The Speed of Sound - A Cornucopia: Victory
Manchester indie rock / power pop outfit The Speed Of Sound present their new single 'Apocalypse Acropolis', a thoughtful chapter of the album 'A Cornucopia: Victory'. Released via Big Stir Records, 'Victory' is the second of the three-album set 'A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty'. They also recently shared several tasters, including 'Underground' and 'The Same River'.
Grounded yet trippy, this song brings a sobering view of the future. A 12-string picking pattern gives way to elevated vocals and overdrive, all while surveying a dead civilisation of industrial ruins and artefacts overtaken by nature, reclaiming the crumbling walls and empty windows of once self-important commercial buildings. All the workplace stress and crushing pressure of deadlines amounted to nothing. Industrial decay merges, becoming inseparable from the ruins of war which drives so much of that trade.
Full of ambition, energy and melodic brilliance, this three-album deluxe edition is available on vinyl and CD. Accompanying the earlier-released 'Minerva' album, The Speed of Sound shared videos for the hauntingly spacious 'Trickledown', the stratospherically vast 'The Great Acceleration', the uplifting 'Mind Palace' and 'West Wind', where a recklessly fast rhythm merges with a Wagnerian horn section.
Formed in 1989 with a pre-history dating back to the day Andy Warhol died in 1987, the band is now 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).
Their music has always been idiosyncratic and counter-intuitive, in search of something new. Creating music with lyrical bite, expanding their foundation of 1960s, punk and new wave influences, their dynamic and stylistic variation crossing borders and pushing boundaries at every opportunity.
Following 2021's critically acclaimed album 'Museum Of Tomorrow', the band returns triumphant, defiant and redemptive with this trilogy, marking their 35th anniversary. Most music is never even recorded, and most recorded music remains unheard. 'Victory' is a celebration of this unheard underground music and the counterculture itself - music made for the pleasure of making it.
'Victory' includes 14 wide-ranging pieces of unheard and highly contagious fresh and unexpectedly shape-shifting grooves. From the supremely danceable 'Underground' through the unabashed sensuality of 'Monsoon' to the gothic lounge jazz of 'Permafrost' and the strangely linked pairing of 'Apocalypse Acropolis' and 'Apocalypse Metropolis', they offer something special here.
From the hypnotic orange-and-sandalwood scented wisps of masala rock in 'Rock Paper Scissors', acoustic powered spaceflight 'in From The Cradle To The Stars' and the reckless garage punk punch of 'Go For It', it becomes clear. There is the data scraping warning of 'X-Y Axis', the post-nostalgia of 'The Same River',and swaggering rock with a pinch of Brazilian sway in 'A Walk By The Sea', while 'E to F' displays glam rock tendencies and a pinball metaphor before the soaring harmonies of 'Empathic Reaction' and ending with the triumphant shimmering elegance of 'Tranquility Falls'.
As of September 20, the 'Victory' album' is available everywhere, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp, where 'Minerva' and the full trilogy 'A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty' can also be obtained on CD or vinyl. The third album - 'Bounty' - shall be released at a later date.
