Victory

Thanks to Dave Franklin and NYCs The Big Takeover for their review of Victory - which goes live on streaming on 20th September and is already available physically: 

"If Minerva was the first piece of the triptych jigsaw that makes up a set called A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty, then it may come as no surprise to find that Victory, The Speed of Sound’s latest album, is the second installment in the series. And if that first one proved to be fun and eclectic, exploratory and unique, then at least your expectations are set for this new sonic adventure. To be honest, anyone following the Speed of Sound story for the last few years…or 35, will already be braced to expect, if not the unexpected, then at least the unusual, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding.

But if Minerva sought to stick two fingers up to the powers-that-be of the record label-dominated music scene, Victory perhaps takes a more laid-back approach. The songs are still laced with optimism and a sense of liberation, but they seem to be less picking a fight and just happy to make some less pointed points.

One of the main points is about the joy of making music for the sake of it, art for art’s sake. So here we find a collection of songs, and indeed a band, that isn’t looking to get rich, famous, look cool, or even be noticed but instead revel in the pleasures of creativity and expression.

Ironically, it is this freedom to not play the game enables them to produce songs that could easily be chart contenders in a more discerning world. If opener “Apocalypse Acropolis” feels like a tentative start, when taken as one half of the bookend set with “Apocalypse Metropolis,” its more measured way makes sense against its partner’s beat-driven, hazy vocals and trumpet-riffed nature.

Recent single, “Underground,” might not look to the mainstream for admirers. Still, those of us who have been around the block a few times will recognize its blend of indie and pop and slightly rawer edges, its jangling guitars and shuffling beats, sing-along refrains, and alternative ways, as precisely the sort of thing that used to create the unusual high points and left-field guile that occasionally peppered the 80’s charts as the wave of post-punk attitudes merged into a new pop sound.

And then there are tracks like “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” which revel in their otherness, a cornucopia (wink wink) of Eastern vibes and raga beats, a blend of masala rock that builds a bridge between late-era Beatles and bands such as Orphaned Land.

I guess when you stop conforming to the rules and regulations set by those around you, when you decide to leave the game and make music on your terms, that is when you make the music that matters, to you at least, music that goes where you want it to go, sounds the way you want it to sound and says what you want it to say. I’m sure Speed of Sound has always had such an attitude, but albums like A Cornucopia: Victory and the set that it is a part of are the perfect rallying point for those who don’t want to be dictated to…both music makers and those who want to listen to something new, authentic and different." 

The Big Takeover: https://bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-speed-of-sound-victory-big-stir-records 

All Links for Victory (physical/streaming/download): https://victorythespeedofsound.hearnow.com/a-cornucopia-pt-2-victory 

The Big Takeover review and new album announcement

A stunningly enthusiastic review form NYC's Big Takeover Magazine revelling in the swirling mixture that comprises Minerva, the first disc of A Cornucopia:

"A 3-record set available only in physical form? Man, its like the seventies all over again, But before you run off to check if your purple, crushed velvet, loon pants still fit, let me stop you there. For now, at least, we are faced only with one album, namely Minerva the first third of the deluxe box set to follow (which will be joined by Victory and Bounty - bonus points for those that have made the connection.) The band in question is Manchester's The Speed Of Sound so the music leans towards pop-infused sophistication and punky energy rather than anything proggy or paisley patterned. And if I have suggested the music is anything but a product of here-and-now then I must apologise.

And so it is that across fourteen tracks, The Speed Of Sound works its eclectic magic. 'West Wind' is a Hendrix vocal-drawl leading a punk-blues groove whilst a horn section perform a sonic, shamanistic ritual in the near distance and 'SS-100-X' is Lou Reed gone folk. 'The Harvest' is the sort of thing Nick Cave might have come up with, if he worked as chief troubadour in the court of Henry V, whilst 'Bodysnatchers' tips its hat at Elvis... make that Costello not Presley. And if 'Clickbait' is the sort of sound that punk should have been about had it been less sneering and aloof and taken a leaf out of the Pop Pickers Playbook, then 'So Faux' is just... odd. And I mean that in the very best of ways.

Although digital versions of the three albums that will make up the box set will be available down the line, this is a physical-only release for now. This release coincides with the band's 35th anniversary, but more than that, the songs, based on Minerva at least, are going to be some of the most fun and frantic, optimistic and lyrical, deft and dexterous songs you have heard in a while. Any balanced, respectable and discerning music fan worth their salt will want to add these to their physical music collection. Music fans like you!" 

You can find the piece on The Big Takeover website here    

Thanks from us to Dave Franklin and The Big Takeover

the links are in the weblink above, but also here https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-cornucopia-minerva

Blitzed Magazine Issue 3

Museum Of Tomorrow has a full page review and very enthusiastic feature in the new edition of Blitzed Magazine, this is doubly impressive as it is now 9 months since release and that is well outside the normal window of interest form the music press. Giant thanks to the team at Blitzed for their support. You can get a copy here, and the album is here (but can also be ordered in any record shop in The UK US and Canada)

It is nice when people 'really get' what you do, and that final paragraph is extra cool having been largely ignored for over thirty years... 

Thanks to Blitzed!

Vive Le Rock review of Museum Of Tomorrow

 Huge thank to Vive Le Rock magazine for reviewing Museum Of Tomorrow in issue 85, very nice:

“Bright and poppy future shocks.
8/10
Some very interesting and rather charming stuff here from Manchester’s The Speed Of Sound, who present a future shock with the science-fiction-drenched ‘Museum Of Tomorrow’, presented as two galleries ss opposed to two sides of vinyl, each tune representing a conceptual image. Musically this is a mixed bag from sunny and bright New-Wave styled pop to jangly indie in the style of 90’s bands such as Salad, all the way through to punky cuts thst have long shadows of Blondie trailing after them. There is even a 60s aesthetic at work on the spacey ‘Wired And Tired’. The duelling vocals of Ann-Marie Crowley and guitarist John Armstrong work a treat especially on tunes like ‘Opium Eyes’, while instrumentation remains at a high technical level as The Speed Of Sound launch themselves through various stratospheres. Unique and otherworldly.”
Bruce Turnbull
Vive Le Rock (no.85) 27Aug2021

The one-click-to-everywhere album link is here

and here's the review in its natural setting

Preview Review of the next single

It isn't out until 4th June, but we already have a review of the next single... giant thanks to Christopher Nosnibor and Aural Aggravation for covering it with so much enthusiasm and for really getting the concept of a proper single (which is one of the many things we like about Big Stir records too).

"Well here’s a wakeup: The Speed Of Sound are into their fourth decade, yet are so underground they’ve bypassed me all this time. I feel a certain sense of both guilt and shame for this. Obviously, no reviewer can know everything about every band going, but sometimes, a band will slip under the radar and leave you kicking yourself. The Speed Of Sound is one such band.

The fact they’re releasing a double A-side says something about their vintage. 7” singles may still be a thing, but they’re a niche, collector thing rather than the thing you’d experience as a youth. I was in my early teens – perhaps younger – when I’d go into town and visit WHS or Boots or perhaps Woolworths and pick up a 7” single for 99p, and the B-side would often be as integral a part of the experience as the A-side, while a AA sometimes meant the second A-side – the one less likely to be played on the radio – was the better one. Hearing it would be a revelation after you slipped it over the spindle and onto the turntable. It was a magical experience that words struggle to convey.

The two tracks on this release are thematically-linked in that they’re all about the band’s love for sci-fi soaked in reverb and with some hints of dappled sunlight mellowness.

The inspiration behind ‘Replicant’ probably requires little explanation as it draws the comparisons to the world of Bladerunner and the contemporary corporate world. Hearing Ann-Marie Crowley enunciate ‘Replicant’ calls to mind Johnny Rotten emphasis on ‘Pretty vacant’, but more than anything, the uptempo acoustic guitar that leads the track has a distinctly 90s indie flavour to it, and it jangles along nicely.

‘Melancholy Rose’ is a spacey indie-psychedelic folk effort with the jangle of the early 90s and some mellow shoegaze meanderings, sort of like The Fall covering The Charlatans. There are hints of sleepy, summery funk to the track, too.

Together, it makes for a nice single that does very much evoke the experience of yesteryear’s 7” purchase."

Big Stir Records – 4th June 2021

You can find the piece here:

https://auralaggravation.com/2021/05/28/the-speed-of-sound-replicant-the-melancholy-rose/

Christopher Nosnibor

Aural Aggravation

Wow! ...that is quite a review

Yes. Needed a cup of tea and a sit down after reading this - Mick Middles writing in the printed Fall Edition of Rock at Night which has the theme of 'Revolution'... Here we go:

"Of all the angles, colours, shades, clouts clangs and dances that have given life to Manchester music since the advent of punk, none have felt or tasted quite the same as The Speed Of Sound. With a history over 30 years deep and a smattering of musicians adding up to - and beyond - 18, Speed Of Sound have remained a vibrant scream from the Manchester shadows.

It HAS to be a scream, too, at times literally so, for this perennial Manchester outsider band. Now deep into middle age, the lovely intelligent and softly spoken people who take refuge within this band explode into life when their feet hit the stage.

I recall a gig three years ago at Manchester's funky-if-not-downbeat Thirsty Scholar. Sitting chatting within the wicker-lined interior, we chatted as they unpacked their gear, carefully lying their guitars to rest before studiously replying to my measured questions.

As the set began, they instantly transformed into some kind of weird raging torrent. John Armstrong slashing an arm viciously across his guitar while Ann-Marie Crowley vocals howled as an untamed banshee. I swear that a gaggle of attendees, seasoned punks to man and woman took two steps back in disbelief. In that modest arena, it became one of the most spectacular gigs I had witnessed for decades.

Around that time, I received a copy of their sumptuous double album, Everything Changes. It proved to be  a gorgeous product, this, especially in vinyl format, where the main affair was accompanied by an additional 10 song CD.Essentially therefore, that rare beast, the 'double album' and a most intriguing one at that. Fear not, this is no Frampton Comes Alive where the entire career hinges on a gimmick-laden, video friendly head bug of a song. Although bugs do abound and kind of twist your brain with repeated plays, offering visions of, I guess, Whalley Range or thereabouts.

The beautiful cover features four photographic tints of what looks like a Manchester park and a stunning marble statue on the reverse. There is more: A lyric-heavy inner-sleeve neatly overlays undoctored images of the band who also appear cartoon-esque on a separate sheet and - more, more again - a neat A4 glossy poster insert. I do apologise if this initial talk of packaging might seem rather crass,  as I mean no disrespect. What is important here is that the parade of artwork and extraordinary care built into it reflects the equal care embedded in the music.

What I particularly adored about this album is the unlikely relationship between the languid New York style vocals of songwriter John. Armstrong and the infectious evocative bass of Kevin Roache. It is a marriage that governs the album recalling - for me at least - a rather bizarre cocktail of Television / The Only Ones, Henry Crow and, when Ann-Marie Crowley's vocals kick in, touches of 'Meet On The Ledge' circa Fairport. The comparisons might seem lazy, but this is precisely where the album sits...oh, perhaps with elements of off-kilter John Marty. Maybe...maybe, definitely.

In 2018, there followed a further extraordinary slap of vinyl. A single this time, in support of Manchester Women's Aid. A double-A-side of two songs "I'm Real" and " I Don't Want Your Attentions", both ferociously exploding with feministic intent... and both written by John Armstrong. While the song titles may seem self explanatory, the jagged edges of the lyric certainly snagged on unexpected territory. "I won't put up with this anymore you've pushed me near the edge, every time I see you I want to get away, I just wish you were dead."

John Armstrong is an enigma; Perhaps Manchester's greatest, squealing form under the floorboards. Interviewing him is, itself, a curiously beguiling task.

I ask him about his writing... he replies: "There's a literary approach in my writing, partly because of writing about actual things rather than generic stuff. There are enough people writing predictable pop songs already. We need more songs about a ship full of toxic waste or a mannequin tied to a pub roof or the ring road in Rio de Janeiro. I am trying to find something that interests me. Something that won't be boring in ten years". As carefully posed question...are Speed Of Sound comfortable with being tagged 'outsiders'? "Very much Outsiders." He replies. "We are not interested in the music business, labels fashions and trends and didn't start making music to end up of the cover of Smash Hits or being a major label signing. All this people who have played with The Speed Of Sound over the decades make music because this is what they do. The industry is about 'product'. The sound, the textures is irrelevant to record companies. Whereas we are simply doing it for the music which is the other way around to the mainstream. Doing it our way gives us a level of artistic control that is impossible in the major label world. I am happy with that."

A new album edges towards completion. Themes will edge towards sci-fi in a typically off-kilter manner. Shots will emerge before the album release, in Spring 2021, in the form of planned singles. But of course, this being 2020, nothing is ever going to be nailed onto anything. This is the uncertain world in which we live.

Bu Speed Of Sound remain elegantly adrift, from anything and everything."

Mick Middles

album review - you need this in your collection

A few words from Lee Bull at Bullys Music Blog:

In the early days the band used to rehearse in the same studios as James and The Stone Roses and the band would often find themselves in a studio with these two Manchester greats either side. But as John says “life gets in the way and line ups change” and now they are back on the scene playing again since their last gig in 1991.

The album is a 12 track filled with great lyrics and a sound that is of the era that the tracks was first written. Even though the tracks were wrote over 20 years ago and re-recorded it takes you back to that great time in music.

If you’re a fan on the 90’s Manchester sound this album is one you need in your collection. The band have just released a 7” double A side single called “Girl On The Roof” / “Maid Of The Grey” which is available now as a limited edition.

You can find Bully's Music Blog here 

The single is on Bandcamp and Piccadilly Records and Vinyl Revival in Manchester, as well as Thomson & Co in Haslingden, digital copies are everywhere you would normally look for them. 

Mad Ferret

Mad Ferret's Music Blog has reviewed The Speed Of Sound In A Blood Orange Sky:

Here's a review of The Speed Of Sound's 2nd album which was released in 2012. Both their albums are widely available on  iTunes, Spotify etc. The album has quite a modern folk rock feel with a definite dash of 80's post punk/alt thrown in. Which is no surprise considering all the songs were written in that decade but sound fresh as ever.

Vocally there is a hint of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, bit of Jagger, great sound. Musically the sound alternates between Rock; verging on heavy/psyche to alt/punk with some great instrumentation along the way.

 'You've Got To Move Too' starts the album off  zipping along with a jangly guitar sound and scatter gun drumming. 'English Electric Lighting F6' up next. Smart bit of bass at the beginning following by a virtuoso guitar performance on this (almost) instrumental track. Stunning. 'No Kicks' is another great track which will have you singing the chorus whether you want to or not. Track 4 'There's No One There' has an edgier vocal and a punkier sound. A song of despair and hopelessness, superbly played, has a fantastic guitar solo over a rat-a-tat drum line. Really like this one. 'Temporary Fault' is another with a punk edge, hammer drums, angsty vocal and jittery guitar. Has a feel of losing it in bedsit land. Lyrics are insightful and desperate. A wonderfully gloomy atmosphere to this track, 'Joy Division' like!! Next, 'The Changes', more solid drumming and shimmering guitars alongside a fine vocal. Track 7 is 'Uhrwerk'. It opens with a fine guitar solo and quickly turns into one of the best tracks on the album. Heavier, rocking sound, musical perfection with an instrumental section towards the end that will blow you away. 8 is 'Sit By The River' and it sounds exactly like you are. An eighties indie feel, summery and upbeat. A foot tapping, head nodding sing-a-long. If you close your eyes you can almost feel the breeze washing over you. A nod towards environmental concerns on tracks 9 & 11, 'Torrey Canyon' and 'Throw It Away', both tracks awesome with snippets of genius. I especially like the little guitar breaks on 'Torrey Canyon', reminds me of something, can't think what, I like it though. Sandwiched between these two is 'Intercept'. Forty two seconds of backwards magic! The final track and for my money, the best, is 'Overlooked'. A superb opening sound, very cool, subtle. Fuzzy guitar, tapping drum beat, lead breaks floating through the air and and understated vocal. Spoken word comes in quietly with the bass and other players mooching along. Has an indie sound to this track that a lot of today's new bands would kill for. Guitar is sublime, this has got to be a live favourite. Sure this would sound great at a gig or a festival somewhere.

These tracks ahve been around for a long time but that just adds to their quality I think. Can't wait to hear the new stuff when its ready... So check this band out, you won't be sorry. madferrit
Mad Ferret can be found here 

Music vs The world

Music vs The World heard us and wrote this: 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear a merger between Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed?... The vocals are dark an melancholy - they have an intense quality that makes me stop everything I'm doing and just listen. The music surrounding the words pulls me along like a tide, making me drift away from reality without feeling that I have an option...

Read the whole thing here Here