Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

this is where I get all weepy about the single bootlegged live recording of Dream Dress that's on Youtube, right

Certainly you are welcome to do so. I guess we could just have that discussion here but it would lack the drama & focus of a poll thread.

But yeah, I'd vote in a big poll thing to make up numbers. Never actually done that before - couple of times I started to then after 15 mins I was giving it "fuck lists".

the trouble with a live albums poll is that I wouldn't know whether to vote for the Garage Concerts or Mares Nest - there are overwhelming ideological reasons to vote for either - and would collapse in a mess of glorious indecision

HOWEVER

a ballot poll could have the following sections:

a) Studio albums of Cardiacs & anything Tim Smith has been a principal songwriter in (Sea Nymphs, Mr & Mrs..., Spratleys Japs)
b) Studio tracks of Cardiacs & anything ditto
c) Live albums (name your favourite only)
d) Studio albums of the Cardiacs extended family (define as you like)
e) Studio tracks of the Cardiacs extended family

to be unveiled in the order a-c-d-e-b

and yeah I mostly subscribe to 'fuck lists' but the opportunity to really engage with Autechre and XTC in the last few weeks has been gladly taken tbh - who knows whom this exercise might inspire!

No "favourite Cardiac" then?

we can't let Jim even in with a chance of winning so no

I think (a) should be anything with the Cardiacs name on it and Spratleys etc go under (e) or (d). Not sure you'd need both (d) and (e) actually. Just (e) would be good.

Maybe. But then Spratleys, Sea Nymphs would have the unfair advantage of Tim Smith's songwriting! There's a grey area between Cardiacs-except-in-name and stuff that's completely different. Spratleys is definitely the one I'd most keenly try to argue under the Cardiacs banner, Oceanlandworld as well come to think of it. Some of the songs on those two albums are as brilliant as anything he's done, and (almost) as Cardiacsy

You're probably right that d) is unnecessary though, much as I'd like to proselytise the NSRO at enormous length

You can still do that though.

Also feels like there needs to be space for the radio sessions and bootlegs...they are in the canon. Maybe just add that to the live albums portion?

Yeah, that seems fair.

Oceanlandworld....ah man. It's such an astonishing record. Nobody's bloody heard it. It's completely amazing. It both anticipates and betters all of Britpop, too - This Grounds Town contains all of Blur and then some

(and it's, like, one of the album's comparatively weaker tracks)

See if anyone else weighs in on this after dawn breaks.

that sea nymphs peel session is pretty essential

Juts piping up to say bring it on! :)

Must fix those juts, come to think of it.

I've been listening to The Sea Nymphs as I have been commuting this week and it never ceases to delight and amaze, I'd love for some learned person to recommend me some related Classical music (other than the obv).

don't think anyone has pushed the Satie paradigm in such interesting directions other than Smith and Drake tbh, but I too would be delighted to hear of a counterexample

I mean, Chilly Gonzalez kinda starts from the same musical base but heads in an altogether far more mundane direction, and sometimes does rubbish raps over it too lol

Stars in Battledress, maybe?

Yeah but they're 'the obvious', lol

hence why an Affiliated poll on top of the Cardiacs one would be awesome - there's a whole family of this music, quite unlike anything else

I should just ask James Larcombe, there's merely a whip between Bill's Solo material and some Sea Nymphs

If only he still posted here eh?

Just sent him a msg, will report back.

Yeah but they're 'the obvious', lol

maybe to you! it seems like outside of Cardiacs circles nobody has a clue about them! (sees thread title)

Hey Frogbs do you like (the band) Levitation?

Okay, James is gonna ask Tim & Bill next time he see's them, so I'll keep you posted.

don't know em

O sweet, nice work :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PBmilni0w

sounds good but I'm interested in that piano in the background and this YouTube is too lo-fi to make it out. very cool tune though!

I've reached the point of Cardiacsness whereby I can listen to The Obvious Identity or Toy World and feel exactly the same joy as I do listening to any of the properly-recorded stuff. Some of those songs are as good as anything.

A Balloon For Bertie's Party is...I'll come to weeping if I try to describe it. The outro, just Tim and a guitar, is one of the most staggering, spine-chillingly beautiful things I'll ever hear. It's a collective dream of England, too lovely for death. 7:20 is where I can't handle it any more.

Hooray! I ordered 13 Cardiacs albums from their site and got them in the mail today.

On the receipt letter was "Wow! You're a hungry boy!", but maybe that's on all the receipt letters?

I got Sing To God a couple of years ago (I paid around 100 pounds for both parts and don't regret it) and I was very happy to discover recently that their own site has their albums for non-crazy prices.

Congratulations!

Sing to God is probably one of the only albums made worth paying £100 for, but still, ouch. I managed to find StG in a second-hand record shop a few years ago and paid a couple of quid, I think. The owner obviously didn't know what he was sitting on and barely hid his sneer when he looked at the cover.

It's been good to get er, physical copies of their discography over the last 18 months or so, including Tim Smith's solo album which I sometimes thought I'd never hear.

Finished listening to On Land And In The Sea. It's wonderful, especially the Last track. It never seems like there's as many as 13 tracks when I'm listening. I wish there was a bit more of Sarah's vocals, does she sing more on the other albums?

Not really. Think that album was the most vocals she ever did. But there's Sea Nymphs/Mr & Ms Smith and Mr Drake material where she does a lot more.

Sorry, just recalled that she sings a fair bit on Guns including lead on Wind and Rain is Cold.

Would love to find out what she's up to now, hear her perspectives on the days on the road or whatever. More and more i appreciate her role in the band. Apart from being awesome on stage, her sax playing grounded them in the semi-classical/prog tradition - there's nothing jazzy or rock about what she's doing. It's all accents, harmonies and a bit of dissonant noise now and again. Her leaving, along with the switch of drummers was the most defining change in the band's direction and sound. More than even William D Drake I think.

http://www.salisburyartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/Event.aspx?EventID=1343

guns vinyl reissue out. seems to part of a ongoing plan to reissue all of their albums.

https://prog.teamrock.com/features/2015-07-18/the-10-best-cardiacs-songs-as-chosen-by-mike-vennart

decent choices, really like that there's two off The Obvious Identity!

Just catching on to Cardiacs, what a singular band. Consistently very entertaining as well, but can imagine finding them grating in the wrong mood.

give it a few months, there'll be moods where anything that isn't them is grating

I've listened to A Little Man and a House... Sing to God next?

you've listened to their weakest album (obviously it's still great)

uhhhh I'd recommend proceeding chronologically from there, On Land And In The Sea then Heaven Born And Ever Bright, toughen yourself up THEN unleash the God

Or fuck it, listen to Sing To God, it's what I did first and it ensured that I'd love them forever almost immediately

Sing To God was my first, then On Land And In The Sea, and right now A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window.