The 5th Wave - CD Compilation

Big Stir Records of Burbank California have included two songs by The Speed Of Sound in their 5th compilation CD.
In their own words:
BIG STIR SINGLES: THE FIFTH WAVE crashes on your musical shore Friday, March 6, on CD and Digital Download, and is available for pre-order at www.bigstirrecords.com/storenow. It's the first instalment in the series for 2020, after the First through Fourth Wave CDs released throughout 2019 debuted to rave reviews and broke new ground for collections of their type, landing on Year's Best lists among proper single artist albums. The series is now firmly established as an ongoing journal of the best new music on the global pop rock scene, beyond boundaries of geography and label affiliation, and a reliably exciting rebuke to the charge that “there's no good music any more these days”.

What makes The Fifth Wave special? As always it features an A-side and a B-side from each of the artists featured across the most recent months of the Big Stir Singles Series. As always it sports liner notes from a trusted authority on the music scene, as Tsar / Brothers Steve / GoAllTheWays drummer STEVE COULTER, under his crime fiction and pop critic nom-de-plume S.W. Lauden, joins the ranks of noted music writers Carl Cafarelli, Don Valentine and John Borack in doing the honors. And artist Ridley Broome has created a unique cover graphic depicting each of the A-sides in fantasy/superhero personifications, adding the character and quirk that collectors have come to expect from Big Stir's physical releases.
Yep. It's that cool.

30th Anniversary CD

Here it is: the 30th Anniversary, and the 30th Anniversary CD.
Specially remastered and balanced for this release, a selection released here on CD for the first time Only available on the shop page of the website:

I See You
Seen It All Before (acoustic)
I Don't Want Your Attentions
I'm Real (without fade)
Shut All The Clubs (single version)
Love (single version)
Girl On The Roof (single version)
Checkered Land (2014)
Maid Of The Grey (single version)
There's No One There (live 2013)
Nightmare (1989)
I Wanna Feel Good (1989)

Postal delivery of physical music

30 years of independence

Music and Elsewhere New Year Showcase

Its nice to start off the year by being featured in another podcast; its also nice that M&E chose the most experimental song Ghosts Of Grytviken (from The Speed Of Sound At Tree Level) for their New Year Showcase. There can't be many songs about the ghosts of whales (and whalers) that were recorded at night on Halloween - by coincidence not intention - but if there are, this is one of them.  

 click here for the Soundcloud link
The visible influences are different on this one, its not an obvious choice for a song and doesn't follow an obvious pop song structure. Its more of a psychedelic trip to the South Atlantic
Grytviken is an abandoned whaling station on South Georgia, roughly 900 miles off The Falkland Islands. When the whaling stopped in 1965 the whale-catching ships were abandoned and they slowly rust away in the harbour near the tanks used to store the whale oil. The explorer Earnest Shackleton is buried in the graveyard there.
Ghosts Of Grytviken is an atmospheric soundscape of a song, starting and ending below the sea, having climbed the mountains and flown with the wandering albatross before the first verse. Yes, its a bit far-out. The drums only appear on the chorus, but there is assorted ambient percussion including the ringing of eight-bells. Its not a dancer but still has plenty of sway, the chords move up and down like an ocean swell.
Its the Italia Mondial Classic six string on lead (and rhythm) with the Danelectro '63 bass.
There is an earlier post here with a bit more background, photo's of the whaling station and the lyrics.
I like a bit of wilderness so it'd be neat to go there, but it is pretty inaccessible. Definitely on the list though.

M&E dates back to the 1990s, but has been off the scene for a while. This is their first showcase in quite a while and should be every 4 months or so now. You can get more information here
The full listing and liner notes are on the 'showcase' tab and the full set is on the M&E Soundcloud page here 
Have a listen, its all real music.

The Speed Of Sound At A Blood Orange Sky

The 2nd CD is here: Twelve songs, fifty three minutes, in a digiPak with lyric book from CDbaby and also available as mp3 via Amazon, iTunes etc. (Plus; physical callers can buy it in a physical shop at Spivey's Web in Macclesfield at http://www.spiveysweb.co.uk/  or buy on Bandcamp and CDBaby)

    

                                                                           

Overlooked

Atomic shapes and molecule structures were high fashion. Magazine racks, wallpaper, textile prints... Nuclear power had ended the second world war, ensured the stalemate of the cold war mutually assured destruction and was going to be the saviour of the world when the oil/coal ran out. It was a new age, everything was bright -'NewClear' - it even sounds fresh and tidy. 

The imagery of unharnessed renewable energy sources around a newly built nuclear power station is quite potent. 

The first image in the sequence above is a sculpture of Dounreay power station in Uranium Glass by Kate Williams and John Llyod, you can see more pictures here:
Overlooked, was written in July ;89 and was also a fixture in the live set. This re-recording was in June 2011 with Italia and Dano'63

The Douneray photographs are via the BBC and the textile prints are from Kathy Kavan's excellent Another Design Blog.

Throw It Away

Throw It  Away is about the disposability of consumer products and consumer culture.

Large pieces of furniture are sold as fashion items to be changed with the seasons, not as a durable piece that will last decades, electrical goods are already out of date as soon as they are purchased... this song also sees  humanity as a virus prevented from spreading through the solar system by being trapped on Earth (with finite resources) by the layers of orbiting abandoned space junk. At the 1960's rate of space exploration people should already have colonised Mars and Jupiter's moons by now. "There are other planets if we have to go."

Intercept

Intercept is another instrumental, despite the title (and being clearly related to 'English Elctric Lightning F6') it also functions as a musical oil slick trailing from Torrey Canyon.

Backwards is a fascinating sound, the percussion swells in an unnatural way and ends suddenly. There is no vocal, so no back-masking-secret-message to search for or be influenced by... but then I would say that.

Torrey Canyon

Torrey Canyon is about the first major marine oil-spillage disaster, which took place in the year indelibly labelled in the cultural media memory as the 'Summer of Love'. It was written in 1988 and was a standard in the live set under the title 'Profit'.

The first rough version started under the working title of 'Herald of  Free Enterprise' and was similar in lyric-feel to Sympathy For The Devil it quickly evolved, but was still quite broad, taking in a vast array of man-made environmental disasters. Refining it to a single incident gave far more focus and impact.

Rerecorded in September 2011 with mostly Rickenbacker, some Italia and the Dano'63.

The painting was part of the Brooke Bond Tea Cards set 'The Sea Our Other World' issued in 1974, the two photographs are via the BBC.

Sit By The River

Sit By The River has an uncomplicated lyric about wanting to 'sit by the river' in late summer as 'afternoon drifts into evening'. It's not about a specific river, it's about several all merged together with willows, swans and stepping stones.

The original tune was written in July'84 and had a  languid flow. Speeding it up and changing the chords in August 2011 has given it quite a different feel. 

Mostly Italia, some Rickenbacker and the Dano'63 bass.

Uhrwerk

"If you want to go forwards then go twice as fast, you'll need that pace to keep standing still..." The video for Uhrwerk (German for clockwork). 

The song is an anguished snarl at the so-called work/life balance and the mechanical nature of work; it was another permanent fixture in the live set. 

Written in April '87 (there is a July 1987 studio recording still in existence) Uhrwerk was re-recorded in May 2011. All previous recordings of this had the tick-tock and the chimes played as harmonics. This is mostly Hutchins Retro Star with 'a bit' of bowing and Dano'63 bass.

The Changes

July 1990 the Greenhouse Rehearsal Rooms Stockport: "It's in fives!" said Hamish incredulously, putting his sticks aside as the last chord died. "Yes; unusual isn't it." I replied. But it was only while programming the drums for this rerecording 21 years later that I realised what he had meant. I knew I'd always countd this in 'fours' and didn't want to encourage him to do anything more 'normal' than the great rhythm he'd just beaten out... we wee both right. 

Written in April '89 and re-recorded in June 2011, this was in the live set so had already been played by Dennis without any mention of 'fives'. Th chord sequence spirals round itself like water in a maelstrom. There was a children's TV series in the mid-70's called The Changes involving  a breakdown and rejection of the modern 'machine-culture' inspired by ancient natural forces (and the sill trapped spirit of Merlin) trying to bring humanity back in touvh with nature. Other than the title the song is not direclty related to this, more with becoming aware that something fundamental is changing in personal outlook; but the machine-smashers of the TV series were affected by 'The Changes' and the phrase lingered.

Temporary Fault

Temporary Fault could be a song about mental illness, but is about the sudden realization that a 'hinge-moment' is occurring and that a life affecting decision has to be made; producing a momentary instability or a 'temporary fault' - as shown on 1970's television screens when there was a problem with the transmitter.

Written in July 1989, this re-recording was August 2011; it is the Hutchins with a bit of bowing and the Dano'63 

English Electric Lightning F6

English Electric Lightning F6 is an instrumental. Dating from 1996, it has plenty of open space and describes in music what it must must be like to sit on your own at twice the speed of sound at 50,000ft. It is uplifting and reaches for the sky.

A much earlier post explained why there are two lightnings in The Speed Of Sound logo, however - this book that I had at age six should make it clear. The speed and excitement of the Lightning prototypes on the cover has stayed through the years.

Re-recorded in September 2011 - EE Lightning F6 is the Italia Mondial and the Dano '63.

You've Got To Move Too

You've Got To Move Too was written in July 1988 and often started the live set, so is a fitting opening piece for the 2nd album. It is about the world of fashion and the continual thirst for 'new' - the only way to perpetual newness is to continually reinvent the old - and the constant need to be ahead; not just keeping up. The overlapping vocals don't give the last line time to finish before moving on to the next 'thing'.

Lord Litter described it as "A cool mix of punk and The Byrds 5th dimension LP" and played it in his Magic Music Box show in December 2011 on Radio Marabu - Europe's Alternative Radio (and elsewhere).

Guitar-wise this is the Hutchins Retro Star and the Rickenbacker 620-12, with a few seconds of violin bowing on the Hutchins bwfore the break. The bass is the Danelectro '63.

The Speed Of Sound At Tree Level

The first album.

The CD has a 16page booklet, which is also provided in PDF format with the mp3 download via bandcamp.

The physical CD can be bought from a physical shop by visiting Spiveys'Web on Chestergate Macclesfield, or contact them via  http://www.spiveysweb.co.uk 

Also available from:

Amazon

Apple iTunes

Bandcamp

CDBaby

Spotify

etc etc etc

Glide On By

The live set always finished with Glide On By and so does the first album, because afterwards "the rest is silence"... The earliest recorded version is a 1989 demo. It was always a good opportunity for the bass to enjoy itself.

The song is about wasting time, frittering it away and not engaging in anything or with anyone - living life as a glide rather than a fully powered flight. It was re-recorded in September 2010.

Lost Memory

Lost Memory includes field recording carried out on two Scottish beaches and - in one of those unplanable events - an Oystercatcher flying past manages to count the guitar in at the beginning correctly at 72bpm.

The song is about recovering something precious that had been lost. 

 

There are a lot of different influences at work Including J W Waterhouses' Miranda And The Tempest and Meryl Streep in The French Leiutenants' Woman all mixed in with decades of cold weather out of season holidays.

This was a December 1990 demo and was re-recorded in August 2010.

Love

Love is more cynical than Mr Lennons' song of the same name. It predates The Blood Oranges and was a regular piece in the live set. There are only three chords, but they are not the first three that would normally spring to mind. I listened to a lot of John Coltrane before re-recording this. Re-recorded in May 2010.