Reviews Amongst Other Things

I am a big fan of these albums since discovering the band through an internet radio station. I heard the track 'All Fall Down' on progrock.com and my initial thought was "is that Level 42?" before glancing over to the display to see 'Giraffe - All Fall Down' scrolling across the screen. It was from there that I went on to seek it out on YouTube and found that the track itself is from the album 'The View from Here' but none of the other tracks from the record were on there (although at the time of writing there is now a video containing the entire album). However what I did find of Giraffe's was a playlist of all the tracks from their debut 'The Power of Suggestion' and so that quickly became the album I familiarised myself with and what a fine record it is too. It is immediately apparent from the opening track on 'The Power of Suggestion' that this is an 80's record. It has a Trevor Horn feel in the production and so f

I will start by saying that this album (in it's 25th year at the time of writing!) is often overlooked and unfairly so in my opinion but it isn't helped by the lack of exposure or that it was overshadowed by Jeff Wayne's previous record, the immensely successful 'Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.' Such the huge hit that it was back in '78, one would be forgiven for thinking it was the only album Jeff Wayne ever released but not so, as fourteen years later he provided us with his musical adaptation of the classic tale of the mighty gladiator 'Spartacus!' It was rather by accident that I came by this underrated concept album around two and a half years ago. By this point, I'd become quite the fan of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds that I had thought to myself, "I wonder what else the man has done" so it was off to search on Wikipedia and I came to find that though he had worked on various pieces for television shows over the

It has been a while what with Easter and more people about, I have struggled to concentrate so some practice is in order. With that said, what better film to review than another one of the Horror Channel's finest.... Hold that thought, here goes! Now bearing in mind I watched this off the back of a film that I found rather poor (completely different genre), this appeared in a brighter light in comparison but it isn't all that good especially when put up against films of a similar variety in my opinion. The difficulty here is to try and avoid giving away anything and if I was to say what films it was similar to, it would. On a number of occasions where I have viewed a film without knowing anything about it first, it has worked in my favour even if the film in question has been given a bit of a bashing from others, I have enjoyed it. A couple of examples would be 'The Spirit (2009)' and 'Legion (2010)' with the latter especially. All I would say is the f

I wasn't going to review this originally but after seeing this on the Horror Channel the other evening, I just had to talk about it. I have to say first of all that I found this film rather silly, I knew it wasn't going to be an incredible watch by any means but I felt it had potential. Perhaps I have seen too many of these stranded at sea type films but I found myself getting rather frustrated with the situations that arose throughout and I should be able to just take it for what it is. One saving grace was they didn't go down that very familiar route we tend to get with these films (I will let you take a guess at what I mean there) which was rather refreshing but mostly everything else got to me. From the moment the lead character stepped on the boat (sorry I do beg your pardon, IT'S A YACHT!) carrying her baby, my face met the palm of my hand and so it went on from there. I won't say much more about the film from here as saying anymore I may as

Another interesting story to this one. Back in the summer of 2006 (a particularly hot summer if I recall) and the days of MySpace, (anyone remember that) I found out about this upcoming artist Laura Critchley. I can't remember exactly how but it may have been through Lucie Silvas' page however one feature I remember very well was the amount of customisation one could apply to their page and one such feature was the ability to put up music tracks for others to listen to. This proved very useful for new artists to try and get their music out there (before the days of Bandcamp) and I had discovered a few through MySpace this way! I believe Lily Allen came to success thanks to MySpace aswell. Looking back I think the limit was four songs for them to upload and you could also download them which is what I had done with the very talented Laura Critchley who I'm talking about here. I enjoyed the tracks so much that I had messaged her on MySpace to congratulate her on a f

I will be honest, I'm not sure what to say about this film! I mean I can refer you to the picture above and that would sum the film up right there. This was one of those films that aired on the Horror channel in the early hours of the morning and you end up staring at the screen while not thinking about it at all. I think I am right in saying that the cast was almost entirely made up of Playboy models and in the case of the girl pictured above (she spends the entire film looking as she appears there by the way), YouTube celebrities. Having read other reviews for this one they are all right in what they say and it has rated very low indeed. It has been stated with films before that "it's so bad it's good" but with this they have said "not here it isn't." There was the potential here for a horror in that classic 'teenage slasher' mould but it just doesn't quite hit the mark. It's hard to tell when watching if that is what they e

A rather interesting story behind this one. This time two years ago, I was working a temporary job in a warehouse where I met a chap who was just as much a fan of music as I am and we would spend most of the day talking about our passion. Unfortunately, we only worked together for a week or so as we probably spent more time deep in conversation than actually working (that is another story) but in that short time, we sure did discuss much about music. He lent me some 'Classic Rock' magazines that he was a subscriber to and a few albums he owned; a couple from one of his favourite bands (Thunder) and this one from Empire State I am to review here, a band of which he is a member! His name is Andy Morris and he is the bassist and the lead vocalist of the band. He had told me at the time that they were working on their third album which has since been released around this time last year while this one pictured above was their second. I had decided to listen to the two Th

What can I say about Bandcamp? First of all, I can't praise this service enough since discovering it last year via Peter Prog's radio show on progrock.com (more on Pete another time,) it truly is a fantastic website! It gives music artists a chance to reach out to people without a record label or any other middle man thus directly supporting them and there are many to discover. One of the first bands I discovered through Bandcamp (thanks to the previously mentioned radio programme) was Red Bazar. After having heard them on the show and following the link taking me to this site, I was able to listen to not only the tracks played on the radio but the entire album! A great way to try before you buy, not that I needed much convincing with this record and bought it shortly after. Unfortunately at the time, I thought albums on the site could only be purchased digitally but have since found that you can not only buy a CD on Bandcamp but in some cases even Vinyl! In doing so,

Let me start by saying... Wow! Having watched all eight episodes over two consecutive nights, that would be the one word I would use to sum up the whole show. Something about the way this has been produced reminds me of another series I am currently viewing, 'Legion' which I am also enjoying. What I have noticed with the way television series are being approached now is they seem to have adopted shorter episode runs with more of a focus on the main story. Where the shows that have come before had there twenty-four or so episode long seasons thus spreading the story arcs thinly while padding out with unrelated filler episodes. Netflix and other internet based TV (and film) providers have played a huge role in this and to much success along with releasing all episodes in one day! It seems to be the future of television and of course we still have series on television that have the long seasons but most with fewer episodes. I for one am quite happy with that as I was not part

You know you like an album when you just cannot stop listening to it and for me, Joe Satriani's latest effort is one such album. I was having a look through HMV's Vinyl bargain bin when I came across this one for a mere £10! I knew of Joe Satriani through a friend but had never heard any of his work before so I had a listen to some tracks from this album on Youtube. Well it didn't take long before I was sold so this along with a few other Vinyls, I made my purchase and when I arrived home, this was the first record I gave a spin on my turntable. What I noticed once the album drew to a close was how no two tracks are the same which really demonstrates Joe's different guitar playing style. There are times on this when I was reminded of Jeff Beck and also Joe Bonamassa with a hint of Steve Hackett when he recorded some of his bluesy records but looking through Satriani's history, I would say he has earned the right to having his own distinct identity. What is

For my first review, I thought I would have a go at this one I watched last night. As it is my first review, I don't expect it to be the best but it will be a short one, much like the film actually! It's a film I have been meaning to watch for some time ever since it had been brought to my attention back in '09 I believe. A friend had come to mine with a couple of dvd's he thought I may be interested in; The Incredible Hulk (2008) and this one... we chose the former. Fast forward to the present, I am having one of my usual looks through the listings for the coming week on the tv guide concentrating on the film channels and especially the Horror channel which is when I came upon this. What struck me towards the end of the film was how unusual yet also how familiar it was. The familiarity wasn't just how it had a similarity with other films in the genre and of the past fifteen years or so but it bore a striking resemblance to The Thing (1982)! Like that film,

A little over ten years ago, I had the urge to take up a musical instrument and that being the Bass Guitar! If I recall, it was around this time in 2006 when I took one of my browses through the sale section of HMV before heading to my next lecture at college, when my eyes happened upon Level 42 The Collection CD for a mere £3! I remembered that I'd heard their music around my aunties' as a boy and thinking I quite liked what I had heard. At that price, I took the chance and played it regularly for some time but what I found was that I was listening mostly to the lead vocalist and bass guitarist Mark King! With time I was captivated by his slap bass technique and it was then that I knew I wanted to take it up myself. It was also this same year that the band was about to release their brand new album 'Retroglide' their first since Forever Now way back in 1994! To coincide with this release the band were to tour and they were going to be performing locally aroun

Well here we are! My blog finally up and running and I welcome you visitor. Let us see how this transpires from here on out as I take this journey into the unknown waters of blogging. It may be a jittery start to begin with but I feel it will all be worth it. My aim for this is to express my feeling towards the films, music, television shows that I watch/listen to and with a tendency to lean towards the lesser known releases as the more major ones will have been covered extensively by many others far more experienced at reviewing than I. So with this view, my hope is that this will appeal to someone out there but even if only a few or none at all see this, it will be something just for me to interpret what I feel towards various things into type. I may also write about any concert going experiences I have that could well be of interest and anything else that I see along the way. I will keep you posted....