Posts Tagged ‘The Speed Of Sound’

Watch: ‘Eight Fourteen Monday’ by The Speed Of Sound

Posted: 27 February 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Long-serving Manchester UK Psychonauts The Speed Of Sound present ‘Eight Fourteen Monday’, a compelling highlight track from their mega-album trilogy A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty, released via Californian cult label Big Stir Records.

Arriving on the heels of their latest audio-visual trip – ‘Permafrost’, this song narrates the everyday experience of a dreary commute to explore themes of isolation, detachment, and the contrast between superficial politeness and genuine emotion, all while subtly referencing the devastating historical event of Hiroshima.

Since their formation in 1989, The Speed of Sound’s 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.

“Light and spaciously airy, the music contrasts with the imagery of a dark and gloomy early Monday Manchester morning commute. The inevitable announcements of delays and cancelations say “we would like to apologise” rather than “we apologise”; a subtle difference with a totally different meaning. Everyone is wrapped in their own thoughts and staring at their phones, retreating internally to avoid thinking about the discomfort of the journey,” says frontman John Armstrong, further noting "Eighty years ago, as of August, the bomb fell above Hiroshima at eight fourteen on a Monday.”

With overlapping themes of independence – both culturally and artistically – each disc of the A Cornucopia trilogy has its own vibe and personality: Minerva is belligerence in musical form, Victory is a manifesto of artistic creativity and Bounty represents the fruits of artistic freedom, all taking place far from the grasping tentacles of the ‘music industry’.

A Cornucopia began with the band’s own love of the album format and a determination to make long-form music rather than merely produce a conveyor belt of unrelated singles. The interlocking themes of A Cornucopia are deliberately made for album listeners to enjoy, each disc being its own standalone entity while also forming part of the larger whole trinity.

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Photo by Shay Rowan

The Speed Of Sound – Replicant / The Melancholy Rose

Posted: 28 May 2021 in Singles and EPs
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Big Stir Records – 4th June 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

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 said 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. The 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.

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The Speed Of Sound Artwork