Virtual Reality 123: A dramatically beautiful, yet desolate soundscape unfurls within the startlingly atmospheric pairing of grand piano and guitar feedback blended with the human voice. Virtual Reality 123 is joyous and steely resolute in its determination to create and inhabit a personal parallel universe. A separate realm constructed for the purpose of keeping the work/life spheres completely separate. A possibility powered by enabling and running an ‘alternative-life’ programme alongside the daily grind. Stepping from one to the other and closing the door between them. Replacing the drudgeries of the physical analogue personal life with a digital perfection. The virtual world becomes a refuge from actual existence and the place when life exists in a state of perpetual euphoria.
“This is the full version of Virtual Reality - as originally conceived - parts 1, 2 and 3. It was simply too long to fit on the album in its entirety, so here it is in its unedited glory. We couldn’t get the piano into the recording studio so we recorded that remotely and added it in.”
Throughout their 33year history Manchester UK collective The Speed Of Sound are always idiosyncratic, counter-intuitive and perpetually looking for something new. This pairing of two fresh extended pieces explores more space than is available within the physical constraints of vinyl within their highly acclaimed Museum Of Tomorrow album (out now on Big Stir Records). In the process both pieces become epic in differing and unexpected ways.
Is this Progressive Pop? There is only one way to find out:
The Speed Of Sound are:
John Armstrong - Songwriting/Guitars/Vocals, Ann-Marie Crowley - Vocals/Guitars, Kevin Roache - Bass Guitar, John Broadhurst - Drums, Henry Armstrong - Keyboards.
Vive Le Rock - ‘Unique and other worldly”
The Big Takeover - “Unmistakeable sound - a winning formula”
Louder Than War - “A triumph of industry, imagination and talent, coolly novel and damned addictive”
Rock At Night - “A form of Art-Pop that is wry, incisive, yet a deeply listenable examination of post industrial culture”
Blitzed Magazine - “The Speed Of Sound are an outfit that should have had a much higher profile over the past three decades
Dancing About Architecture - “A blend of disparate creative threads woven together into a cohesive and fantastic design as only The Speed Of Sound is capable of”
Here Comes The Flood - “(The Speed Of Sound have) found a way to set the post-apocalyptic imagery of writers like John Wyndham to music”
Something Else - “Rife with power packed pop melodies and harmonious instrumentation”
The Manc Review - “a riotous maelstrom of musical mayhem”
Voix De Garage - “Plus que brillant et totalement unique!”
Zani - “A modern classic of independent music”
Album link: orcd.co/thespeedofsound-bsr
Website: thespeedofsounduk.com
Facebook: / thespeedofsounduk
Twitter: / speedofsounduk
Instagram: @thespeedofsounduk