SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: THE SPEED OF SOUND – “TRICKLEDOWN”

THE SPEED OF SOUND – “TRICKLEDOWN”

A SPILL EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE

Music is the stuff of magic – or is it sonic alchemy? Whatever you may call it, today we have the pleasure of introducing “Trickledown”, the latest audio-visual offering from Manchester powerpop / indie rockers The Speed Of Sound, a quintet made up of father and son John Armstrong (guitars and vocals) and Henry Armstrong (keyboards), Ann-Marie Crowley (vocals and guitar), Kevin Roache (bass guitar) and John Broadhurst (drums).

The new single comes on the trail of “The Great Acceleration” and the album’s lead track “West Wind”. the band reveals the final single from their new album A Cornucopia: Minerva, released by American cult label Big Stir Records.

With a measured pace, a sense of spaciousness and Crowley’s unique vocals, we arrive at a sound recalling a more chilled-out Jefferson Airplane. Taking into consideration all three singles previewed to date, it’s clear that the sonic kaleidoscope presented on The Speed of Sound’s new album is worth the wait – a musical compass in a direction we should all explore.

Full of ambition, energy, and eccentric melodic brilliance, this is the first record of the three-album set A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty from these future-retro-modernist garage-psych stalwarts. While these albums will see digital editions over the next year, the Vinyl and CD versions are 3-disc sets carrying the umbrella title A Cornucopia. Released as deluxe editions, each set includes two full-length bonus albums Victory and Bounty. But it all begins with Minerva.

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’ presents 14 fresh and variegated tracks, each one a burst of differently-hued radio friendly sonic technicolor. These new pieces range from the recklessly fast Bo Diddley rhythm successfully merged with a Wagnerian horn section of lead single “West Wind” to the haunting and spacious ballad critiquing Economic Theory that is “Trickledown” to the stripped back mediaeval folk-tinged starkness of “The Harvest” to the stratospheric vastness of “The Great Acceleration”.

The album passes seamlessly through the acoustic guitar-driven groove of “SS-100-X”, the spacious iridescence of “Eight Fourteen Monday”, the lively ascendence of “The Party Sniper”, the glowing radioactivity metaphor of “Half Life” to the bright uplifting dementia and identity-loss focused “Mind Palace”. While the bouncing vibe of “Bodysnatchers” reminds us to stay awake and not slip into the drabness of normalcy, the crunching melodic punch of “Clickbait” zings into the typewriter introduction of “Yet Another Tuesday”, onwards to the punkifed rhythm and blues of “So Faux” and the closing acoustic riot of “Question Time”.

With their inbuilt eclectic and genre-defying style, The Speed Of Sound expand from their base-camp foundation of multiple 1960s, punk and new wave influences, encompassing wide dynamic and stylistic variation, crossing borders and pushing boundaries at every opportunity while retaining continuity. The music bursts with experimentation whilst retaining hooks and melodic sensibility, plus the sharp barbed wit, lyrical depth and all-pervading sense of joy that form the irrepressible, uplifting hallmarks of this band.

Throughout their 35-year history, 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.

On May 24, Minerva will be released on CD and vinyl via Big Stir Records. The full A Cornucopia collection is available via Bandcamp.

CREDITS

All songs written by John Armstrong
John Armstrong – guitars and vocals
Ann-Marie Crowley – vocals and guitars
Kevin Roache – bass guitar
John Broadhurst – drums
Henry Armstrong – keyboards
Bob Dinn – trumpet and flugelhorn
Chris Guest – harmonium, vibraphone, organ, shakers, tambourine
Alex Armstrong – typewriter on ‘Yet Another Tuesday’
Voices on ‘Mind Palace’ by Janet Stacey Dando, Henry Armstrong, Nick Frater, Jason Edge (courtesy of The Electric Stars), John Broadhurst, Mark Britton (courtesy of Amoeba Teen), Janet Armstrong, Louise Turner, Peter Watts & Ruth Rogers (courtesy of Spygenius) and Kevin Roache, plus Ivy Frater (heartbeat)
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Vibratone Sound Studio in Manchester by Chris Guest, Adam Crossley and The Speed Of Sound.
Main sleeve image: Purple Spaceman © Lina Landers 2022
Artist photographs by Shay Rowan
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR

Also check out the previous singles from this album:

The Speed Of Sound
[Single]
(Big Stir Records)
Release Date: May 24, 2024

Artist Links

Background Photo Credit: Shay Rowan