A Rave First Review of the whole album: Museum Of Tomorrow

A Rave of a review from much esteemed Something Else Webzine, And, the first review of the whole album:

"...While listening to Museum of Tomorrow - which clocks in as the Speed of Sound’s latest and fifth full-length album - it is easy to imagine yourself gliding through space in a time machine. This 13-track collection centres on science-fiction concepts; where the past meets the future, the future meets the past, the present is questionable, and the line is blurred between fantasy and reality. There is zero fat content on Museum of Tomorrow, as the tunes are trim and tight, sloping towards a zoomy feel that reflects the subject matter. The material on Museum of Tomorrow orbits around big and bubbly rhythms rippling with new-wave reflexes, aided by flashes of ringing psychedelic Byrdsian guitar figures. Every “exhibit” – as the songs are referred to – on Museum of Tomorrow is rife with power-packed pop melodies and harmonious instrumentation, making for a record that has a long-lasting effect..."

You can find the piece here

Replicant / The Melancholy Rose : Single Released 04June2021

And here is the new single: 

Replicant / The Melancholy Rose. ...As the label put it:

Driven by acoustic guitar and exuding a joyous hip-swaying bouncing beat. Replicant playfully asks questions about the very nature of human existence. Offering a foretaste of the themes of the upcoming full length album. Here too, The Speed Of Sound draw heavily from their Science-Fiction influences. While Replicant seems to inhabit the same universe as Blade Runner it also carries another message from the corporate world. Where modern job interviews appear to have evolved into some kind of reverse Voight-Kampff Test; instead of designed to detect replicants, the purpose is to determine if the applicant has unfortunately retained any human characteristics, or will - as hoped - mechanically follow scripts and instructions. Do Androids dance to analogue music? We don’t know, but point your arm and shout along with the chorus.

Shimmering summer pop for shaded people; languid open and drifting, a gothically tinged piece of romanticism lies atop a sparkling guitar riff and a tale of the first rose of the year to bloom. Ahead of its time and alone, but merely the trailblazer showing the way and heralding the coming change. A celebration of the sudden bursting open of summer itself and an invitation to tune out from the background white-noise of civilisation and relax. To exist in the moment and enjoy the things around us. The Speed Of Sound are known for their power, yet this displays their soaring delicate side. Guest vocals are provided by one of pair a blackbirds that nested (and successfully fledged four chicks) among the dense honeysuckle and ivy of John A’s back garden during lockdown.

Recorded at Vibratone Sound Studio in Manchester.

Sleeve Art by LocalHotelParking.

New Double-A-Single

Our third set with the lovely bunch of dudesses & dudes at Big Stir Records in Burbank CA is now out and this single link will take you to streaming at Apple Music, Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify. Here.

The new pair of songs is Radio Safe and No Kicks and we have again collaborated with photographer Natalie Paddick (see our fabulous bunny t-shirt), using a crop-and-cut her fabulous 'Red Rope' picture (available as a print from Saatchi online) within the sleeve artwork. Here's the landscape view:

Exciting is an understatement. The feeling of releasing new music in these impossible circumstances is pretty big. A definite sense of achievement and joy at being able to share it. 

More to follow including video...

Something New

31 years in and The Speed Of Sound are not averse to new things; the imminent release of the new single sees the addition of keyboards to the sound of Sound. And it is none other than Henry Armstrong, (yes, son of JohnA) that can be found twirling the Korg knobs and pressing the keys.

Adding a new dimension of sounds and textures.

On the Everything Changes album the idea was to capture the live sound. Similar to The Clash's first album; it was a simple plan - go in the studio, play the songs and record them. It is essentially a live album without audience noise.
With the current recordings the live approach was retained, playing together, set-up as a live band, but adding a lot more studio nuance and way more things that can't be done live.
The keyboards however, are part off the long-term plan and will be out there with us once it is sensible to play gigs again post-pandemic.
Until then we don't want to put an audience, sound-crew or obviously ourselves at risk.
Stay safe out there people!

And, before there is more live music there will be more recorded music... very soon...

News Ahoy!

Yep, we have some news coming up; we have been very busy. Major announcement next week. Before then, we've a bit of catching up to do: The gig at Wigan on 20th September was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone that came to see us instead of the rugby and thanks to Nikos Pavlou for the live stills from the night.
Set List:

I'm Real
Checkered Land
Uhrwerk
Seen It All Before
The Day The Earth Caught Fire
Shadow Factory
Tomorrow's World
Love
I Don't Want Your Attentions

Next gig is Manchester on 16th November... more updates soon!

Sorry for being a bit slack with blog updates this year, its just too busy to keep up with it... back shortly!

Now the football is over...

Semi-final night was gig night, a strange feeling knowing the set start time was dependent on extra time or penalties... Fred's Ale House was hosting Levy Festival and mindful of the result we played a mellower set than it might have been. Thanks to Dave for doing a superb job with the sound and to Fred's and the Levy Festival organisers for inviting us and Nina Gerstenberger for playing a superb opening set and to everyone that wanted to make their evening longer. Late start, late finish, great gig - thanks everyone.

Three songs on their debut

Set List:

Last Orders
Uhrwerk
Leaf Blower
Day In Day Out
Smokescreen
Charlotte
Impossible Past
Love
Seen It All Before
Little Miss Restless
Always Seems To Fall
I'm Real
and
Femme Fatale

 

A first glimpse at the new single...

Test pressing arrived and approved, they sound great... so Production Is Go, and we will have a new 7inch double-A-side single. Yes, with a download option too.

Full colour label and picture sleeve in the production run; white labels are to test the metalwork for the pressings and these sound sweet; the Rickenbacker crunches and chimes, the Hofner violin bass does its punchy thing in the lower stave and the drums bang in a big way, with really immediate vocals. Excellent presence. Its got a live sound like we're actually in the room, ...which we were when we were listening to it. Music is a physical presence and that's why we make physical music, independently with our own label.

Single release date is still to be confirmed, depending on actual production time and there is a release party gig to be announced too.
All releases are exciting, but...
This one is a bit special for another reason too... more on that later...

Twin cities

The Eagle Inn Salford hosted TheJetBeats from Michigan on their UK tour taking in the Twin Cities here, with ourselves and Jack Woodward as special guests, excellent sound, excellent people and a damn fine night was had. 60'sBeat a go-go. Thanks for having us.

Set list:
Girl On The Roof
I'm Real
Brand New Cadillac
I Can't Say
Glide On By
Chalk Circle
The Moment Is Now
Karin B
Love
Shut All the Clubs
I Don't Want Your Attentions
Next up it's Manchester Fringe Festival with French Boutik and The Kite Collectors on 15July
(and... we're still on Radio On in Berlin everyday in May on their Attack Of The Moths show)

ticket link

We're going to take you through the looking glass...

The video for Checkered Land:

Filmed by Music Videos Manchester, mixing live footage with John Tenniel illustrations from Alice Through The Looking Glass plus additional images by Natalie Paddick of NPME Style.
We had a lot of fun making this, MVM 'got' what we wanted to do and had some cool input too, but they still indulged us by sticking to the precise frame image placement instructions we gave them. Natalie's photographs look spectacular anyway so it was fabulous to have them to play with, I thought the 'on the table' shot would work but ...wow. Thanks to MVM and NPME. Teamwork rocks.
Watch, enjoy and spread the word. Thank you!