Manchester indie rock psychonauts, The Speed Of Sound, have just put out their latest video, “Trickledown,” having earlier shared “The Great Acceleration” and “West Wind.” All three songs come from their brand new album, A Cornucopia: Minerva, out now on California-based cult label Big Stir Records. Check out the new video below and read more from the band.
Buy Minerva here: https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-cornucopia-minerva
John Armstrong (guitars/vocals) notes, “This could easily have been a traditional angry punk song, but gentle smoothness fits the soothing lie behind the Theory. I find the concept of Trickledown Economics bizarre. The idea of everyone owing their economic wellbeing to the existence of the mega-rich is pure sleight of hand fantasy; that they have amassed so much stashed away itself demonstrates it isn’t reaching further down. The stanza borrowed from Shelley’s Masque Of Anarchy (1819) in the middle section shows the general situation hasn’t changed in 200 years.”
Here, they show another side of their craft with this delicate and spaciously haunting floating air, comprised of a soft-hued tonal palette just rich enough in reverb. “Trickledown” puts forward a subtly expressed and quietly understated critique of economic theory, wrapped in a smoothly cast ballad of sheer silk gossamer lightness. A harmoniously mellow and hypnotically absorbing experience like fireworks in slow motion, the lyrics contrasts with razor sharp precision.
Full of ambition, energy, and eccentric melodic brilliance, these future-retro-modernist garage-psych stalwarts offer up their new collection as Vinyl and CD, 3-album sets under the umbrella title A Cornucopia. Essentially Minerva is being released as a deluxe edition, including two full-length bonus albums Victory and Bounty. With A Cornucopia: Minerva coinciding with the band’s 35th anniversary, The Speed Of Sound returns triumphant, defiant and redemptive, following up their 2021 critically acclaimed album Museum Of Tomorrow. Named for the goddess associated with wisdom, the arts and strategic warfare, this album explores themes of resistance to mainstream cultural dominance, championing individual identity and artistic creativity whilst being a vigorous musical celebration of subcultural existence in the face of predominantly bland pop culture.
Minerva is available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. It will also be released on CD and vinyl via Big Stir Records. The Bounty and Victory albums will see digital editions over the next year,
A Cornucopia: Minerva tracklisting:
01 West Wind (2:39)
02 SS-100-X (3:13)
03 Eight Fourteen Monday (2:59)
04 The Party Sniper (People Down There) (3:09)
05 Half Life (2:47)
06 Mind Palace (3:09)
07 The Great Acceleration (4:26)
08 The Harvest (2:28)
09 Bodysnatchers (2:20)
10 Trickledown (3:23)
11 Clickbait (2:39)
12 Yet Another Tuesday (2:54)
13 So Faux (2:59)
14 Question Time (2:53)
With their inbuilt eclectic and genre-defying style, The Speed Of Sound expand from their base-camp foundation of 1960s, punk and new wave influences, encompassing wide dynamic and stylistic variation, crossing borders and pushing boundaries at every opportunity while retaining continuity. Their music bursts with experimentation whilst retaining hooks and melodic sensibility, plus sharp barbed wit, lyrical depth and all-pervading sense of joy.
Irrespressible and uplifting, The Speed Of Sound have continuously produced music laced with optimism and lyrical bite, tapping the DIY ethos of punk and the restless lust for experimentation of psychedelia. Formed in 1989 with a pre-history dating back to the day Andy Warhol died in 1987, their music has always been idiosyncratic, counter-intuitive and perpetually looking for something new.
Lineup:
John Armstrong – guitars and vocals
Ann-Marie Crowley – vocals and guitars
Kevin Roache – bass guitar
John Broadhurst – drums
Henry Armstrong – keyboards
Follow The Speed Of Sound:
https://www.thespeedofsounduk.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheSpeedOfSoundUK
https://www.instagram.com/thespeedofsounduk/
https://x.com/SpeedOfSoundUK
https://youtube.com/@thespeedofsounduk
https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/the-speed-of-sound/380493172
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5NsxAmeLSISiNZH2BcwRVa