Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
There are very few things in life that are better than a detective story. The thrill of going down avenues and drawing your conclusions from the clues presented to you and whilst the likes of Poirot, Wallander or Morse are missing, the best kind of detective is on hand, the listener, who is privy to every detail in the latest album by Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Controversy aside, of which there is arguably plenty, the debut album from Michigan’s King 810 is a monster, a Metal python waking up in a spring loaded battering ram with the biggest headache possible and an attitude problem to match.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
They say there is strength in unity; it can, however that strength can be a double edged sword for in a lot of places the pride in which the artistic scene clubs together is all well and good but it doesn’t flourish because the nature of the sprawling city is not geared up to recognise the distinctiveness that resides at its heart.
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To sneak a peek at an artist’s interior, be it in a Freudian or Jungian manner, or just simply to take an interest in the way they present themselves between the notes of joy, despondency, truth, unconscious anarchy and ultimate rebellion that surround the lyrics, is one in which all art should be considered for at least a while.
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Even the most seemingly sophisticated on music lovers have a weakness. They might try to fool you with talk of the hip and fashionable, the chic and stylish and swanky facts of the current trends but they still have a tremendous weakness for something, something that makes them smile despite themselves and if only they would show that smile more often the world might just be a nicer place in which to reside.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is a new rage in town, one that sits beneath South Africa’s iconic Table Mountain and lets its musical thumping, beast like savagery and calm collected intelligence seep out across the sea. For Octainium there is better rage than what a set of guitars, the unmasking of a set of drum skins and the growling harmonic bass and vocals provides on their album Suffer The Clock.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Not even music can be serious all the time, why would it want to be? Everything needs a lighter side and music is ripe to have the light shone that little deeper than most. Cinema and theatre may rule the roost when it comes to placing a smile on people’s faces but music also has the unerring ability in which to have great music with a quirky edge and absurdly good narrative attached to it; it might not be what you are expecting but it works.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Broken Three Ways they might be, however there is nothing fragmented or faulty with the Wirral band’s debut album Return To The Shack.
This punchy force of nature with a sly knowing grin attached album is a breath of fresh air in a world that at times seems to have forgotten what Ska and Punk was about. Whilst Ska especially might not be the first thing you think of when the term the Wirral comes up in conversation, Broken Three Ways address the discussion in waiting head on, the banter that steams into view of comparisons with the likes of The Selecter uppermost on people’s thoughts. There is no comparison worthy of placing before them though, except that they both sound incredibly awesome, it is the only comparison that should be mentioned.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
The Terms of My Surrender, the new album by John Hiatt, is far from a submission, a yielding to an audience that has seen Blues once more become a force in the mainstream, with big thanks in part to the likes of Joe Bonamassa and British female star Joanne Shaw Taylor but it also doesn’t quite hit the big numbers that you almost find yourself willing to hear.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Freedom is certainly the overriding emotion that comes through Red Butler’s latest album Freedom Bound, the liberty to do what you want as an when you want to; the only restriction is what your mind tells you is not possible, nor certain. For the musicians that make up Red Butler though, Alex Butler, the stunning Jane Chloe Pearce, Charlie Simpson and Stephen Eveleigh, certainty goes hand in hand with assuredness of belief that weaves its way through each track on the album.