Manchester Indie Rock / Power Pop band The Speed Of Sound have released  “Artificial Paradise“, an upbeat “rail against Artificial Intelligence”. It’s accompanied by the B-side “Jaunt” which is also the first single revealed from the album A Cornucupia: Bounty, the third of their album trilogy A Cornucopia: Minerva, Victory, Bounty, released via Big Stir Records.

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), as well as Ann-Marie Crowley (vocals and guitar), Kevin Roache (bass guitar) and John Broadhurst (drums). 

John Armstrong explains:

Already the ‘music industry’ appears to have no actual interest in music beyond creating prefabricated manufactured ‘product’. The logical next step from their existing ‘talent factories’ and hologram concerts perpetuating careers of dead stars is for major labels to move to entirely virtual stars; AI singing AI songs with AI instruments. AI regurgitates what is available for it to scrape, it cannot create something new. There will be no advancement, no evolution, no change. There is no life without change.

‘Artificial Paradise’ is uncompromisingly human and says a firmly grooved up “No” to Artificial Intelligence in music. The video uses A.I images which are all generated from the prompt “Artificial Paradise” and are all meaningless, formless and empty. Which is exactly what A.I does.

Following 2021’s album Museum Of Tomorrow, the band has returned with this trilogy, marking their 35th anniversary. The Bounty album will be officially released on November 22, 2024.