A Woman Of Stone. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Eanna Hardwicke, Celia Imrie, Monica Dolan, Mawaan Rizwan, Pheobe Horn.

Drawing inspiration from E. Nesbit’s Man-Size In Marble, Mark Gatiss’ now traditional drawing back of the veil that separates the darkness of the night to that of the enlightenment and spirituality of the Christmas gathering, has once more offered a distinct look for the viewer of what lays hidden in the shadows of our mind, the shortness of breath that hangs icily in the air as we sense the apparition and the shade as they enter our realm and bring together the possibility of a death by nefarious means to our world.

A Woman Of Stone. Television Drama Review. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

D.E. McCluskey: Reboot – A Cosmic Horror. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

How we view the Horror genre is perhaps an insight into our own imagination; like many offerings of art from the individual or group that may disturb the peace of one, it can offer in another the release of vision, and in the case of that which brought to the attention the minds of Stephen King, Lovecraft, Poe, and Anne Rice to the public arena, and by doing so reveals a truth of humanity when pushed to the extreme. Imagination, it should be argued is the ability to reckon with the impossible and see it as a reality, that horror is a fact we should not hide from, no matter the subject, no matter the intent.

D.E. McCluskey: Reboot – A Cosmic Horror. Book Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The Witch. (2024). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Russell Shaw, Ryan Spong, Sarah Alexandra Marks, Fabrizio Santino, Mims Burton, Nick Tuck, Nell Bailey, Ritchi Edwards, Hazel Fell, Jane Hamlet, Danny Howard, Arpen Kapadia, Livvy Nicolae, Anto Sharp, Ella Starbuck.

Like many stock-in trade characters or tropes, the notion of the witch has become one that has become over-used and to little or no effect of portraying something new, revealing little even of the origins or the disciplines of the women who practise such machinations of the spirit world.

The Witch. (2024). Film Review. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

I.S.S. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr., Masha Mashkova, Costa Ronin, Pilou Asbæk.

Even if there were just two people left on Earth, they would find a way to carry on a war that destroyed all other life in the name of patriotism, nationalism, and self-interest.

I.S.S. Film Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Dalgliesh: Devices And Desires. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Bertie Carvel, Carlyss Peer, Liz White, Adam James, Nancy Carroll, Lloyd Hutchinson, Catriona McFeely, Claire Goose, Kealan McCallister, Georgina Beedle, Chris Patrick-Simpson, David Pearse, Robert Lonsdale, Elizabeth Connick, Bradley Hall, Richard McFerran, Patrick FitzSymons, Will Close, Robert Wilfort, Matty Loane.

Whilst there are more novels from the illustrious P.D. James to uncover and place before the armchair detective in television form, it is perhaps fitting that the final story to be told across the three series of Dalgliesh is that of Devices and Desires.

Dalgliesh: Devices And Desires. Television Drama Review. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Nicole Hale: Some Kind Of Longing. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some Kind Of Longing, a world perhaps that we have lost focus of, one of vibrancy, of joie de vivre, or perhaps of just plain honesty, however we view that sense of aching realisation that natural forces once experienced by humanity have become a narrower option for us to enjoy and reconcile us with each other, some kind of longing, a kind of mystery we need to explore within before we find ourselves emotionally, physically on a one way track leading to oblivion.

Nicole Hale: Some Kind Of Longing. Album Review. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Joe Robson: Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How do we view Home, hopefully our experiences are such that is a place we can look back upon with a certain degree of love, even happiness, but it does depend on what we actually class as home, is it this place we call Earth, a certain town or village where our memories were formed and our reflexes and reflections were honed, or is it in the mind, the one place that is surely ours, where we can be at peace and dream of the beautiful and the brave.

Joe Robson: Home. Album Review. full post

(356 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Electric Temple: High Voltage Salvation. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Electric Temple - High Voltage Salvation (Eonia...

We all pray at some sort of altar, whether it is a physical one of stone and surrounded by fellow worshipers, or that in which the mind is open to the nuance of interpretation and the belief that what we find appealing in art can give us the lift we seek in even the darkest moments.

For many of us the sound of High Voltage Salvation is the only way in which we can truly find the will to see beyond the black mass of thought, and the electric temple, where heavy rock meets the soul, that forgives us of any trespass, is where deliverance and recovery from brutal opinion and negative oppression are openly praised and discussed.

Electric Temple: High Voltage Salvation. Album Review. full post

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

Daria Kulesh: Motherland. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Ten years on from her debut album, Eternal Child, the sense of maturity is not confided to the act of symbolism in the title, but in the wisdom of progression and identity in a world that has lost its way through hate, division, and lack of empathy to people and the environment, and as the creative soul that pushes ideas and character forward in Daria Kulesh, Motherland is the near perfect statement of observing change in the person and in the wider world.

Daria Kulesh: Motherland. Album Review. full post

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

Dalgliesh: Cover Her Face. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Bertie Carvel, Allegra Marland, Sam Swainsbury, Parth Thakerar, Holly Castle, Ellora Torchia, Josie Walker, Soni Razdan, Jack Myers, Richard Doubleday, Oliver Woollford, Sara Powell, Allison Harding, Anne Bird, Andrew Tiernan, Alistair Brammer.

The country house murder, a staple of the detective writer’s handbook, no intriguing mind can resist, it seems setting at least one novel within the confines of the manor house and amongst the beating hearts of the rich and self-made and those that are required to serve them, are de rigueur for the armchair fans to tease out the insight to what makes the two classes mix with each other, despise one another, and ultimately it could be argued, protect one another when the time comes to draw forces against the police.

Dalgliesh: Cover Her Face. Television Drama Review. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)