Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When pressed to name significant figures to have come out of Lincoln, the greater population of the U.K. may struggle before coming up with the fact that one of the nation’s favourite and experienced actors in the form of John Hurt was schooled there and for those more knowledgeable will be aware that Sir Isaac Newton was born in the same county but as for its music it has remained dangerously unexplored.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
No matter what, 2012 could be the year that Jessica’s Ghost became a major force in the all-encompassing world of Liverpool music.
There have been some utterly absorbing albums to come from the region this year and rightly so as the city enjoys yet another renaissance in what people from London to New York to Sydney are expecting to hear from the place where the Mersey Beat first came of age, the eighties revival took hold and now the 21st century musical barometer is suggesting and predicting.
This year has seen some incredible blues albums being released and the vast majority of them by women. This is not only great news to see the likes of Beverly McClellan, Beth Hart, Bonnie Raitt and Joanne Shaw Taylor take on the men at their own game but it also sees the new men of Blues raise their standards.
In a similar fashion the punk explosion of the 1970’s that musically threatened the old established figures , what is coming through is exciting and new and whilst led by Joe Bonamassa and some of the older guard like Robert Cray are still the Gods that every one aspires to become. This is no less true in the case of the exceptional Belfast Blues man Simon McBride.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Oxford is known for its dreaming spires, its universities that are amongst the pinnacle of world education and thinking and one of the best cities to sit and have the occasional pint in one of its numerous and edifying public houses; what it’s not that well known for is for being a hotbed of young musical talent. Occasionally though a new musician will come through and whose voice breaks down barriers and wins fans in even the most music conscious places in the U.K., it won’t be long before Adam Barnes possibly becomes the most well-known musician to come out the city.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Mix the industrial with a healthy dollop of some of the finest exponents of Progressive Rock, some genre crossing of dubstep and Heavy Metal and finally one of the megastars and iconic figures of Science Fiction film and television and you have the superb new Blackburner album Planet Earth Attack in all its grandiose and lavish glory.
William Shatner, the one and only Captain Kirk from television’s Star Trek,is no stranger to adding his unique tone of voice to another artist’s idea but from the start of the Skyla Talon’s produced album, with its eclectic and brutally dystopian future soundscapes, it sets the ultimate and stunning start to the aggressive and dominant music.
Do you remember where you were when you heard Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying or Rust in Peace, Sabbat’s Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays) or Skyclad’s Wayward Sons of Mother Earth for the first time? The temptation to add the latest album by Stone Sour, House of Gold and Bones Part 1, to these premium and top rated albums of the genre should not take long, all of the first listen will be enough to confirm that perhaps for the first time the band have created something intrinsically and artistically brilliant.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It can be of hardly any surprise to find that the latest album from the stable of Madness doesn’t match the career defining album The Liberty of Norton Folgate released in 2009. However, this should not stop the loveable rogues of north London continue their 21st century renaissance as one of the best bands to have graced the British charts in the last 40 years.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Black Country Communion, a supergroup so good they had to give the four members a third album just to satisfy the incredible clamour and deluge from their overwhelming number of fans.
The group certainly need no introduction, the music really does speak for itself, self assured, distinctive, mind blowing and with so much depth it practically carves out a 10 foot deep trench with ease; this is what makes Black Country Communion one of the best bands of the last two decades, and they seem to have managed this in less than three years.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Since Genesis last took to the stage for their 2007 tour, the most productive two members of the stalwarts and guiding lights of Progressive Rock are the two that had left the band in the days before they become the corporate behemoth of the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Peter Gabriel has been busy giving his fans new looks of his back catalogue and inspired readings of other people’s works. Steve Hackett on the other hand has produced more solo work than any other member of one of the U.K.’s favourite Prog acts; he also seems to find time to keep the work of Genesis between 1970 and 1977 very much alive on his keenly anticipated touring schedule.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Over the last seven years, fans of Neal Schon’s electrifying guitar solos have had to contend themselves to an odd guest appearance with the legends Paul Rogers and Sammy Hagar and the resurgent power of his band, the American superheroes of Rock, Journey, if they have wanted to hear one of the greats in action. Now after a seven year absence, Neal Schon proves once again his standing in the pantheon of guitar heroes as he releases The Calling.