curse that resides in the mind when others leave an imprint that causes you doubt your own sense of self, or the heart that you know is spotless.

It will always be preferable to live rent free from those who seek to speak of negative demons invisibly down your ears as you stare into the mirror of your self-conscious, and that Troxler, the trickster not only requires defeating, but eradicating from each connective misfire corrected. For upon the shoulders of giants we are not only able to see further, but we are closer to the blue skies of rational thought, and the rent-free belief, thanks to artists such as Euan Blackman becomes utterly convincing, and apparent.

Hirondelle. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The migration patterns of birds have long held a fascination for ornithologists and for those who find the half yearly voyage of avian resettlement to be worthy of being an inspiration for any form of poetic or artistic visualisation. It is the call to nature, the reason beyond human made perceptions of Time, it is how the world is acknowledging the change in the weather, the seasons, the way the Earth moves through space; and whilst some may find it a small detail, it is however a finer degree of understanding and one that offers creation a way of expressing itself with a definition of purpose.

Pawn Shop Saints: 45 American Lies. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How we recognise the sense of achievement that can come from placing your entire being into a piece of art without asking if it is overblown, to be perceived as too long an epic driven by ego, by the crowd taking your mind’s lifetime words as more than truth, more than a deception of statements of significance.

Grey DeLisle: She’s An Angel. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Talent and class never wavers, it might not have been Heaven sent, but it is a gift to which we must acknowledge comes from deep within the human soul, and talent is the result of pushing yourself to make it look easy to others, despite it always being the biggest struggle we face; but by being constant we can all achieve a level of success that we can be likened to those of the cherub persuasion who sprinkle their magic for the benefit of all who care to listen.

Metalite: Expedition One. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The concept album is a treasure trove of thought that requires an intelligence and imagination that can arguably come from being completely engaged with the subject, from being open to treating music as you would an epic piece of theatre of a three-hour film, with absolute conviction and a faithful application and observance to concentration.

Project Smok: The Outset. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

From The Outset: A declaration of intent to hit the ground running, to display the virtue of good work that you intend to carry forward in to the world; and one that is more than a project, it is a calling of faith in your ability to be a version of yourself that cannot be denied, that sings, that plays harder than anything you have done before.

Malcolm MacWatt: Dark Harvest. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It can feel at times as if we are at a point in history that the walls of our existence are not only crumbling, but on the verge of falling, of crashing to the ground and causing long lasting tremors that will have effects on the long-term mental health future of all who walk in our wake.

Martyn Joseph: This Is What I Want To Say. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Place and voice are entities we never seem to find in our lifetimes, unless we are fortunate, unless we strive to unearth them, to dig around the edges of our existence and truly appreciate that all the while it was within reach; not so much as buried, as just waiting to be uncovered by our soul.