Cardiacs!!!! Perhaps the most difficult band to describe and/or categorize. The best label I can come up with for their music is "ZOLO PRONK." Weird, wonderful, insane. Cardiacs were truly one-of-a-kind. I rest my case!!!!
I’ve just barely discovered this band. I’ve decided to go chronologically and have only heard their debut album (Little Man…). But I’ve heard it around 10 times and MAN IT IS SO GOOD!
@@paulayers1111 What a good decision! I’m glad you decided to do that! The Seaside is such a good album. Now I think you’ll get to know more about this band. I hope you keep enjoying the trip!
Also essential cardiacs listening is songs for ships and irons which is there EP stuff from around the little man and on land and in the sea era and is filled with absolute bangers, also recommend the live film all that glitters is a mares nest what a band live we used to watch it nearly every weekend for years after the pub
Scot I can't believe you're doing the Cardiacs! I dont care about the order it's fantastic you are covering them I saw them loads of times! and they supported the Stranglers a few times Tim Smith was a genius and they are Prog on Nitro! 👍😁👍
Great to see such love for Cardiacs! Regarding their youthful cassette offerings, I'd recommend getting into The Special Garage Concerts double album from 2003. Although it's a live recording, it's (imho) the definitive iteration of these early songs, and a comprehensive argument for the fully formed songwriting chops of baby Tim: two hours of sustained, energetic brilliance, previously mucky pebbles shined up into jewels and set in the crown where they belong, played by a tight, authoritative late-era Cardiacs at the top of their game.
It's amazing how well they played to a backing track They never replaced Bill Drake on keys, so they recorded all the keyboard tracks themselves and used them live. Seamlessly, tempo changes and all.
I only found out about Cardiacs when Tim Smith passed away and they got some air play on the evening shows of BBC 6 Music radio as a result. Subsequently really came to love Sing to God in particular. Their back catalogue has recently gone back up on Spotify.
Thanks for the video. I still can't comprehend, after all these years, how can this band mix so many genres and be melodic at the same time. just amazing. Sing to God, what a masterpiece. Prog on my friend
Also well worth hearing is 'Tim Smith's Extra Special OceanLandWorld', which sounds like Cardiacs, but everything is played by Tim; he recorded these in his spare time over a period of years... There's an outside chance that one day we'll hear 'LSD' with guest vocals, as I understand that it was almost done except for Tim's vocals when he fell ill.
@@TheProgCorner 🌼🌼🌼Vermin Mangle was released after Tim's passing and was likely intended for LSD. Ditzy Scene , Gen & Made All Up were released in 2007 as a teaser single by Org Records prior to his tragic illness
@@TheProgCornerI was fortunate to hear LSD, on LSD, was rather random. But shall never forget it. Hopefully it'll be completed someday, I have it on good authority that it's looking likely to happen, specifically after their recent reformation. I went to one of the sing to Tim gigs (the first one,) was beyond magical. A dream come true to experience the pond as it should be. Great video BTW ❤
My favourite band of all time. Great job on the ranking! (Though I'd have been generous and included Songs for Ships and Irons even though its technically a "compilation"). Re: That Fiery Gun Hand solo I'm sure I read once in an interview with Jon Poole that he felt like he'd laid down the best solo of his life for it, only for Tim to take it, chop it up into tiny fragments and rearrange it into its final demented form. So i guess they ought to take equal credit for it, really!
Great stuff, Scot! Just listening to a couple of Cardiacs' albums the last couple of nights! That IS Jon Poole on the crazy guitar solo on 'Fiery Gun Hand'. Jon is responsible for some seriously crazy stuff and he wrote a few songs on here as well. Did you notice on 'The Duck and Roger the Horse' that he took a line from Kate Bush's song 'The Dreaming' and changed the words a bit? It's a shame you couldn't have gotten 'Songs For Ships and Irons' as that comp has some of their very, very best songs that are not available elsewhere except live and a Greatest Hits. Much more worthwhile music than the 2 cassettes. But that's the way we all go....
Here's an odd coincidence I discovered: Kavus Torabi from The Cardiacs plays on a couple of very old tracks by UNIT - Buckingham Palace Burns Down and, er, another one, both off an album called Class War released in 2008. Anyway, seeing as how my knowledge of The Cardiacs doesn't go beyond that, your video is an excellent education. I now intend to investigate some of these albums so THANK YOU again for adding to my knowledge of prog and prog-adjacent groups.
Great job Scott! My second favorite band, favorite band is on your shirt, but you knew that already haha. Sing To God is definitely my favorite and it is just long enough.
@@TheProgCorner I look forward to it! (Isolation Drills is my #1). While we're here, have you ever covered the mighty Oceansize? They were a truly marvellous band in the prog-rock tradition, influenced by, among other outfits, Cardiacs, Pavement, Sabbath, Radiohead and Mr Bungle.
@@TheProgCorner Excellent. I should have known. Vennart can do no wrong in my eyes. His latest solo album, Forgiveness and the Grain, is yet another banger. I got into Amplifier through Oceansize. I expect you've heard their stuff too, but Strange Seas of Thought is a good place to start if you haven't. It slaps.
I would have gone my whole life without having even heard of 'em if it wasn't for Steven Wilson's great 'Intrigue' compilation - I heard R.E.S. - my immediate thought was 'Bohemian Rhapsody with Terry Hall (Specials and Fun Boy 3) on vocals!'. Went to Qobuz and streamed some more and that was that - into the pond!
The STG vs OLAITS controversy lives on. For what it’s worth, OLAITS just pips STG at the post. What I would say if asked (which I never am of course!) is, STG is the best album ever, but On Land is my favourite
Great ranking, I'd rank them pretty much the same. (I'd probably put On Land & in the Sea at the top, but those top three albums in your list are all 10/10, it's hard to rank them.) If you haven't heard it, I recommend their live double album The Special Garage Concerts if you want to hear the songs from the early cassette albums all polished up and sounding like real Cardiacs!
🌼🌼🌼 Thanks for covering Cardiacs! 🚹🏠🌐🪟 my personal ranking- (#3,4,&5 interchangeable) #1 sing to God #2 a little man and a house and the whole world window #3 songs for ships and irons #4 heaven born and ever bright #5 on land and in the sea #6 the seaside #7 day is gone(EP) #8 guns #9 toy world additional must haves - Tim Smith's extra special oceanland world (solo LP) All that glitters is a maresnest (live) Special garage concerts(live)
Hey man ,great video, just wanted to let you know the band are active again without tim and plan to release a finished version of lsd in 2025, the a BBC radio session from june on here to look up
Zolo Pronk? It sounds like a brand of floor cleaner. I prefer 'neo-prog' or 'prog-adjacent'. Anyway, in response to that fellow below (or above, wherever this appears) who mentioned Kavus Torabi, yes, he did indeed play one of the guitars on Buckingham Palace Burns Down which we recorded in 2008. The other was played by Malcolm 'Scruff' Lewty of heavy metal band Hellbastard whom I've known since I first visited him in Birtley Children's Home in 1984. Oh and I am so looking forward to the Sunday live stream. Mind you, the Mount Rushmore scenario is giving me a headache: I have 5 vocalists, every one of whom merits a place. I cannot decide which 1 to sacrifice. Maybe I'll have to cheat and go down the Deep Purple In Rock route!
Missed this a couple months ago. I prefer Guns to Heaven Born and Ever Bright, but that's just quibbling. For a great view into the cassette era, get Archive Cardiacs from The Alphabet Business Concern. The early stuff is so underrated. You can hear the Frank Zappa influences combined with punk snottiness that hadn't quite congealed yet into the "Cardiacs sound,." Super fun to listen to IMHO,
I would include songs for ships and irons CD its more of an album than the early tapes and has some of my absolute favourite tracks from these glorious mad beautiful bastards...
@@TheProgCorner did you catch the radio 6 music session with loads of the ex members gigging again for the sing to Tim shows what a beautiful time to be alive
I haven’t heard them for decades. I had a couple of their earlier albums but was never completely sold. Punk and Prog make uncomfortable bedfellows. I remember that it sounded a little forced to me albeit they certainly had the chops. I think Stranglers and Public Image did it a lot better.
I think the punk combined with prog explanation doesn't entirely fit Cardiacs. Tim had his own vision and his own harmonic pallete. There are very few cliches from other genres informing his music. Kind of like the way they'd dress up in musty uniforms and wear ghastly makeup. They tested the listener.
Yes! By all means. the sound quality may not be up to typical prog standards but you can hear everything and everything is good. Worth getting if you are a dyed in the wool pondie. One thing I like about it is the drumming, which is less clunky that Luckman's caveman approach. A lot of Cardiacs drum tracks were programmed drum machines, which is never my favorite thing,
