As per usual the folks at power pop label Big Stir Records have put together a sampler with highlights from their roster. Among others Box Of Records features songs from The Armoires, Blake Jones & The Trike Shop, Graham Parker & The Goldtops, Librarians With Hickeys, and The Speed Of Sound. It is available as a pay-what-you-want download in a wealth of digital formats from their website.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have posted a video for The Same River, a track from their Victory album, the middle kid of their sprawling triple A Cornucopia set. Their retro-futuristic sound fits like a glove for this song about the passing of time and history repeating itself. Mother Nature could not care less, and goes about her business like she always does.
HCTF review of A Cornucopia: Minerva.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have posted a video for Underground, a track from their Victory album, the middle kid of their sprawling triple A Cornucopia set. It is a deviant statement about not giving in to the majors and going your own way as artists. If anything, the interesting things tend to happen on the back roads, not on the motorways.
HCTF review of A Cornucopia: Minerva.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have posted a video for Trickledown The Speed, a track from their A Cornucopia: Minerva album: "an apt title for a collection songs that are rooted in the diversity of gnarly melodic music that has seen the ligth the day from the Sixties until the present day." And yes, this particular track was inspired by Sherlock Holmes.
HCTF review of A Cornucopia: Minerva.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have posted a video for Mind Palace, a track from their A Cornucopia: Minerva album: "an apt title for a collection songs that are rooted in the diversity of gnarly melodic music that has seen the ligth the day from the Sixties until the present day." And yes, this particular track was inspired by Sherlock Holmes.
HCTF review of A Cornucopia: Minerva.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound are on a roll with their new album A Cornucopia: Minerva, an apt title for a collection songs that are rooted in the diversity of gnarly melodic music that has seen the ligth the day from the Sixties until the present day.
Named after the Roman goddess of both art and warfare, they cover a lot of ground. Main songwriter John Armstrong lifted elements from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (Mind Palace), the Dystopian imagery a la Fischer-Z's Red Skies Over Paradise, The Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane (SS-100-X), English folk (The Harvest) he and his band stitched a mult-coloured tapestry of sounds that fights tooth-and-nail against pigeonholing.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have some issues with the rise of technology on their new single The Great Acceleration. As the current rate of advancement, it won't be long that it could be controlling humanity instead of the other away around. The dreams of a blissful, shiny utopia can turn into post-apocalyptic dystopia if people don't come to their senses.
Manchester based psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound are shooting darts at the eyes of the major labels on their new single West Wind, who are only in it for the money, ready to snap up hopefuls with unfair contracts and cramming on their style if it fails to sell. It is fast, it is angry, and it's highly unfashionable with its Bo Diddley beat and use of flanging, but it will be cherished by serious music fans who might convince a few of their clueless acquintances to check it out.
HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. As per usual many genres are represented. Here Comes The Flood covers a lot of ground and it shows in this eclectic, final tally.
Today: final countdown from number 5 to 1.
Please shop at your local record store. Most of them have a website where you can order your stuff. Buy directly from the artist, attend live shows when it's safe to do so again. Tell your friends. Word-of-mouth can't be beat as the prime source to discover new music.
Manchester psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have made a video for Last Orders, a track from their new album Museum Of Tomorrow: "[They] can make a visit to the Shadow Factory an enticing prospect. Drugs offer only a short reprieve (Opium Eyes) from the horrors of living in the Zombie Century. John Armstrong, the band's songwriter, has found a way to set the post-apocalyptic imagery of writers like John Wyndham to music. The dreams of a better future have become nightmares, but somewhere hope is still on display, waiting to be reappraised and rekindled".
HCTF review of Museum Of Tomorrow.
Manchester psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound have made a video for Opium Eyes, a track from their new album Museum Of Tomorrow: "[They] can make a visit to the Shadow Factory an enticing prospect. Drugs offer only a short reprieve (Opium Eyes) from the horrors of living in the Zombie Century. John Armstrong, the band's songwriter, has found a way to set the post-apocalyptic imagery of writers like John Wyndham to music. The dreams of a better future have become nightmares, but somewhere hope is still on display, waiting to be reappraised and rekindled".
HCTF review of Museum Of Tomorrow.
Manchester psychedelic power pop veterans The Speed Of Sound can't help feeling being duped by a future that never happened. Where are the mono rails, space travel, peace? "We were offered Star Trek, but they fed us Soylent Green", the very first line of opener Tomorrow's World is a both a battle cry and setting the tone for two seamless sets of song suites that take up one side each of Museum Of Tomorrow, a retro-futuristic concept album, bursting at the seams with hooks, ace melodies, and lyrical wizardry. It is a soundtrack for a dystopian movie that tries to chase away the darkness with kaleidoscopic gusto, both in pastel and Technicolor.
The Speed Of Sound can make a visit to the Shadow Factory an enticing prospect. Drugs offer only a short reprieve (Opium Eyes) from the horrors of living in the Zombie Century. John Armstrong, the band's songwriter, has found a way to set the post-apocalyptic imagery of writers like John Wyndham to music. The dreams of a better future have become nightmares, but somewhere hope is still on display, waiting to be reappraised and rekindled.
