Category Archives: Music

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.

The Twang: Jewellery Quarter 24k. Album Review. full post

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

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.

Muellercraft: Dystopia 31. Album Review. full post

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

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.

Gwen Stefani: Bouquet. Album Review. full post

(376 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

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.

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

(469 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Jacqui Dankworth: Windmills. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The evocative nature that captures serenity when we glimpse perhaps through train windows that idly go past an untouched memory of what Britain’s south east landscape was famous for, is a timely reminder that not everything in life has to be littered with the fast and the furious, that taking time is a virtue, that surveying the scene of windmills turning and hop gatherers working is not a bygone mystery, but very much a part of gives its people the sense of a continuance, an order to reflect rather than always consume.

Jacqui Dankworth: Windmills. Album Review. full post

(454 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

If you want to be immersed within a true epic, then the truth of it is that few do it better, or with as much class, as those that inhabit the world of the Scandinavian tradition, the sense of the orally delivered tale, the darkness of the night given a solemn explosion of intrigue as the fires stand guard and the expressions of the listeners, the brothers in metal and armour, remain stoic and undaunted as they take on the guise of heroes in their dreams.

Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter. Album Review. full post

(376 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Lions In The Street: Moving Along. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

If you can use a title of a James Cagney film within your own band name, then it is surely to be assured that the ignition point of delivery is set high and is always on point.

Lions In The Street come roaring out from the studio fully loaded with their album Moving Along in their arsenal, the quivers full of pride, and the swagger of the music rampaging through the long grass with full and frank effect.

Lions In The Street: Moving Along. Album Review. full post

(418 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Sarah Blasko: I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

What others may perceive as a hill to get over is for many something greater, an entity that looms large and with all the reverence of pedestal in which the most celebrated are often found to be placed upon and which is arguably a presence to which if achieved when scaled is a monument to human persistence and glory.

It might not be Mount Kosciuszko, the image of Everest doesn’t loom large over the project, Mont Blanc and Ben Nevis are nowhere to be seen, but as Sarah Blasko steps once more out of the studio and armed with all the necessary equipment proclaims with honesty and determination, I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain.

Sarah Blasko: I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain. Album Review. full post

(403 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Agatha All Along. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Patti LuPone, Debra Jo Rupp, Aubrey Plaza, David A Payton, Okwui Okpokwasili, Paul Adelstein, Abel Lysenko.

For many the House of Stan, the world of Marvel, has rightly been criticised for some of its output since the magnificent and overwhelming end to the Infinity saga, the damage done from the weight of expectation perhaps has been more defining than just how intelligent and interlocked the previous decade had been.

Agatha All Along. Television Drama Review. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)