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.

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.