Unknown, vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop that only MaresNest and I actually like

Am listening to Stars In Battledress and they're kinda great! The songs 'I Spook The Language', 'Polished Floors' and most of all the AMAZING 'Doing Well' especially! 'Doing Well' might be one of my favourite piano ballads ever. So beautiful and tense. Plus, James Larcombe used to post here!

But this is also a thread for The Monsoon Bassoon. A thread for Silvery. A thread for Zag And The Coloured Beads. A thread for The Display Team. A thread for LAPSUS FUCKING LINGUAE who could have had it all but chose to grace us with fragments of a great confession. And a thread for anyone else who doesn't have their own thread, but made (or still makes) lovely, spangly, awkward music.

N.B. Lapsus Linguae aren't really from the same school as most of these else; they're Scottish, hadn't heard of Cardiacs, and heavy as fuck. I actually think they're true originals in the purest sense, and that they are possibly the most interesting British band of the decade. But the others are all great too!

I didn't see this thread! My Stars In Battledress pick is "Oh Engineer". I need to hear Zag and the Coloured Beads.

Did the younger Mr Larcombe post more than once or twice? He is the person who first told me I needed to hear Z+CB and that was a decade ago and I still haven't.

Drawing kind of a blank on other things to mention here, but since you like Cardiacs and you like heaviness, do you like Camp Blackfoot? Also not really from the same school but they did share a split single with Cardiacs. Their tracks on the split are not their best work, which is a shame because the Cardiacs side is ace. They are one of those curious bands that at the time I thought was just OK but I seem to keep thinking about them since they disappeared.

For some reason this kind of weather seems like exactly the right weather for listening to Spratley's Japs. I think I got it one snowy winter and still associate it with snow.

The Larcombe brothers other band Defeat The Young are worth a mention, although I'm not sure if they ever actually released anything.

They* had 3 tracks on a Day Release "singles club" thing some years ago. I don't know of any others, but there may be more.

* possibly not "they" as I think those recordings may have been just Richard L on his own.

I have that Camp Blackfoot split CD somewhere - I recall one track being really standout great. It was pretty hard to find anything else by them at the time, dunno how easy it'd be now. Maybe easier.

If you should see a Pandemonium Records sampler in a record shop for cheap (originally cost a quid, I think) then I recommend picking that up as it will get you the best tracks (in my opinion of course) by Camp Blackfoot AND Coping Saw.

http://www.pandemoniumrecords.com/uk/cata/ycompi98.html

I would offer copies of anything I've mentioned, as it's probably more or less out of print, but should probably go home and check I can actually find the CDs first. (Yeah, I really am that disorganised.)

Louis, have you heard Deaf School yet? I think they might be your thing. Early-'80s punk-prog. Perhaps a little more Jarvis-y than Cardiacs, but still formidable considering they don't seem to have ever registered on the pop map.

this sampler is key to this thread:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XFPAAKFTL.jpg

tracks from the bassoon, foe, lapsus, defeat the young, etc.

http://www.last.fm/music/Various+Artists/House+of+Stairs+Vol+1+-+Useless+in+Bed

was never that into defeat the young/stars in battledress, though I saw them a few times. very, very clever musicians, but I found it a bit cold, pastoral and stuffy for my tastes.

second the camp blackfoot love, though.

and did anyone get kavus bassoon's knife world album last year? very, very good, if not a million miles away from the monsoon bassoon.

Ah! I have been wanting to hear Knife World for some years and didn't know that I could now actually buy some.

PS since I mentioned Coping Saw above I should poss. mention that they are nothing to do with this thread's sound at all. Just in case anyone with a desire to hear weird-assed chord changes thought it was a recommendation and found that there weren't any chord changes at all. But they have a fine slice of intense, chugging one-chord krautpop on that comp with some more on-topic bands.

louis have you checked out brainiac at all? i think you might like em.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okRqEE39LsM&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlynAfC39BM&feature=related

Talking of American bands, how about Extra Life? maybe it's just that the singing reminds me a little of Richard Larcombe e.g. on track "I Don't See It That Way" (on their Myspace if you haven't heard it), but they seem to have worked their way around to a similar melodic/harmonic approach from a very different background.

(NB I have v. little formal musical grounding so bear with me if I am out of my depth drawing parallels on grounds of "I think they are doing the same weird thing which I don't understand")

Took me quite a while to come round to Extra Life but I've a lot of time for their album from last year - some pretty thumping metal riffs on there too iirc

extra life are fantastic. 'secular works' is possibly the best math-metal-prog-madrigal album of last year.

Yep Yep, I sent Louis a copy of the HOS sampler, thought he might be interested.

I started this thread after receiving that sampler!! It's great!!

CAMP BLACKFOOT - ILX poster 'everything', in sending his now-legendary consignment of Cardiacs CDs to moi from Canada in late '06, also sent a few MOTLEY odds and ends such as CRITICAL SEED VS THE SPARTAN SOCIETY by CAMP BLACKFOOT. Hence I have that album. It's VERY GOOD. Especially the mental 14-minute opening track. It fills me with joy whenever a song from it comes on my shuffle. A gnarled, jazzy, heavy monster-truck of weirdnoise. Confrontational and fiendishly clever.

Didn't hear Knife World. I need to. Oh yes.

Brainiac were neat! Crazy mental punk. The world needs as much of that as it can get. Will relisten...

spacecadet, you mentioned on the Max Tundra thread that you knew of a couple of places to find out about this sort of music. Prithee?

*heads to Extra Life myspace*

ok this is a FYI to everyone on ILX

if you hear a band like Extra Life, the FIRST thing you do is PM me their name

kthx

it's like a pop Kayo Dot!

Oh, well, I only meant that (I assume) such things get talked about on the Cardiacs forum and in Organ zine/website. Though last time I read Organ the ratio of bands I like to e.g. Raging Speedhorns was unpromisingly low, and now I look at the "other bands" section of the Cardiacs forum there aren't many bands I haven't heard of on the front page, so I may have been mistaken in those assumptions.

Well then, we will just have to make this thread the place to go to find out about this sort of music. Whatever this sort of music is. Right, let's get to it!

the Cardiacs forum

which I post to sometimes! Found out about a band called 4.P.A.t.T. there. Seemed promising but sadly they're a band who prize being wacky and silly about 20x more than writing, you know, good music. Hence they come off as being really quite annoying. A couple of good songs, mind. The 4 is actually an a but I've googleproofed them because they're so obscure this kind of adverse publicity may not be ideal.

Also found out about Silvery. They were MUCH better. :D

I don't read Organ at all.

Like I say, that Extra Life is IMMENSE. Well, what I can hear of it is.

And yeah, THIS is the new home of awkward tuneful avant-rock!!! Wooooooooo! Come, all ye damaged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SctpF4SfMuU

that wasn't bad! a bit shrill maybe tho? will try it again

what i wanted to say is that stars in battledress were really onto something with 'polished floors' and could have explored that expansive kitchen-sink wall-of-production vein a little more fully. tim smith plus a big strings remit equals joyness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mpprg8Bt1U&feature=related

They were pretty eclectic, kind of straddling pub rock and glam and punk and costello and lounge and roxy, but very original all the same.

Sleepy People, '90s Festival band which may have formal Cardiacs connections buried somewhere in its twisted history. morphed into Ultrasound, more or less, and the much weirder Blue Apple Boy. track down Typhoid and Swans for the songs, live cassette Blunt Nails In a Sharp Wall for the craziness.

Speedvark. they sound like a mix of Cardiacs, Ankst-era SFA, Gentle Giant, and, i dunno, something dubby and offbeat, like Leslie Winer's album as (C) or prime Moonshake. track for track, their lone album (Pigeon Pop) is nothing if not an unpredictable listen. not every track is a gem, but there's enough promise here to make one wonder what might have been had success come knocking.

Eggs. another band that never went as far as they could have (for that there's Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers), but [i]Exploder</i? always seemed very Cardiacs-influenced to me. for all their talk of reinventing "white funk," they weren't doing anything Tim & Co. hadn't already done. and the growth they displayed between their Unrest Jr. phase and their sudden implosion was amazing.

oh, i've got it! Long Fin Killie! that's what Speedvark sounds like. eerily so, sometimes. but "Gentle Giant" + "something dubby and offbeat" may already have conveyed that.

consider me intrigued! especially in speedvark. am already a big fan of that ultrasound album, i ought to investigate their various offshoots/forebears...

Wow the new Extra Life album is pretty immense - I really hope more than ten people buy it, this probably won't happen but I do think a world where they crossed over enough to snuffle up some of 2010's stockpile of Dirty Projector $$$ would be a fair and just one. It's a lot less abrasive than the last record, though, so I dunno a lucky break maybe?

looooove the new extra life, but I'm intrigued by the fact that you found it 'a lot less abrasive' - seems to me on the whole to be far heavier, more dense, more muscular than the first one. 'secular works' was pretty airy by comparison.

the increased density is especially true of the last track, 'the body is true', which is just colossal.

^^^am gonna be on this shit ASAP

meanwhile, having seen the excellent but cardiacs-unaware thomas white a coupla times recently, i've struck up an entente with his drummer, one Damo Waters, who performs as Muddy Suzuki, and who IS cardiacs-aware

to spectacular effect

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=1440525&albumid=12760785

recommend 'chorus tortoise', 'after you' and 'escher sketch' especially, but WOW. mostly at 'chorus tortoise'. and hey check out those new tracks on his main myspace! 'tanks for all the enemies' is EPIC http://www.myspace.com/muddysuzuki

can vouch for this guy's character as well. he is A++++++++++++++++. and *astonishingly* talented.

oh and check out this other band he's in! http://www.myspace.com/ataraxylondon

really nice alt-pop, 'la muneca' and 'ice on skin' especially - the lady from this band was also at TW and is similarly delightful!

also 'amaretto'...these ppl nail SOMETHING i can't quite put my finger on - some sort of relumed 90's pop vibe that hits a spot

'ice on skin', 'chorus tortoise' and 'tanks for all the enemies' are the songs you HAVE to hear from tonight's i-just-met-these-people-and-they're-great propaganda sesh

also 'd-punk/shimmering' is rapidly growing on me

ok this Extra Life is fucking IMMENSE. closing track has just started.

the last track is the clear winner, imo.

ok that was HUGE

but on first listen I think 'The Ladder' might be my fave

this strikes me as the kind of music that will just get better every time. Kayo POP amirite

sea nymphs album predictably lovely

Told ya

Knifeworld album is great! How did I only get round to it now?

also I note MaresNest has a playing credit on the album. DUDE YOU SHOULD TELL ME ABOUT THESE THINGS

actually it reads like a big happy Cardiacsy/Monsoon Bassoony reunion party; Max Tundra, J Larcombe of Stars In Battledress and most of TMB turn up in there

ok this fucken closing track

(not that the rest isn't brilliant but come the fuck on)

finally some video (albeit shaky and with dirty audio) of the guae on youtube. full set from 2006 gig at Bull & Gate.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EQCkuSuTnNY&hl=en_GB&fs=1&";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EQCkuSuTnNY&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

fucksake html fail

Extra Life's 'Made Flesh' is EVEN BETTER on returning, if that was possible

jeez what an album

also hurrah for the Guae footage, will dive in...

I am late on this thing but I just found a podcast of Kavus Torabi-related stuff and things and an interview! I ran over here to post the link before I'd even listened, so please don't hate me if it's not very good. But how could it be?
http://www.epilepticgibbon.co.uk/

Also hanging my head because the previous two show tracklistings include Joff Winks, who was local to me in Oxford for a while but I never saw, and Alright The Captain, who were local to me in Belfast for a while but I never saw. I suck, OK? (Haven't listened to those either, so maybe they do too, mind.)

Should probably have linked to the permalink for future generations.

this track is 1:35 of pretty melodies and then 0:35 of holy shit what just happened

http://open.spotify.com/track/3Bgxm1dKUaLjRVmjUIDU7g
Americans go here http://www.myspace.com/toarmsetc and listen to 'Berries' for that is it (also listen to The Black Pampas for a passable VdGG impression)

the album's pretty good as well

Extra Life's 'Made Flesh' is EVEN BETTER on returning, if that was possible

jeez what an album

― acoleuthic, Saturday, 21 August 2010 02:31 (5 months ago)

my god, listening to it again on headphones, my god my god my god, why was this only my #4 of 2010? oh I know it is because there were at least 3 other flat-out sensational albums released last year.

more people need to hear it. may colonise Johnny Fever's thread and proselytise it in a few weeks. Has the added advantage of being hated by Johnny Fever, so at least I'll cause annoyance

THUMPERMONKEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCT7kioyXSU

Whateley is probably their stand-out track, but they've got an insane live-show, a new record coming out in September, and lovely kind hearts. HEAR THEM if you like the idea of hypermelodic math-doom-prog with close harmony and guitars the size of GIANT PEACHES

(or in other words, the above song is probably the single piece of music released in the past 5 years that is most mathematically precision-engineered to appeal to me)

Hi LJ, how are you?

Also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAYxGBZLQuc

I'm good! I have like 2 or 3 posts in the OAWIA bank coz I've taken to not posting or really even reading ILX of late, it's too much of a downer

Anyway yeah. Work's going well, scored 71 in a cricket match t'other week, married life is quite the bower of idyll (yours also I trust)

...but most importantly, I now have a reliable roster of bands to follow dutifully around London (basically, Knifeworld + those who sail with them, which generally means Thumpermonkey, and To Arms Etc, our scandalously-overlooked math-pop wedding band)

Do you have any suggested additions to the list? Perhaps we should convene

(oh and what about that song eh)

xpost

BARRINGTONE TOTALLY PLAYED THE THUMPERMONKEY GIG I WAS AT THE OTHER DAY!!!! They were fucking amazing and fun as a bun. There was an instrumental track that blew my Christ-goddamn head off. Melodic and rhythmic complexity closer to Autechre than yer average three-man band

I got into Extra Life b/c of this thread, very excellent stuff

Don't wanna bother you dudes but a list of 5-10 good records along this vein would be much appreciated

Extra Life from Brooklyn? Nice dudes.

http://extralifetheband.blogspot.de/ = Extra Life broke up which is a shame but the new stuff sounds promising. p keen on the idea of the frontman doing a metal(-influenced) band

POSTING SPREE

Extra Life's new one was very, very good if not quite Made Flesh, but it is hard to see where they could have gone from there as a three-piece with such a fixed and distinctive musical dynamic so not the worst news.

New Thumpermonkey album is GREAT and you gotta hit up their Soundcloud asap if you fancy bathing in joyous math-prog-metal-pop any time soon. Blackout is pretty much the most kickass song of the year and is what Muse really ought to sound like (even nicks one of their songtitles!) but never will

I just heard it for the first time. "Ten Year Teardrop" made me laugh during the Weird Al freakout in the middle and I feel bad for it :(

feel like this band VIRUS are calculated LJ-bait, being as they are Ulver's pals from Oslo and rooted in black metal but not really anything to do w/ it at this point. the album I linked to is idk 70s prog meets 80s goth, but the good end of both of those. not coming up w/ anything more specific right now. also there's a Walker Brothers cover at the end. anyway I really like it

^^^that was cool btw, need to give it a listen or two more

just dropping by to say that North Sea Radio Orchestra are making some of the best music, leave it at that really

God, I really love this Stars In Battledress they premiered at "Roastfest" back in 2011. Here's hoping the Brothers Larcombe can actually stop playing in other people's bands long enough to finish recording their second album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxLuAA7yDtM

There's a song that they played me once years ago for the second SIB record called something like, Women of the ministry that is so fucking good, I've been waiting for those two to finish their record so I can hear it again.

Roastfest was amazing and I'm sad I missed half of it. I didn't miss William D Drake though, or SIB. That new song was amazing, as was Fluent English, which came out on the Believers Roast compilation. You know that James Larcombe used to post to ILX, right?

Yep, I know those bums.

can you tell them to hurry up and record album 2 then? and keep pestering lapsus linguae while yer about it

While we are discussing our decade-old House of Stairs-related longings, does anyone know who Desmotabs were? Bonus points if you have a giant stash of unreleased Desmotabs material you'd like to send me.

Extra bonus points if you have any of the electronic music that Sarah from the Monsoon Bassoon was working on after the split (according to my hazy memory of a drunkenly shouted and possibly misheard conversation at a gig) but no, I don't hold out any hope of ever hearing that, even if I didn't totally mishear...

I remember a couple of JL posts under his real name. Did he post more under a different name? My ILXmail should work if anyone feels moved to indulge my gossipy nature.

Desmotabs was a mate of The Monsoons lot, I am hazarding a guess but he might be the dude that goes by the name of Gasman that appeared on the Cardiacs tribute. I will ask if this is the case.

I have no idea if Sarah ever finished her solo stuff and I haven't spoken with her in age.

As far as LL goes, Callum is kinda the keeper of the fabled lost second record and most of it is done, they need to finish vocals and he intends to do that, but they are all over the map now, he has sneaked me a couple of roughs and they are awesome, so it'd be a real shame if it never happened.

Ah, I like the Gasman, have lots of his stuff! I did wonder if it was him as there are some similarities.

This is a pleasing jigsaw-puzzle-fit of an answer, but at the same time (if it is him) it's also a little sad there isn't some other elusive electro-pronker out there waiting to surprise me with a full album...

I'll ask Kavus, he will know, I imagine Desmotabs is kinda hard to google

The 2nd Lapsus Linguae album part-exists on YouTube as a Bull & Gate gig, and even recorded through a phone it's quite obviously a monster

I've emailed Calum and asked him to come on here and explain the sitch, so stay tuned.

XP - Kavus just replied, apparently the HOS track was it for Desmotabs (as far as released music goes) he turned his back on weird music soon after apparently, sorry!

What a waste! Thanks for finding out though.

what's a good NSRO album to start with? always meant to give em a listen

I'd love to contribute to this thread but I really think everyone who posts here knows every band I like :/

Hey frogbs, just chip in, I owe you bigtime anyway for the amazing amount of JP music you have uncovered and posted about.

Either of the two NSRO records are worth your attention, don't sleep on this either

http://shrubbies.bandcamp.com/

Craig & Sharon's pre NSRO band.

Maybe the Fibonaccis...but not sure. It's been too long since the last time I listened to them.

There's three NSRO records! They're all good, though.

I always find it really weird that Richard Larcombe used to be in a band with, of all people, Iain Lee. They split due to Lee's commitment to his TV "career". He might've been better off sticking with the band in retrospect.

All three NSRO albums are amazing. The first one or the third one would be best for starters, I think - the second one's a bit less immediate.

Loving MN's connections! The world of melody-soaked English art-pop is a smaller one than it perhaps should be...

Here's one off the third album that I'm currently obsessing over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL4f_AP2loQ

William D Drake's solo stuff is absolutely urgent + key too

Roughly 1/5 of my life is spent thinking this is the best genre of all the genres, if it is a genre

Long-shot question: anyone remember a track by a band in this genre called "Popocatepetl" from maybe 10-15 years ago? I thought it was Lapsus Linguae but I'm not getting anything from Google.

Pop-A-Cat-A-Petal was Ultrasound's name before they were Ultrasound, was that what you were thinking of? I think they did release some material under that name early on.

never heard them but wasn't that the name of the singer from Ultrasound's band before he joined Ultrasound

er xp

I've seen it spelled like the volcano too I think?

maybe wrongly but

Ah okay. This has helped. I think it's a track by them on one of the ORG Records compilations I was thinking of. I have to take a look through my old CD box.

i thought i had all the org comps but clearly i don't!

was going through boxes of 45s the other day to chuck in the skip and found a rich seam of monsoon bassoon records, timely..

Hmm, weren't all the Monsoon Bassoon recordings(including unreleased stuff) supposed to be coming out in a big box? Wonder what happened to that.

Huh, I forgot about that, I was looking forward to buying it if it ever happens. And when oh when will the Deep Turtle retrospective finally come out?

(if anyone on this thread has not heard Deep Turtle, check out whatever you can find on youtube - There's a Vomitsprinkler in my Liverriver is a fine album and possibly the best album title ever - and join me in crying over the total out-of-print-ness of all of it. crazy Finns)

whole album, will listen now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ8mRPIC8Y4

ohhhh yes

upgrade that to *oh my fucking lord*

like a more seamless, less self-conscious mr bungle, but with possibly more range and better songwriting? and a slier humour? and more punk? camp blackfoot were mentioned upthread - their music is pretty much in this album's unhinged shadow (as is the mars volta, kinda)

each trilogy (interesting deconstruction of 'prog' as essentially consisting, short-story-style, of a beginning, middle and end) so far has been better than the one before it, and the first one was fucking amazing

alright, here you go (from a band I've been really digging lately)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLi1ivZ4cXk

outside of the Cardiacs themselves I don't really find much modern prog that compares to the good ol' bands but lately I realized that I prefer them over Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, etc

one more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EqAxBJUjM

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ODPHJDJDJDFODIFPCUXUXTZTSHSJDLDOZYZJDFJjsHSKudodivjdocjfpsudkzgxy6*7*7_?"'?"?'?"+"+#68(9'7

https://www.facebook.com/lapsus.linguae.band

Is that you LJ?

once a week wasn't ample enough

I get it, ta

stay tuned for big project involving kavus from cardiacs/guapo, jg thirlwell, max tundra, bob drake, weasel walter, myself, and many more...

its really awesome how a hyperactive chiptune kinda guy like Max Tundra is part of this whole scene. keep us posted Dom!!!

*actually dies*

dom yr spoiling me so goddamn rotten I don't even

I mean

Yeah really...spill the beans here whenever it's prudent please.

haha I will!

This is kinda great.

http://superbestfriendsclub.co.uk/

Meant to post this a long time ago, but kept forgetting (ignore the video footage):

http://youtu.be/53omd2Bj2zs?t=52s

dunno maresnest - it's kinda everything everythingy or gang gang dancey rather than cardiacsy, and it hasn't gripped me

wtf is that shit hexagon

Bah! :)

Anyhoo, permit me to shill a little of my past. We just put up on Bandcamp a math-y thing I was part of a number of years ago.

http://foeband.bandcamp.com/

I already have that somewhere! (Thanks to you, admittedly.) It's very cool and I'll give it a good relisten today.

I can't get over how abysmal that video cr1msonh3xagon posted is. Out, negativity!

this Knifeworld album is really wonderful. I really hope another one comes along soon. I'm on my 4th listen, which is the point where I start to really unravel the structures of the tunes, and they're just so well put together. Miles ahead of Monsoon Bassoon (in my opinion)

Like minded folks may appreciate this new HeatWarmer rekkid

http://heatwarmer.bandcamp.com/

not feeling it, sorry. doesn't have the magic. comes off precious, forced-twee blathering. gonna listen to actual cardiacs instead maybe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY_ekVg8e0g

^^^the magic

Your adherence to the thread title is kinda tiresome LJ

just giving my own goddamned opinion. or would you prefer silence?

sorry, it's a bad month/year, life stinks and Heatwarmer did nothing to make me feel any better, *whether Cardiacsy or no*

besides, soon the belated lapsus linguae will bulldoze thru these petty differences and unite the whole avant-prog division into a single unending rapture

I wasn't asking for your opinion

what the hell, dude

*makes suggestion*

*instant review based on three partials on the bandcamp site ANCIENT CARDIACS YOUTUBE*

I mean fuck off yeah

sheesh it's like you're in the band or something

but your own music (at least, what i've heard of it) is a zillion times better than whatever that was, so you clearly aren't

maybe the first couple of tracks are duff. what's your favourite track? there might be a good track.

like, for fuck's sake, you made an album suggestion not two days ago (shrubbies) and I listened to the album twice through and *adored* most of it. it's not like i regularly shit over your recommendations. quite the opposite. one happens to fall a bit flat and you go all bovine on me, what the hell

this is why the left always fucking lose

^^^anyway, enough of this idiocy

stay tuned for big project involving kavus from cardiacs/guapo, jg thirlwell, max tundra, bob drake, weasel walter, myself, and many more...

― Dominique, Friday, 8 March 2013 15:32 (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've just ordered it! Turned out to be the following mouthwatering confection: https://thegenepool.f-ten.net/items/1108.htm

Can't wait to hear it.

In even-more-exciting news, Lapsus Linguae have put a nearly-finished version of the EP up. It's terrifyingly good. And to think it's the unpolished version of the starter course: http://lapsus-linguae.bandcamp.com/

The Exquisite Corpse Game is amazing :D

Pointless to pick favourite 'bits' - of all the devices to ensure full-album listening, privileging the whole over the parts, this is perhaps the most ingenious I've heard yet. Helps that the roster of artists have produced universally fine, mutually-understanding work

Devious brownie-points to Dominique for completely changing his tune (as 'twere) with exactly twenty seconds to go, you big troublemaker you ;)

I *will* say that Max Tundra is on fairly riotous form, even by his standards.

Sheesh, this record could have been called Amazing Segues: The Album. This is the proggest thing ever :D

this is the first I've heard about the existence of this ... I actually want a copy

wtf how have I not heard of this Mutation project yet

Imago, I have a question for you, if you'll indulge me. There is a post from some years ago somewhere on ilx (perhaps on this very thread) in which you mention the Liverpool band a.P.A.t.T. and mention that despite them being the kind of thing that you like you hadn't been very impressed by any of the tracks by them that you'd heard. Have you heard any more a.P.A.t.T. since then? Have you changed your opinion of them at all?

There's a band from Liverpool called a.P.a.T.T. on the other hand who are yet to square their immensely whimsical ambitions with not sounding like a load of show-offy
kids on maximum annoying mode. It's a sort of cutesy-arty-sans-craft melange of not-actually-very-good ideas with the occasional bright spark.

This the post, I'd forgotten than I could just put 'a.P.A.t.T.' into the search box, somehow.

How very rude of me. There was a second album. I liked one of the songs, a silly spook-out called Two Fifths Julie Walters. There was an ever-so-arch straight-pop 'prank' called Yves Saint-Laurent which was awful. The rest I completely forget (think the opening track Liverwort wasn't bad though). Why do you ask?

No particular reason, I searched for a.P.A.t.T on ilx and found that post, probably years ago now and the thread just reminded me of them. I sat next to a couple of them once at a showing of 'It Came From Outer Space' with a live soundtrack by Pere Ubu at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

I felt like I was in with the in crowd.

Haha! You were in with a crowd. Maybe their third album will nail it. Far too goofy-without-substance for me as it stands though.

Incidentally, this song is pretty much what the computer would come up with if you put everything I liked into it at the same time: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/mutation-napalm-death-the-wildhearts-and-the-fall-new-song

OK, just smiled for the first time today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWYqV4zxjkA

Error 500 is amazing, of course. The White Leg songs are pretty much roided-out Sing To God songs (thanks Jon Poole!)

The title-track from the Shrubbies album stands alongside any NSRO material, maybe (that's a monstrous call coming from me)

http://shrubbies.bandcamp.com/track/memphis-in-texas

What is nsro?

North Sea Radio Orchestra, one of the greatest bands in the world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2rUUcs0G4

might be a bit too reserved for you idk

Okay, so Regal Worm have been doing it for me recently and are not unlike Knifeworld in spots.

http://regalworm.bandcamp.com/

This is some of the best neo-prog I've heard

They seem to be genuinely inspired by yer Soft Machines and King Crimsons without slavishly trying to repeat them

Now THIS thread I can get behind.

All that's missing is Uz Jsme Doma:
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/kapka-droplet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3QkuY7ZU8

Long-running sort of pronk from the Czech Republic (I don't know why the video's pulsating like that in the youtube link though).

Oh, there's an UJD video upthread. Oops.

Time of Orchids were something fucking special, and relevant to the thread I think. Both of their drummers have been/are now in Kayo Dot if that's relevant to you. Wonderful twisty avant-math-prog with some goose-bump inducing melodies (on their last two albums at least... their early work isn't so hot).

http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/darling-abandon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwMizKi2Ilc

Former guitarist and drummer Dave Bodie are now in another cool new avant-prog band too!

http://infantephant.bandcamp.com/releases

Just finished Regal Worm, and what a fun trip it was - onto the rest!

MaresNest, what's the latest on This Is Puberty? The Kickstarter updates have stopped coming :P

Actually, I'm not too sure. I know that Calum is shouldering most of the responsibility when it comes to manufacturing, mailing and all the rest, he might still be dealing with the tail end of the Ghosts EP.

Oh and also, Kitten Pyramid are this other band that I have been digging recently who are a kind of electro/acoustically Glam/Barrett/Ayers thing with Atom Heart Mother interludes with possibly some very early Cardiacs.

https://soundcloud.com/kittenpyramid

Also LJ, do you know this OLD rekkid?

The best thing ever, nobody cares and it sold bugger all but I still listen to it all the time, it's genuinely odd and lovely.

Old Lady Drivers were this pretty awful death metal joke band and then they truncated their name and made this which is more like a glacial, druggy Young Gods.

James Plotkin made most of it with just the singer iirc. The whole thing is on YT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLm2ozVoiyg

And it sold so badly (one of Earache's worst selling ever) you can still buy a new/original copy from them for a fiver on Ebay.

um, holy fucking shit @ OLD

I listened to Infantephant and it was cool if a bit too noodly - will try again soon. Then I listened to Naked City :D

Time Of Orchids I need to devote a bit more time to, maybe over the weekend

Might go for Kitten Pyramid next, that's an enticing write-up

this OLD is simply magnificent

Kitten Pyramid like a beefed-up, weirded-out take on Silvery's glam-prog shenanigans. They're fucking great

Thought you might like OLD, such a shame nobody gives a shit.

Giving the Kitten Pyramid EP another go-around (it's a remarkably varied 12 minutes) and then I might explore that OLD record more deeply. It sounds like absolutely nothing else I've heard

that OLD stuff is pretty cool. me likey.

I love the disintegrating end of KP's English Rosa, tons of fun

Michael, the whole of that OLD record is a bit of a journey, worth spending some time with.

will check it out, its on spotify

Listening to it in order. Halfway through 'Break (You)'. Completely overwhelmed tbh, this is insanely good

There's one track where they just splice in 30 secs of an Old Lady Drivers bootleg or something for no perceivable reason, it's quite strange.

LOL literally AS I read that, it happened :D about a minute into Thug. They bleed the original song back in really beautifully, in fact

Cover is great too, that calculator font

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ke9I0GFSL.jpg

oversaturated, weirdly-filtered photos are a particular joy of mine

On the last track now. This has all reminded me, a very little, of Devin Townsend's quieter stuff, but much, much harder to place. Its obtuseness is delicious.

Yea I'm listening to it too, last track is a slight curveball, but it grows on you.

yeah just listening to it now. its a slippery divil. once you got a handle on it, it flies off in some other mad direction. its hard to place it indeed. a bit of IDM, a bit of skronk....

The only clear influence - to my ear at least - is The Young Gods and even that only really applies to the samples and drums in a few songs.

New Stars in Battledress! (File next to Lapsus Linguae under things I thought I'd never hear)

http://www.thegenepool.co.uk/items/1361.htm

New song is dreamy.

Oh and re: OLD I've heard and liked the earlier stuff but never checked out Formula...

I don't know what I think of it yet, I'm still getting over the fact that Alan Dubin's *singing*

oh that new SiB song is lovely

have been listening to the O.L.D. album a LOT. atomsmasher is also incredible

I fear I haven't given Atomsmasher fair crack of the whip, I will revisit when I'm back from my hols.

I've only heard one Cardiacs album, but I feel like Eldridge Skell's The Rude Staircase are relevant to this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzHXtG1wR-w

https://myspace.com/therudestaircase

that was cool - wacky & mad with a RIO/pronk attitude, although I wouldn't necessarily say Cardiacsy (interestingly, the first comment is from a chap who contributed a cover to the Tim Smith benefit album); its melodic sensibility is overwhelmingly Beatlesy, for mine. The most Cardiacsy band from America right now is, as far as I'm aware, Blanche Blanche Blanche, whom I absolutely fucking adore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZ8_lD-fPk

I may nonetheless check out Eldridge Skell and his Rude Staircase further, because it had something of the Mr Bungle/Primus sado-masochism about it

For no reason, Funzig popped into my head in the middle of a 12 hr flight yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayXBVNPariY

I think the last time I listened to these guys was possibly around 1997.

discovered an american band by contacting one of their members on okcupid (lol)

anyway, they're a total cardiacsgasm, an absolute gas. welcome to the weird and wonderful world of pseudo/sentai: http://pseudosentai.bandcamp.com/

'nature's imagination (chapter two)' and the more melodically developed parts of post-laptop-theft compilation 'there's always a fucking problem' are thrilling & beautiful, and the band's got more stuff in the works

like, this song's got cardiacs coming out of any orifice you could name

Like that track, will investigate. It's demo quality reminds me of listening to scuzzy 3rd gen tapes of Cardiacs influenced bands like Mad Uncle Jane and Sleepy People.

have subsequently been sent their next album privately and whoo boy there's some good stuff on it :)

ummm track 18 of that album ('pyro cyclone dances the weathervane waltz') is also fucking amazing

sleepy people was ultrasound related wasn't it

Yeah I think some of them morphed into Ultrasound, both bands I mention were very heavily and obviously influenced by Cardiacs, instead of just having a kind of 'spin' on what Cardiacs were doing.

ah cool, ok

they're not usually seen with the extended family nowadays but I guess they burnt out a bit too early for all that

Chemical Clocks have a new album. Maybe a bit more fusion than a lot of the stuff on this thread but amazing recording and very emotional for instrumental music.

https://chemicalclock.bandcamp.com/

tags: jazz avant-garde bass dance disco party drums electronic keyboard power pop trumpet video game western art music Seattle

new Stars In Battledress is str8 awesome

will hear that Chemical Clocks thing soon

actually the new SIB is probably better than Secrets & Signals, it's that good

Chemical Clock reminding me of Jaga Jazzist slightly, except much, much, much better :)

My band were compared to the Cardiacs the other day, which I was kind of pleased about.

I've been waiting for that second SIB record since I heard Women From The Ministry almost 10 years ago, their crowning achievement.

Yeah I've heard most of these songs live, so great they finally recorded them though

& yeah TWFTM feels like their Homesweet Homestead Hideaway moment. this album is fucking phenomenal btw, threatening my year-end top 2 or 3 alongside Jute Gyte and Owen Pallett

Posted this on the pretty piano thread, where I'm sure it'll pass without comment but I love this track so much, def Tim/Sea Nymphs influence happening.

http://thegasman.bandcamp.com/track/aeons

Same Gasman that did some stuff on Planet Mu?

Indeed

Same Gasman who was a Cardiacs founder member lol ffs

Oh wait, maybe not. Think I'm confusing him with Cawthra

Redbus Noface / Gasman is a helluva mixup, whoops

will check this

Yeah, I'll definitely give it a listen.

lol ffs yerself, buggerlugs :)

The Cardiacs extended family is a giant & knotty thing, worthy of its own discourse, fandom & writing; I make no apologies ;)

played The Exquisite Corpse Game for my sexagenarian parents in the car today and they liked it so much they borrowed it :)

"Pinocchio Falls in Love" off Secrets and Signals is one of the prettiest, most haunting songs I've ever heard. Yeah hyperbole but the echo on the chorus just kills me. Damn, damn, damn

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this but I don't know where else it would go:

Казма-Казма/Kazma Kazma

Ukrainian psychedelic rock band based in Kharkov in 1991.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJxDUN33qs

that person has lots of interesting videos on their youtube account in an 80s soviet post punk vein, btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG1UFG3bKAo

this is a cover of a xiu xiu song that sounds a bit like a cross between Max Tundra and Prefab Sprout. I was disappointed when I listened to xiu xiu and they didn't sound like Max Tundra or Prefab Sprout
Stuart Maconie played this on his radio show on Sunday 6/1/2013 and I heard it on the iplayer sometime in the following week and was going to say something about it on ilx but I didn't.
(according to the BBC website he played it on two other occasions as well, but it was definitely the 6 Jan 2013 programme that I heard)

haha this Ukranian stuff is fucking amazing

track two is like a bizarro Icing On The World

Thomas one veers more Jaga Jazzist than Max Tundra imo, but it's not bad at all

this Kazma-Kazma shit is SO. FUCKING. INCREDIBLE

http://www.bibbletang.com/funzig/mp3/funzig%20live%20-%20metronomic%20dog%20bark.mp3

kazma kazma is quite a find

seriously. one of the best things i've heard in ages.

will check out that link after finishing with this new HMHB album, MN - what is it?

Something new from this Canadian band Sprïng who I've seen a couple of times.

More on the psych side but definitely "vaguely-Cardiacy prog-pop".

Well they def know Cardiacs because there's a #Pronk at the bottom of the info window.

I like it though, the singer really reminds me of somebody, maybe the girl in No Joy?

For me the vocals are the weak link. Live, it doesn't seem to matter because it's mostly a psych onslaught but I did feel like the album was let down a bit by his weak voice (though I still like it). This new track is the best thing they've done so far. The album is downloadable for free from their bandcamp btw.

this track comes off like if animal collective were any good

http://oninlove.bandcamp.com/track/warz

Just found out about this rather great record tonight and I know nothing about it other than it features the redoubtable Craig Wedren from Shudder To Think and is total catnip to the STT fan I would think.

A very good, very Monsoon Bassoon-y band I got hipped to today, liking it lots.

http://listen.perhapscontraption.co.uk/album/sludge-tripe

:/

First thing to mind: "oh no, not them" - terrible quirky kooky burlesque quirksters more concerned with their matching steampunk-lite costumes than their music, which is almost wonderfully annoying and has made me intensely uncomfortable both times I've seen them live, the second time at a relative's work party where they cycled around trying to entertain children, more circus curio than artistic entity...

...unless of course they've changed ;)

Didn't like the last Knifeworld album much either, tbf - very much leaning to the NSRO side of the Cardiacs fallout rn. Have they got any plans?

Sorry to be so harsh but I really do have a thing against this band and I don't wish to sugar coat my feelings - I'm willing to accept they've sorted out their recorded sound at least.

Listen to their Radiohead 'National Anthem' cover and try not to sydh

Ah welp, I have no context for this lot or any idea about their stage thing and yes they are definitely a bit derivative, what's interesting - after looking at a pic- is there's not much brass/woodwind on the recordings. Agree about Knifeworld too.

I'd def like to know what you think about the link above from 2 weeks ago, start with track 2.

Oh, I liked that track and the one after! I then nominated the album for the EOY poll but didn't vote for it. I need to listen to it all in its entirety, may do by the weekend, cheers (am not at home rn)

Hopefully 2015 is a good year for all things Cardiacsy!

I'm still trying to form an opinion on the new Knifeworld album. The songs are pretty good (especially "Don't Land On Me") and I appreciate Kavus trying to stay away from prog cliches but I think keeping the songs more straightforward in parts kind of exposes what I think is some pretty bad mixing, especially in the drums. On the other hand, I've liked it more each listen.

There were some really weird mixing choices on the last Knifeworld album, considering Bob Drake is no amateur at that sort of thing. Definitely improves with each listen, though.

Family duties seem to've put NSRO on hold for the time being, sadly. At least we had another excellent Arch Garrison release last year, if anyone missed that.

New William D Drake long player out in March, apparently.

"The first incarnation was founded in Bristol, March 2004. We blurted out avant-rock and psychedelic folk detritus ... The device began as a rock quartet; exploring bendy time signatures, maximalism, free improvisation and spontaneous theatrical outbursts. Herein a fascination with discord and harmony, (surprise and comfort) evolved throughout a feverish period of writing, improvising and performing on the Bristol music scene."

I was hopeful from this timeline/hometown + something about the sound of the track bandcamp randomly selected for me that they were something to do with Safetyword but they're not, are they? I'm afraid I stopped listening and listened to Safetyword instead but intend to revisit Perhaps Contraption again... eventually

OH - so the 'good stuff' is OLD! Yeah, they followed a dark, dark path. Will listen to the older stuff soon, even though I know what was to come.

Sorry for confusing midnight post: I think they are a completely different band, who just happened to start at the same year in the same town as a band I quite liked (but not enough to post about here until now), and sound a bit similar during the 40 seconds I listened to before impatiently clicking away

however, if they are in any way related, someone please do let me know

(haven't got round to revisiting PC's music yet, but I am not really one for theatrical burlesque stage shows, that much I know)

Not cardiacs related at-all, just wondering what frogbs and LJ think of this craziness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=128&v=cT8mSZBJzJA

Botched that link somehow, sorry, it starts a ways in.

Not Cardiacsy in the slightest but that's OK cos Hasuinonasa (I think I got that right) fuckin' rule.

that was really cool!

to contribute something, here's a cut from the 1st Birds and Buildings album, which I discovered thanks to this board, anyone who posts in this thread who hasn't heard it should check it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZHZ54w36s

that Hasuinonasa is fucking incredible :D thanks! oh dear, too good

Birds & Buildings are a known quantity - that first album is sweet, yeah

Haisuinonasa, even - might spend some quality time on their Bandcamp today...

Their new single is fucking unbelievable

https://zankyorecord.bandcamp.com/album/transformation

Yea I am greatly digging this.

I love how the singer's voice has a pure, flat tone, she sounds like a Japanese version of Lisa Bielawa who sung the solfège in Glass' 'Music In Twelve Parts' so beautifully.

Additionally, I think I like it best when they just lean away a little from the hyper-kinetic, four-Don Cab-albums-playing-at-once bits, then it really morphs into a quite unique racket, to me at least.

Also their name is spelt in Katakana which suggests it's loaned from another language, weird.

Very nice.

Did you know that Youtube animation star Cyriak has only 1 direct ILX mention ever? The dude is bringing Cardiacs to the people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnWP2Emps1M

I'm going to post the some of the ones with the best music, because he has the Cardiacs spirit deep within him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw

the rest is yours to surf. glad I could give him a spiritual home on ILX though

Those are amazing.

The Flying Lotus video he did a few years ago was pretty great too.

Yeah! His own music is so great though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLGUQA3Wjz0

haha this is so great! jon poole and bob leith weren't really in cardiacs at this point were they? tim smith recruiting the actually-really-good tribute band, well i never

obviously jon poole 'gets' cardiacs like few others, hence his contributions to 'sing to god'

The whole "4 Little Boys" tape is as good as that. Jon was talking about a decade ago of doing a remastered/re-recorded version of these songs, but got too bogged down in other stuff and the idea was shelved. Shame!

Of all the various Cardiacs splinter groups, the most obscure one I have is probably The Grown Ups five track demo(and one extremely murky live bootleg), which was a short-lived Mark Cawthra/Bill Drake collaboration that only lasted a couple of years, with bits of the songs eventually incorporated into Cardiacs proper (London -> I'm Eating In Bed, Time And Space -> Everso Closely Guarded Line, etc)

The one I really want to hear is "Honour Our Trumpet", the band Bill tried to recruit Tim into before the idea of Bill joining Cardiacs was even a thing. Apparently recordings exist...somewhere.

Know nothing about this band other than 'bloody hell'

https://soundcloud.com/voice-coils

https://voicecoils.bandcamp.com/album/in-sixths-field-and-border

https://soundcloud.com/voice-coils/an-atrium#t=0:00

Searing into the Extra Life void! Bet they even share some musicians

yep, they do, it's a pretty seamless changeover except with a different songwriter and all. v promising tho

Good spot, I thought I heard some Extra life in there, especially An Atrium

I always wanted to like Extra Life but I found the vocals horrible. But this is cool as fuck.

These songs remind me a lot of The Knells though

https://theknells.bandcamp.com/releases

^^^A wonderful record that absolutely no-one has heard of^^^

Voice Coils sound amazing, Extra Life also sounds great. The Knells too.

early split enz may have already been mentioned, but i hear a lot of things cardiacs fans may enjoy in the swingers (one of former split enz member phil judd's later band).

a lot more more pop and less prog, but they give me the same feeling of this joy in what music can do that the cardiacs do. real similar voice too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-KW_Igw7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMJgUHWRcU&list=PLGFqSwN7wWcZ20aywwCJVvZYssekZzJqE&index=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ypm6E7cq-s&list=PLGFqSwN7wWcZ20aywwCJVvZYssekZzJqE&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyclnTdrSOI

they only did a few singles and one album - it's all excellent though

oops, one of those linked to a playlist instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ypm6E7cq-s

Heard this band called transElement recently, like most of the music in this thread they're not that close to the greatness of Cardiacs but who is, really?

But they scratch my itch for quirky experimental indie-prog or whatever you want to call it, it's a shame they haven't existed for over a decade and never really got their dues. They had their moments of brilliance, and I always love hearing a regional accent in music.

These are their best releases I reckon:

http://transelement.bandcamp.com/album/is-missing
http://transelement.bandcamp.com/album/pendletones

Cool, will listen. That Swingers lot were ok but yeah, upon the Cardiacs scale they don't create much of a shockwave. I would argue that there is some Cardiacsy stuff that measures up, even if you have to look closer to Cardiacs themselves to find it (NSRO, for instance)

i love that album, but yeah it's definitely just early 80s pop music with an edge. similar voice though and with the weird trajectory from a prog band to a punk one to a new wave one - still these vestigial traces of each phase apparent.

that latest stars in battledress album... so amazing and manages to not go down that well well-worn extra-musical route of making this kind of music "funny" or "quirky" (a whole other thread)

yeah it's really lovely :) a superb record. the bands that make this kind of music 'funny' and 'quirky' are fucking loathsome in almost every case. don't ever google 'perhaps contraption' lol

swingers reminded me a bit of a band soref turned me onto recently...punishment of luxury, that's it. definitely a wealth of postpunk, now virtually forgotten, that mixed it up some

to be honest, it took me a while to get past the surface-level "zaniness" of the cardiacs.

which is what i was getting it - even when stuff isn't outright zany. there's often this strange affect. like a beta-male (for lack of a better term) submissive clowning - making fun of yourself before someone else does? there's a pretty close description in that pomplamoose thread " like he has neither a sincere nor a sinister bone in his body, like a pod person who only learned to imitate zaniness". little bit unfair as they're a cover band, but that's what i feel while watching recardiacs on youtube. even some of those william d drake videos.

i guess what i'm getting at is that i'd love this stuff to be presented without being wacky or playing up the teenage "we're weird and you're not going to understand this weird music" thing. just some band that are really confident in what they do and not hamming it up as if they're like a bad actor playing up the fact that they can't act very well.

it is just surface-level aesthetic that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the music. but it's kind of a framing device that prevents people (like me!) from getting into this stuff. i guess it could be historically it's probably a kind of backlash to the prog affect of being ultra-serious and humourless. or just aspects of zappa coming into atavistic being.

your criticism seems to be based almost entirely on the 'tarred and feathered' video, which is much more sly and layered than it may at first seem. 'beta-male' is obviously preposterous - their act has always been, imo, a grand play upon exaggerated universals - the themes are down to earth and serious, concerning mortality, childhood, existential despair, the pastoral, aesthetics, war, religion, friendship, possessiveness, love etc, but the canvas is an intense & highly poetic extroversion that is easy to mistake (at a distance) for quirkiness, preciousness or insincerity. quite obviously cardiacs, behind (or even through) the hi-jinks (if you look close enough), are one of the most sincere bands that have ever been. Even in character, 'beta-male submissive clowning' doesn't work - they operated as a thoroughly savvy art-troupe, with Jim as put-upon victim, Tim as domineering bully and the others as clowns only in the purest sense. it really, really doesn't come across as gratuitous weirdness unless you're only paying half-attention. the 'hamming it up' is integral to the totalising synthesis of their commentary upon life (surface-level aesthetic almost always has loads to do with the music). have you read their lyrics? it's some of the most affecting and profound material in the english-language songwriting canon. they're trying to convey the grand, rich weirdness and pathos of life itself - of course they're going to open themselves up to the brickbats of the world somewhat.

you fucking compared cardiacs to pomplamoose! omfg. tim smith is ALL sincerity, ALL sinistral menace, ALL joy of the world, ALL love, ALL frenzy. this kind of criticism is fearful of just how ALL cardiacs are - when forced to countenance it, retreating into awful lazy melody maker stereotypes and tossed-off cliches about youthful exuberance and wackiness. cardiacs are only wacky or zany insofar as they use wackiness and zaniness as part of their press relations satire, in order to keep a barrier between themselves and the mundane ignorance of the music press

it has nothing whatsoever to do with prog being ultra-serious and humourless (it wasn't) and everything to do with tim smith being an incredibly generous man

^^^ wot he said

oh no, you've got me completely wrong! i LOVE cardiacs now. i just remember being initially put off by the videos and especially the alphabet business concern stuff. seemed a bit sixth-form and done better by the residents or early devo but it doesn't really bother me now. like you say, some of it totalizes the experience and what they're trying to get across.

my criticism was on the other stuff vaguely in this vein that is getting it WRONG - like the perhaps contraction stuff or how i see re-cardiacs. i just wonder how to or why that kind of thing i describe is inherent in the dna of this stuff somehow. i guess it's a bit chicken in the egg as perhaps it's a certain type of person who is attracted to this stuff.

and then there's the difficultly of how do you present this stuff otherwise? it's like hearing minor chords as "sad" or 12 tone music as "scary" - they're just popular constructs. or is there's something inherently clownish and hammy about doing this kind of thing?

"tim smith is ALL sincerity, ALL sinistral menace, ALL joy of the world, ALL love, ALL frenzy" - love this

tbh i've no experience whatsoever of the 'cardiacs' but imago's post warms my heart :)

which is what i was getting it - even when stuff isn't outright zany. there's often this strange affect. like a beta-male (for lack of a better term) submissive clowning - making fun of yourself before someone else does? there's a pretty close description in that pomplamoose thread " like he has neither a sincere nor a sinister bone in his body, like a pod person who only learned to imitate zaniness". little bit unfair as they're a cover band, but that's what i feel while watching recardiacs on youtube. even some of those william d drake videos.

― linee, Saturday, 27 June 2015 02:36 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally agree re: Recardiacs. That woman's attempt to imitate Tim's "disturbed child" persona were painful to watch. I appreciated what they were trying to do in terms of bringing this music to an audience who would never normally encounter it, but if I was seeing them cold with no knowledge of the source, I think I'd just be bemused more than anything.

It's like the difference between the critical perception of Cardiacs as a bunch of pretentious art students dressing up as weirdos on stage, and what they were really like(i.e. actual weirdos), but in this case it's very much more of the former.

oh fuck

sorry linee, i had somehow managed to escape knowing about recardiacs until this day. i think i will abstain from listening

Brilliant post up there imago.

I'm quite suspicious of mugging and zaniness myself but for me sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's all about how genuine or contrived they come across. I admit maybe if I'd seen Cardiacs' early antics first it may have put me off but luckily I heard Eat it up Worms Hero first without knowing anything about them and it completely melted my brain. As far as musical experiences go that's rarely been matched.

The new William D Drake is out, btw, and it's really lovely, if not quite on the level of Rising Of The Lights (on first listen) - it's a bit simpler, for a start, and a bit more 'wacky', I suppose ;)

Songwriting is still largely delightful

really coming through on the second listen, stuff like 'the blind boy' is key

and then 'castaway'/'revere reach' are the 'me fish bring'/'homesweet homestead hideaway', sort of (they're more like 2x 'me fish bring' tbh, but with cool synth textures n shit)

Only disappointment for me was it feels a bit short, considering the crazy amount of songs he has that have never been on any records. Still waiting for him to record "Ghosty Ghost", "Philosophy Of Love", "The Donkey Song", etc.

OTOH it's probably his best produced/arranged album yet, it just sounds really, really lush all the way through. And hearing some of the long-time favourites from his live repertoire properly fleshed out is really cool.

yeah Revere Reach is kind of amazing now

'Be Here Steryear' is the sort of thing you listen to 8 times and then the 9th you realise it's extraordinary, WD Drake has a habit of this

Thumpermonkey related, I'm told.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzTF06syVOU&feature=youtu.be

Thumpermonkey have an album out soon. I'm quite excited. Will listen to this now...

Oh this is cool! Yeah the Thumpermonkey connection is the drummer, who is amazing

WD Drake is playing the Union Chapel on 17th Oct, 12:00-14:00

Some movement at least, from a guy's Facebook page.

"In October 2013, as part of a crowd-sourcing campaign to release their album, Lapsus Linguae offered a custom song. I promptly bought this, and here it is.
Obviously I chose the only thing I care about as the subject, my cat, Matilda. To say I am over the moon with it would be an understatement. Thanks Calum, we love it."

https://soundcloud.com/jamesre-1/make-up-a-basket-in-my-dreamz-lapsus-linguae

^this was cool. any subsequent news? come back lapsus linguaeeeee

'revere reach' is up there with the albums of the year, it's so so good. should i start a dedicated WD Drake thread? maybe some people will see Drake and click on it unawares

Idk why but I don't like Bill Drake's music. I'm sorry.

chill, you're probably just not in touch with your inner twee pastoralist ;)

Yeah, maybe. I mean I love the Sea Nymphs and NSRO obviously but to me it feels like Drake's trying too hard to be cute a lot of the time

o tbf if you look upthread that was kind of my initial instinct too but then it got me

'be here steryear' & the title-track def worth a review imo

~JOANNA WANG~

I don't know if Joanna Wang has heard Cardiacs, or Max Tundra, or just videogame music, but holy shit

think we've triangulated her somewhere between eleanor friedberger, kate bush and micachu, although the above artists are there in spadefuls too. and blanche blanche blanche.

she's awesome. and to think the english-language internet just hasn't heard of her. jesse nominating her for the ILX EOY and her subsequent appearance on the albums playlist is the only conceivable way we could have found out about her. how much other stuff like this must there be out there?

Hmm. I was a bit confused after clicked on one of her early videos and got something that sounded a bit like Nora Jones.

Then I got to this one, and it was like "Ohh, I see." Suddenly all the comparisons make sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3hF8-Jeg3Y

I'm guessing this must be a new direction for her, because there are a ton of comments from bewildered fans saying stuff like "WTF is this why did you change?? :("

I listened to her 2013 album 'Galaxy Crisis: The Strangest Midnight Broadcast' and it's practically just as crazy, maybe a tiny bit less developed but still great - surely the fans would have caught on by then? This is slightly madder tbf

Reading the Youtube comments for her new videos is amazing, like, people just don't know what to do

I listened to some of her early stuff and it's just the most mundane music on Earth. Clearly she was made to do it by her seniors. Fuck you, this is what I sound like now! :D

when did she make the leap to this? I found some of her old videos too and she is just shockingly bland, I've never heard of anyone making a jump quite like that

She was the 16 year-old daughter of a noted Taiwanese pop producer when the early stuff came out. He probably 'encouraged' her to 'launch' her own career with these 'tasteful' covers and rip-offs.

Then she, uh, broke free.

The videos for the whole album are amazing btw

She's apparently come out and completely disowned her early stuff. Good on her

I would guess 2011's "Adventures of Bernie the Schoolboy" is probably the start, check this out, it's like Guernica:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxzL6IGA7s

ah yeah, nice

it seems she's just been getting better and better though. this new album is sensational

pretty much anything I can find on her only covers her music from 2008-2009. clearly she was quite popular which makes the whole thing a lot more fun. I always hoped that some big pop star over here would do something like that, I guess Miley Cyrus is the most likely candidate right now but I haven't found her "out there" stuff to be all that exciting thus far.

well, check this out

https://www.reddit.com/r/iama/comments/k3vbe/i_am_a_taiwanese_celebrity_ama

yes! haha, I've covered Sparks "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" using purely the voice of Skeletor at a music festival. I think all the "Joanna Wang" fans were like ????. But the next day the reviews in the papers still said it was a soothing performance. It's moments like when I just feel like I must be the last sane person on the planet.

haha god

yeah she seems fairly singular. still has a sony contract, my god

Apparently she's internet friends with Neil Cicierega, which explains a lot.

And she recorded this cover of his song Bill Watterson back in 2007.

This will likely only make sense to frogbs.

apparently a TMBG fan as well. this hits a little too close to home, now I wonder if she does know about Cardiacs because I can't imagine someone more predisposed to go bonkers over them

and Neil's tumblr JUST NOW has a post about her? what the hell is going on!?

b0bbarker asked: Did you recently possess the body of a Taiwanese woman named Joanna Wang and release an album last year called Bob Music? Because it sure sounds like you did. And by that I mean go look up songs like Truckin Everyday and When I Nod.

NO LIE, I’ve been internet pals with her for years! She sent me an acoustic cover of Bill Watterson back in 2007. We catch up over gchat every couple months and share what we’ve been working on.

She’s had a really interesting career: She debuted as a very successful singer in Taiwan, mostly of mainstream-sounding covers. But over the past several years she’s totally reinvented herself as this eclectic, synthy baroque pop monster.

Oh that's easy to explain. I'm b0bbarker, and I too am kind of internet pals with Neil, going back his animutation days and was the one who asked him the question on Tumblr. We also used to share crazy stuff together, back when I used to make really silly mashup mixes, which he had cited as kind of being the influence for Mouth Sounds.

hah, I remember some of your stuff from way back in the day! I think I have an Aaron Ackerson CD with one of your remixes on it. I figured it had to be someone from here!

I always thought Neil was capable of making something that would fit right in this thread but he just seems to be doing so much at once. dude's pretty talented though

Yep. I'm on the Sexiest Man on Earth.

pretty much anything I can find on her only covers her music from 2008-2009. clearly she was quite popular which makes the whole thing a lot more fun. I always hoped that some big pop star over here would do something like that, I guess Miley Cyrus is the most likely candidate right now but I haven't found her "out there" stuff to be all that exciting thus far.

― frogbs, Wednesday, January 6, 2016 4:51 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like there are some similarities in the strange career path of Charlotte Church - million-selling classical music star to a kind of Welsh Bjork, putting out obscure, personal music heard by very few.

I mean honestly, who could've predicted the Voice Of An Angel would end up recording stuff as odd as this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhrBm6WuIsI

i keep saying it but i was at school with her long-term partner (he wasn't back then) and he was the world's biggest radiohead fan, so it was always coming

that song there^ gets interesting in its last 5 seconds, then ends. that should have been how it started haha

But there's so much going on it! The strings, the tempo shifts, the weird jazzy flourishes. I don't like everything she's done since "breaking out" - she still Bonnie Tylers it up a bit too much on the choruses for my liking - but I'm always intrigued by what she's going to do next.

ok fine, the last minute as a whole was quite something

the EP she did after ^that one reminded me of Dirty Projectors in parts iirc, it was decent

I didn't know about this direction she went in, but it makes sense since her Quietus bakers dozen choices were surprisingly good. I just knew about the earliest stuff and her couple of singles chart pop songs that I didn't like.

Posted about this Lemon Demon album earlier, but actually, this was the right place all along:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LeSFBy2bZU

https://jlarcombe.bandcamp.com/

Lemon Demon of course being Neil Cicierega, the missing link between Cardiacs and Joanna Wang (he loves them, she loves him). Will check out that J Larcombe thing presently...

Please allow me to big-up / draw your attention to Mr Sterile Assembly, particularly the album Transit. Kinetic compound time-sigs, twin basses, sax skronk, some gamelan thing, female / male vocals, "political" lyrics that aren't totally shit. Just ideal and excellent in its own way, really.

http://mrsterileassembly.bandcamp.com/album/transit

This Heaty prog-pop

I mean, it's pretty good! Not remotely Cardiacsy but hey, you got my attention :)

Well, vaguely. They posted the video for Stella on the Cardiacs Facebook page a while back, so they are at least 'aware'. Also toured with Uz Jsme Doma, I think. Or attempted to. But yes, This Heat is a good reference point. I dig it a lot, anyway.

Big Cardiacsy week - new Knifeworld AND new Display Team! The latter is fucking amazing and VERY Cardiacstastic: https://thedisplayteam.bandcamp.com/album/shifts

I admit I haven't really felt what Knifeworld have been doing since the Clairvoyant Fortnight EP. That and the first album are wonderful though.

What little I've been able to hear of The Display Team seems good, getting heavy Uz Jsme Doma vibes more than anything else.

yeah I'm not 100% on this Knifeworld or the last one, although I did listen to the last one again recently and it was better this time so who knows, they might have become a grower band

I was at The Display Team's album launch the other night, they were really really great and so were Thumpermonkey, whose definitely-going-to-be-incredible album isn't coming for like another half-year ffs

I recently relistened to both the Knifeworld discs I have, Buried Alone is still great, The Unraveling I'm still not 100% on though I think that's mostly down to the production. Just really trebly and quiet in a way that flattens the drums. But it is pretty good because the tunes are really clever, once you start to get into them a bit. "Don't Land On Me" is definitely my favorite. Guess I'll give this new one a listen as soon as it arrives.

Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone is still the best Cardiacsy album of the year, probably. (Best album full stop?) Come on, we can't let a Yank eclipse us all ffs! ;)

I'm a little behind on recent developments, so glad of this thread

The Display Team reminds me very much of The Monsoon Bassoon

^ Yes, I did enjoy that and bought it, it hit all the right buttons and never falls in love with it's own quirkiness

...speaking if which, kinda, recently I got this CD of this weird Japanese band which I rather like but their approach to sensory overload is pretty muddled compared to Cardiacs.

This isn't on the record I have but the sample at 0:16 second mark should be awfully familiar. The video's NSFW btw (snatches of cartoon dick...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0Zu2B_kak&ab_channel=ncnvid

But this song's legitimately a CHOOON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw6bcGr3Shs&ab_channel=BounDEETube

Fuck I thought I worked out how to not embed things but obviously not

Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone is still the best Cardiacsy album of the year, probably. (Best album full stop?) Come on, we can't let a Yank eclipse us all ffs! ;)

It's been real fun to watch this guy's chief influence go from They Might be Giants to Devo to Sparks to Cardiacs. If this gets serious AOTY consideration (and it should!) I'd be thrilled.

lol @ that sample + what was onscreen while it occurred

You mean Lemon Demon, right? (to ultros)

Cicierega's clearly spent a helluva long time on this record (like, to the extent where his video output has visibly diminished). It sounds absolutely magnificent.

No I was talking about Display Team, haven't listened to Lemon Demon yet

Oh ok! Both might end up in my year-end top 5 TBH, alongside KING, Thumpermonkey and some mad metal

by the way I got the new Knifeworld and I like it on first listen. songs are catchier and more distinct, and the songs are plenty ambitious without being long. if nothing else check out the leadoff track/single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzXVxOT8an0

yah I'm about to give the Knifeworld a full listen

this second Hosome track is great! :D will definitely check them out more

Okay permit me a faint derail in tonality.

Skeletons have a new record out, I'm a big fan of their steez, the record People especially and some people here may dig.

Grandma from 'People'

https://skeletonstv.bandcamp.com/album/people

Track from the new rekkid.

https://skeletonstv.bandcamp.com/album/am-i-home

Here's a Lemon Demon track I've really been digging lately. Feelin' like Sparks could've written this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JniShTWwJn4

OK I finally listened to Lemon Demon, some of it I kind of enjoy and some of it I profoundly hate, but have a weird urge to keep listening to it. Fuck. Must say I can't hear any Cardiacs in it at all, Devo and Sparks comparisons are about right.

New-ish track from the new Bob Drake album, if the whole record is in the same ballpark, I'm so on board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCX-xhFlSl4

OK I finally listened to Lemon Demon, some of it I kind of enjoy and some of it I profoundly hate, but have a weird urge to keep listening to it. Fuck. Must say I can't hear any Cardiacs in it at all, Devo and Sparks comparisons are about right.

I checked out Spirit Phone and these are almost my thoughts exactly, except I feel a lot more positive about it. There are a handful of songs I find annoying (towards the end of the album, not including bonus tracks), but I like all the rest, and there are a few I absolutely love. And yeah, I don't get the Cardiacs comparisons, but I hear so much other awesome stuff here -- Sparks, Devo, TMBG, Telex, Buggles, Chris Butler, Todd Rundgren, Magnetic Fields...

An article of interest:

http://thequietus.com/articles/20188-kavus-torabi-cardiacs-knifeworld-interview

looking forward to new Bob Drake too

The most encouraging update on Tim and LSD yet! :)

Born out of Eden has been in heavy rotation over here - "A Dream About a Dream" is such a great epic, under 6 minutes that is

yeah that was the standout track for me too!

I think I mentioned Big Evil, a Canadian instrumental band upthread a year or two ago. They have an album coming shortly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=navOi2Wzg18

https://www.mixcloud.com/interestingalternative/

dunno if this is the right thread for this, but the Interesting Alternative Show with Kavus Torabi, Steve Davis, and sometimes Ben Jacobs (aka Max Tundra) is always a great listen, can't listen to it without a big list of artists to check out. track selection is all over the map (as you might expect) but I guarantee you'll hear something you like in there.

^^^yes this is a great heads-up, they have a formidable collective taste

I came here however to post this

https://thedisplayteam.bandcamp.com/track/epitaph

...surely one of the greatest cardiacs/heavy prog mashup efforts in the history of man

late '70s scottish prog band chou pahrot. how did i not hear about these folks until now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzOYv8udVrk

this is sweet, loads of opposition for yer rock

doesn't have the cardiacsy melodic gamechangers but it gets the 'spirited henry cow fans' thing down to a tee

doesn't have the cardiacsy melodic gamechangers but it gets the 'spirited henry cow fans' thing down to a tee

― imago

speaking of "spirited henry cow fans", have you heard radar favourites? mid '70s band with the underrated g.f. fitzgerald and charles hayward.

not yet! charles hayward always worth hearing in any guise tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trj2ZLebWnM

Cloud Becomes Your Hand. Saw them acknowledge on their Facebook page that being played after Cardiacs on BBC radio was 'appropriate'. This doesn't quite have it but I still really like it.

Maybe it's just the video, but In a weird way it puts me in mind of this track from Super Best Friends Club, which was a trail from their new record that hasn't arrived yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJCcw3YlIc

otm with the visual poetry! I'm sure some of the band members are even interchangeable. It's a good song too. Will look out for the album.

For some reason the video is truncated, omitting a lovely sung section and coda, it's on Spotify though.

Yeah I was pretty stunned by Chou Pahrot on one of the Glasgow threads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=771mc4eFiaQ

aaaaaahhhhhhh

i might give them their own thread tbh, this is too much

Every time I see this thread I imagine it's all about Liturgy, who are supposed to be black metal but still sound more like the Cardiacs than anyone else I can think of, but ctrl-f = no Liturgy, so here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN4BncLvXic

haha I LOVE The Ark Work but would never ever have thought to put it here!

That track is awesome but Follow II is some properly gamechanging shit. Have you heard his album of weird trap-electro from this year (under the pen-name Kel Valhaal?)

Anyway, new NSRO album in like 3 days. WE'RE ALL EXCITED RIGHT

NSRO lovely as ever.

I don't understand the comparison between Liturgy and Cardiacs if I'm honest. Sigh are the metal band that get compared to Cardiacs the most and I never really understood that either - because they have lots of keyboards?

ugh fucking Sigh, really?

Why does Liturgy sound like Cardiacs? Dunno, just does, something about the rhythms and the way he sings, thinking about Big Ship era, but (obs) much more reduced to its component parts. Will check out the new LP, cheers!

Yeah, not that I have any hard evidence at hand but really. I think I remember the comparison coming up in reviews of the only album of theirs I sort of like (Imaginary Sonicscape).

And fair enough Camaraderie, I just don't hear it myself.

I guess the listenable stuff on Imaginary Sonicscape sounds a bit like Mr Bungle if you simplified it 8x, and Mike Patton loves Cardiacs, so

ha, I was totally expecting not to get the comparison, as the Liturgy I have heard has been thumbs-down from me -- but I can kind of see what you're saying, as Cardiacs are very fond of brassy fanfare-esque melodies (or fake brass anyway, which I'm also guessing is what Liturgy are using here). Beyond that, not so much.

What makes Cardiacs to me are a) Tim Smith's sense of harmony, and b) their lyrics. You could take away all the drums and backing vocals and mallets and horns, and just have a piano or guitar, and Tim Smith singing, and it wouldn't sound like anyone else but Cardiacs.

yep

but that doesn't mean that they don't fill the audio space with glorious, glorious noise :)

stripped-down cardiacs is sea nymphs anyway, which takes us full-circle to the NEW SEA NYMPHS. and the NEW NSRO. oh god

https://7shades.bandcamp.com/album/bursting

Overtly stated Cardiacs adoration from these. They're following this release up with a fundraising remix album for Tim, featuring David Minnick.

This is great fun! :D Very overt worship, but that's no bad thing. They seem to add their own spin to it.

Spratleys Japs have COME TO LIFE and are doing a gig in Brighton in November, btw :)

(although 'their own spin' contains something of the aggressive-wacky male progmetal stench that cardiacs themselves completely avoid at all times - we'll ignore this for now as they have decent tunes)

Anyway, true excellence is required for any Cardiacsy graduate to get their own thread...like this: North Sea Radio Orchestra - NSRO - chamber kraut folk - see also Shrubbies

fyi on the last Steve Davis/Kavus Torabi show, they played one of the new Sea Nymphs songs. It was good. Don't have the link, but it's on mixcloud.

Heard it now. It's amazing

So I saw on Facebook that Tim travelled up to London to see the Dutch band De Staat playing recently so I checked them out and well, yeah...hello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttGgIQpAUc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXEgY7Xieus

much as I applaud the attempt to make a live-action Cyriak video, I'm not sold on the music, either as Cardiacsy or otherwise, but I won't close my mind to 'em just yet

actually wtf am I talking about, they're repulsively loathsome, they have the most hateful stage presence I've ever seen in a live video, let's pretend this bump didn't happen. and tim, whatever refloats yr boat man but if you can stomach this you can stomach finishing lsd :p

imma just stop posting on this thread that's named after me lol

we agree usually! aw man it is nothing personal

this thread is for stuff we both like though, you also have power of veto ;)

You go in hard LJ, have a care :)

sea nymphs will wash away all this discord next week anyway

Yeah, which reminds me, I must puchase

Joanna Wang has a new song and I think a new album on November 11 (or it might be an EP, I'm not sure):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew99FiYS9Q0

It's very, very exciting :D

She's only gone and gotten more Cardiacsy

Of course she also released an EP earlier in the year that was very pop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v8GAfhUoME

So you can never quite tell what she's gonna do next.

Yeah I wasn't sold on that last EP - file under 'odd experiment' - but the new song is amazing

I get the impression she has to put out things like that EP occasionally to keep Sony happy so they'll let her keep doing her own stuff.

I find it absolutely incredible that she's still on Sony, and able to release such music under their banner

It's a full Cardiacsy rock-opera! Not sure it's quite better than the amazing Bob Music, but wow, what a joyride :)

hah, it just popped up in my RYM feed, deal me in

That is because I added it to RYM lol

my man

just got your friend request...browsing the 5 stars and seeing so many records that I've only heard you talk about :)

I've definitely tried to listen to your five-starred records before. A lot of the YMO-affiliated ones are quite hard to find, but I'll definitely give it another go. My list definitely skews British. Hope you can forgive my 0.5-star album :p

Anyway, some highlights are emerging from this - aside from Isn't It Exciting, we have The Rightful Heir and When I Dream In Technicolor. And probably some others - it's hard to wrap my head around it all so far!

Liar and the chicken calls are legit hilarious too

Sound of Silver 0.5 wow! What did that record ever do to you???

It's a bit of an ILX in-joke tbh

I never worked out that frogbs=JAMOOL ffs

The Art Of Bullying probably has the album's best Cardiacs impression (ending in its best Queen impression, lol)

In fact,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQl3TZUmzYM

I've made her her own thread now too

https://zofff.bandcamp.com/album/zofff-1

Zofff - longform psychedelic jam not really in the spirit of Cardiacs, but many familiar faces here including Jo Spratley and Bic Hayes.

Popped up as a BandCamp advertorial today but their content is often kinda interesting, to me it's strongly reminiscent of Monsoon Bassoon or Thingy/Heavy Veg.

https://palmnewyork.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-expert

*caveat* this track at least

oh I like this! good find :)

it fits nicely with my 2017 year of discovering cheer-accident vibe

how has early oingo boingo not been mentioned in this thread? can't think of anything more "cardiacsy"

Idk, they had zero impact in the UK at the time though.

Scouring their first record on Youtube right now and it sounds like herky jerky new wave, Devo/XTC/Split Enz or Bill Nelson's Red Noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GrBkJIuKSk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp6NmzOcWjw

there are superficial similarities, especially in instrumentation and tempo, but tim smith's composition is way more mindboggling than this, the key is so fluid, and that's a large part of what i understand by 'cardiacsy'

this isn't bad though! btw neil cicierega is a good example of someone who's equally influenced by oingo boingo and cardiacs :)

That Palm EP's very good. Definite shades of 90s Rob Crow bands with some of Battles' 1st album in there too.

Derial:

Ultros, if you *are* working your way through all the Japan shows? I take my hat off to you sir!

oh yeah glad to hear that palm ep getting some ilx love, they've been getting some well-deserved buzz lately.

This isn't pop but I'm figuring something this good will find some love here. Polish jazz/punk group Kurws:

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

nice! shades of Deep Turtle, except maybe a bit less pop

Like this thanks! Makes me think a little of NoMeansNo or Laddio Bolocko.

Digging around and found this really cool old track by a Japanese band called the Moonriders, little echoes of Devo, Cardiacs, XTC the usual, not to mention Japan's P Model.

Frogbs do you know these guys?

Had to upload it meself , no trace of it online.

https://soundcloud.com/nowherians/moonriders

that was fun

no trace of it? these guys are apparently super-well-known in japan. track title translates as "alphaville". here's the band doing it live in 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRClisLIp_Q

yes! I know the Moonriders. That's Keiichi Suzuki's band, I'm sure you've heard of him (he does the music for Earthbound). pretty cool stuff, kind of Zolo mixed with cabaret mixed with New Wave.

fun fact, Andy Partridge has a spoken word cameo on one of their albums (a reunion album called Christ, Who's Gonna Die First?). always wondered how the hell that happened.

their albums are a bit hit and miss for me, but they do have one I really love, called Worst of the Moonriders. it's a live one where they go through the stranger parts of their catalogue and radically rearrange some of their most well-known tunes. good stuff.

I recognise the name Kaiichi Suzuki from Satellite Serenade (famously remixed by The Orb). The original is a lovely ambient fourth-worldy prog enka ballad with that magic steel guitar part. Nothing to do with this thread but it's ace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XIuogHN46U

Depression songs [Started by Week of Wonders (Ross) in October 2017, last updated forty-six minutes ago by JoeStork] 8 new answers
Unknown, vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop that only MaresNest and I actually like [Started by that clitties version of "mr. que" (acoleuthic) in December 2009, last updated fifty-seven minutes ago by Noel Emits] 5 new answers

http://clipart-library.com/images/riLnAXK4T.png

https://knifeworld.bandcamp.com/album/buried-alone-tales-of-crushing-defeat

XXXXXP - Yeah I read up about them a bit and it's a shame but a lot of the stuff on Youtube doesn't grab me, but I wanted that studio version of Alphaville, which I couldn't find anywhere.

This track off the new Thumpermonkey EP is an absolute delight IMO:

https://thumpermonkey.bandcamp.com/track/woadscrivened

Zag & The Coloured Beads have their music up on Bandcamp for those seeking some Organ Magazine endorsed, Cardiacs affiliated, late eighties malarkey.

https://zagandthecolouredbeads.bandcamp.com/releases

Oh awesome! I've seen them put on a great show! :)

Heeeeere's something from this year, am currently ascertaining how good it is https://stephenevens.bandcamp.com/album/bonjour-poulet

It's better than Stephen Evens, but the Crayola Lectern album can also be filed under 'Cardiacs fan makes decent fan art'. There's a lovely instrumental in the middle and the closing track + outro are super

I've been banging on about this elsewhere but this is both the most Cardiacsy and best thing I've heard all year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdT1CxS7DEE

lmao @ the airhorny bits, I guess I hear the connection

feels really Bungleish to me

last night we went to a gig that was pure Cardiacsy - aside from Tim's royal presence, we had The Display Team doing their thing (with a great new song), Major Parkinson laying claim to Scandinavia's Cardiacsy crown (and its prog crown full stop tbh) with a dynamic and intense presentation....and then, sandwiched in between, was STERBUS.

https://sterbus.bandcamp.com/album/real-estate-fake-inverno

now, the actual live show was a bit patchy owing to the band not really having the full hang of it - but the songs were there, and this new album, being listened to subsequently, is proving so. that goddamn opening track!

update: that goddamn second track! give this a listen everyone

also Sterbus is a very nice chap, we spoke to him at the end and he was extremely lovely. tbf most people in this scene are but he exuded a sort of wide-eyed innocence and enthusiasm that instantly endears a person. remember, this was a guy who was at first just a Cardiacs fan forum poster. now here he is all growed up

I've listened the new Sterbus a couple of times so far and it is terrific. Some lovely tunes and lots of invention.

Just listened to Baseball by Major Parkinson, fucking wow. Sterbus also sounding good so far!

Yeah I hadn't actually discussed them here yet, which was an oversight - I posted that very track to the prog 3.0 thread instead bit this is more their spiritual home I think. The entire Blackbox album is superb, especially the two long tracks, and worth a listen or ten.

Their earlier stuff has some great moments too but the last album is really the one where it all comes together

Them being Major Parkinson, even, and Baseball being one of the best prog tracks of the decade (if you don't mind that it sounds a bit like, to borrow my own phraseology, Cardiacs and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum fighting to see who can mangle Muse's Knights Of Cydonia the most)

Sterbus album is marvellous, as we slide into Autumn this is the kind of stuff I like to hear, along with things like the new Regal Worm and Kitten Pyramid.

we are being spoilt!

https://armyofmoths.bandcamp.com/album/sorry-to-disturb-you

(AOM guested on the Sterbus album and have followed them out of the album traps by barely over a week!)

bob drake has a new one !!!

https://bobdrake.bandcamp.com/album/lisola-dei-lupi

― dub pilates (rushomancy), Sunday, October 7, 2018 4:06 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And now the big one has landed: the new Thumpermonkey! It's not out yet but I got a copy at the album launch last night, and it's brilliant, of course. Some of the best prog of recent years. The title-track is like a doomed-up Gabriel-era Genesis, except even better than that sounds

Still waiting for the new Bob Drake album to arrive, but Uz Jsme Doma's new one is really great.

New Cyriak video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP-A1s4ikBo

ALSO

you've all heard the Thumpermonkey album by now, but did you ALSO know that there's going to be a Lost Crowns album??

https://www.facebook.com/lostcrowns/

They started this Facebook page today, and things are apparently clanking into gear. Based on seeing them at the 2017 convention...well, it's going to be good

I'm really looking forward to hearing what Richard is doing now. Shame SiB have kinda lost momentum.

tbh this might be, and i don't say this lightly, just as good if not better than SiB

https://www.loudersound.com/amp/news/lost-crowns-sign-to-bad-elephant-for-debut-album

More details here. This is probably the most I've ever been hyped for an album, or something

okay there's another knifeworld, i thought it was a member of the 2-man heavy psych band from the mid-00s in mpls and was quite confused

I'll happily listen to the US one!

they are excellent

the record is great the center label on the vinyl has two eyeholes with red/blue plastic so you can use the record as a pair of 3D glasses to look at the cover

http://roaratorio.com/uncategorized/knife-world/

Permission to get excited, sir?

Permission granted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip75JbrJVzE

Sounds prertty much like a more fleshed-out SiB. Which is good!

Looking back, 2018 was a pretty good year for this sort of thing (and I mean that broadly) between Sterbus, Army Of Moths, Major Parkinson, Slunq, Crayola Lectern, 7Shades, Thumpermonkey and probably a bunch more.

Also nice to see Tim's legacy (outside of the bands he influenced) gaining a little traction, did you see that clip of the music students performing one of his early written (but not recorded) compositions? Pretty great!

If you vote in the EOYs you'll be able to express your enthusiasm even more!

I'd love to see that video BTW - please link!

Incidentally, parallel to this thread's more retrospective gaze I have started, as a replacement for my time-travel concern, the following: Rolling herky-jerky 2019 - for not exclusively Cardiacsy 2019 content - the new NSRO rarities compilation might go there, for instance...but then so might a particularly baroque American indie-rock single

Good to know, ta!

Here is that thing, Piffol 100 Times...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M54CuOd0yU4

https://michaelcouch.bandcamp.com/releases

That was pretty good!

Yeah, I thought so too, shared out by Sterbus on FB today.

Aight hive mind, I need a hand, where to start with Joanna Wang?

you can't go wrong with either Bob Music or House Of Bullies!

ty LJ!

Let us know how you get on with her!

Wildo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VN8fkUzGUM

if you speed the new Futureheads single up to 1.25x it sounds pretty Cardiacsy

is this the thread where I post that I'm going to see Steve Davis's prog band with one of Monsoon Bassoon tonight? after they play live there's DJ sets from Stevie D and Graham Massey from 808 State.

It certainly is! Let us know what you thought...

I was into it tbh. Drony analogue synth stuff with occasional bagpipes. Maybe a bit like Tangerine Dream or Cluster?

David Tibet was there, I guess he knows one of them. Graham Massey is DJing next then Steve Davis but I dunno if I'll hang around that long

Richard Larcombe's Lost Crowns are album of the day on 6Music, Stuart Maconie's choice for album of the year(so I guess he is useful for something after all).

that Utopia Strong album is really sweet, just wish it was longer

Not sure if this is the best thread for this but Hlhippie bobbins time travel reminded me about these guys. Where are we at with Henge.

https://youtu.be/fy6lskwJGc4

New AOM is another enjoyable ride! Nothing really new or anything but they put all of themselves into it

https://armyofmoths.bandcamp.com/album/by-word-of-moth

New Arch Garrison looms, but I've dealt with that elsewhere...

Ad Nauseum live footage! Bob looking positively Jesus-like behind his kit, Jon looking about 12 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBfGue8XbTQ

Craig Fortnam's solo album is out soonish and all.

Heard the first couple of tracks from a new Danny Elfman solo record and it sounds like some Cardicas/Pond adjacent metal band like Major Parkinson, Mr Bungle or Slunq

Interesting...

Kinda don't think there would have been a Mr. Bungle without the pre-existence of Danny Elfman so ... makes sense

It's even called BIG MESS

I can hear Major Parkinson kinda, not Cardiacs but

Listened to the new Craig Fortnum this evening, it's lovely.

Unknown, vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop that only MaresNest and I actually like [Started by that clitties version of "mr. que" (acoleuthic) in December 2009, last updated 0 seconds ago by Maresn3st on I Love Music] 1 new answer
North Sea Radio Orchestra - NSRO - chamber kraut folk - see also Shrubbies [Started by imago in September 2016, last updated five seconds ago by imago on I Love Music] 1 new answer

lol

Ah, apologies LJ, I must have forgotten that there is a CF thread on here :)

lol no need to apologise, I was tickled that we both bumped threads at exactly the same time!

on this thread I can add that the new Army Of Moths EP is great fun too - https://armyofmoths.bandcamp.com/album/the-canine-trilogy

Featuring the most beautiful instrumental about Suffolk-based longshore drift you're likely to hear this year, kids.

A Speck I Am is quite something, isn't it

Yes! And the closest thing I've heard him do, tonally, to the Shrubbies record.

I love that rather wobbly Philacorda dotted throughout the record, puts me in mind of Terry Riley.

of course! Arch Garrison has plenty more, naturally

think Ravensodd is my toppermost pick!

mark of the man that that's probably my...seventh? eighth? favourite album of his, and it's still really lovely

New instrumental record coming from Craig F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-24LR-_Zfc

NSRO......but there's (pointedly) something missing :(

this is amazing but also I respect that nobody else on here could possibly like it. prove me wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK_mMghmDJ8

Yesss

https://ring.bandcamp.com/album/nervous-recreation

Been waiting for this remaster for so long (although technically it's just a "master" as the original tape version never had one), such a trip to finally hear this album in high definition.

Just need to update this old fan vid now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57AhyLSWs10

1972, and a well-known act, so probably doesn't belong on this thread, except it completely does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzByBZs4c0A

dear old Viv invented Cardiacs too eh

Well! He's certainly at least invented William D Drake

Well it's an Innes track and Viv probably wasn't involved

Oh! Right. I don't know my Bonzos lore do I

Amazing, could absolutely be a Sea Nymphs tune!

slightly vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop request:

is there anywhere to hear the early Richard Larcombe band Defeat the Young? there's an EP from 2001 that i can't find anywhere, even the actual CD of it doesn't seem to show up on discogs.

only slightly vaguely Cardiacsy prog-pop request:

does anyone know anything about this Zag and the Coloured Beads-related group - Gloup? there seems to be at least a whole album on casssette but the only traces i can find are these two tracks posted by a ZATCB member:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPLBO0ryjNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW4yrp_SIyI

There's a DTY track on this comp:
https://www.discogs.com/release/2828269-Various-House-Of-Stairs-Vol-1-Useless-In-Bed

Here is the Discogs entry for the DTY EP -

https://www.discogs.com/release/2865234-Defeat-The-Young-Day-Release-Singles-Club-Summer-2001

Sadly, none for sale at the moment.

XP - Have to say the DTY song on that HoS comp is one of the best things on there, absolutely amazing piece.

https://lakeofpuppies.bandcamp.com/album/lake-of-puppies

Preview track is very nice, but the Kugelschreiber album definitely this year's great Sharron Event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafymfFGmMs

NSRO trucking nicely onward, although Sharron is gone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndzNLsXDv3g

Oh wait, here she is!

The new Lost Crowns...I heard it at the listening party the other day. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say it might be the a) most fiendishly complex and b) best prog album I've heard...getting on for ever? It's unreal

Here it is. Good fuckin god

https://lostcrowns.bandcamp.com/album/the-heart-is-in-the-body

The closer is the longest song, so I tried that first. Intriguing! Melodic *and* knotty. The Tull love is audible. Think I'll be giving this a full listen.

Good luck, hope you get a lot out of it!

Trying to get my head around the theme of this thread. There's a lot of talk about 'fiendish complexity'. But it's wrapped in a kind of English seaside whimsicalness that makes it hard for me to swallow.

imago, what do you make of VK and its subgenres? I don't know if it's what you mean by 'pop'. In Japan, it is aimed at teengirls. So I'd call it pop. But there's a level of musical complexity which spins my head round. Hyperpop and symphonic metal dancing hand in hand through Harajuku. Not sure if Kawaii is better or worse than Whimsy. Curious if this is the kind of complexity you're interested in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBEx1LB2o7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilzoDGcKF9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jaGP1bP8Vk

xpost -- I don't think I'm built for prog this deep. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak! I end up pining for a Planet Caravan in the middle somewhere.

-- is what I was planning to write as my first listen report, but then O Alexander started to play, and that comes near enough. This is a crunchy and delicious record and I'll probably be listening again.

Now to investigate Etherwave's dancer's Harajuku.

I don't know what I make of some of this stuff myself!

Jiluka made me feel like an old man. Honestly, the first time I heard it I just thought 'wow, the generation gap is real'.

Versailles, I love the singer's voice. I think Kamijo is an amazing vocalist. But their tendency to fill every beat with sound. Guitar solos. Double kick drums. Makes me feel a bit pummelled.

I keep trying with sukekiyo. I think it's something that may eventually click with repeated attempts. Kyo's other band, Dir En Grey are definitely too metal for me.

ohh those tracks are a bit noisy and difficult for me :3 heres one of my fave idol tracks, keeps it rly kawaii n cosy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r63RUQarsJ4

And yes, O Alexander is respite, albeit quite knotty respite (I also think it is Very Beautiful)

This is quite soothing and droney. I like it!

I often like noisy and difficult things. But there's a sweet spot in complexity between 'unexpected enough to intrigue' and 'so unexpected it irritates'

I woke up this morning and within twenty minutes was thinking about The Lost Crowns. Despite how "pummeled" (Etherwave otm) I get by the album, it may be a keeper.

I feel like my years of anime fanhood inoculated me against genre explosiveness. Jiluka doesn't sound all that bizarre compared to the experience of sitting down peacefully to watch the first episode of the HUNTERxHUNTER remake and getting slammed in the face with Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The Versailles sounds like the kind of song Takashi Matsumoto would have written lyrics for in the 1980s, except the arrangement is ... hair metal? ... instead of "synthified city pop with schmaltzy strings" -- which may once again make me sound like I'm being negative or sarcastic, but I really enjoy a lot of what the '80s Japanese pop charts produced. It's cheesy, but sweet. Worst case scenario, I imagine I'm hearing a Lupin III insert song, a foolproof way to make myself like it. (All of which applies to the Versailles!)

Yeah, I think that 'slammed in the face with videogame soundtrack music' is exactly what Jiluka are aiming for.

I kinda like the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas song - or at least the aesthetic of it. It sounds like Mad Capsule Markets in a blender, but in a good way!

But maybe we need a new thread for this kind of 'genre explosive' music as this doesn't seem to be what imago and maresnest are looking for

Oh wait sorry you said anime fanhood. But similar aesthetic I guess?

Similar aesthetic, to be sure.

And true -- the Cardiacs were plenty explosive but not in a genre way, in a genre sense I think they kept the ship sailing true.