Category Archives: Music

David Nixon’s Navigation: Red Skies. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

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The sight of Red Skies as we look to the horizon inspires and can also leave us daunted by the spectacle of colour, we see patterns in the scene, we marvel at its intensity, we remember rhymes of childhood driven to think of the coming weather, and the phenomenon also stirs up feelings of another time, of distant thunders and noise that rained down destruction on the world in a time of despair and hate; it is to those images, of sublime beauty that inspires artist, to the knowledge that red skies can also be created by human ills, that we seek to explain with heartfelt peace in our soul.

Pigeoto. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The instrumental album is the release of the emotion without the explanation, it is akin to the work of the detective pondering over a mystery in which the clues are there but to no reason on why the perpetrator committed the crime, the how and the means are visible, but not the motive. It is up to the detective and the audience alike to fathom the enigmatic covert nature and understand the brilliance in which the instrument alone is the voice, the account, and the enlightenment on show.

UFO: Obsession. 2024 Album Remaster Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A critic will tell you the sky is green if it means you are talking about their observation and not that which they have poured over or having been forced to endure at the behest of the company they work for. There was always a saying at some of the more established magazine and periodicals of the time that x was doing well, it was time to give them a kicking; and perhaps that was the feeling on the initial release by UFO for their seventh album, as critics bemoaned and took a savage swipe at one of Metal and Rock’s great exponents of the art.

Space: The Anthology… Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Unpacking a box set of works by an artist, a group, any type of performer is not only a pleasure of memory, it is the ability to witness history in action, like reliving every detail of your life that is connected, every belief that sparked into existence, grew with speculation and setback, and became a part of your conscious ethos, opening up an anthology of work is to feel the emotion of the age, the observation set down on form and pace, and know you have seen in effect the growth of the artist from flourish steps to complete measure of a human being.

Nobody’s Wolf Child: Erbsa’s Songs Of The Sea. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We look to the stars to fuel our imagination, but it is the sea which holds the true mysteries of our soul intact. Humanity’ affinity with the sea has stretched back long before the ability to document recorded history gave us a sense of purpose and place in the universe.

It is the giver and taker of life, it is the cradle and the graveyard, the melody and the tale which has brought communities together, it is the damnation and the isolation which has caused us distress, the loss and the hope of all things; and in discovery of new lands thanks to the ability to navigate the oceans, we are offered the chance to learn, to witness new ways to utilise and understand how to be better.

Beastö Blancö: Kinetica. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

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To leave an impression on the minds of those aching for the new is to place caution to the wind and emphasise with honour the ability to charm and lure with equal fashion; to be technically proficient is all well and good, but if you don’t have charisma then all is lost in this modern world where presentation and ideas is nothing without a large and deafening personality.

The Twang: Jewellery Quarter 24k. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The image and sounds that exemplify the city of Birmingham are multiple and varied. The city of a thousand trades as the sign proudly once stated on the wall by the iconic Bull Ring, a place of memory from its homage to the fallen of the attacks by Nazi Germany in the Tree Of Life sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn and the effects of the modern landscape merging almost seamlessly with the old ideals and desires of those wishing to see the Midland’s centrepiece lauded worldwide.

Muellercraft: Dystopia 31. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The concept album has always a long-standing favourite of those to whom narrative is just as important to the musical experience as that which is created by the sound and the instrumental vision at hand by a group or performer. The list of albums, not always in the Progressive stronghold, is long and admirable, and has touched upon subjects that exemplify, frame, and warn of the human condition, albums that have drawn upon societal change, on the themes of epic novels, on films and their stars, and perhaps most of all on the subject of dystopia.

Gwen Stefani: Bouquet. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ancient Greeks once lay a garland of flowers around the victor, proclaiming them to be the best in their field, the laurels of the spoils of war, of games, of achievement in all things that make us human, there was no greater accolade than receiving the love of a nation for your attainment in the realm of the human spirit.

Simon Thacker & Justyna Jablonska. Songs Of The Roma. Album Listen.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Traditional music doesn’t get the understanding that it truly deserves, especially from the mass market pop driven world that inhabits the minds of many who don’t see beyond their borders for inspiration; and as a reaction to that it can be seen as a force of mystery, in some cases alienating, and perhaps grounded in ancient beliefs that are simply unwelcome to a sense of the modern ear.