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

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.

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.

Turns out my instincts were right, The Lost Crowns *is* a keeper.

^_^

ftr the hors d'oeuvre to Spratleys' Bloom emerged recently and it's amazing imo

furii.bandcamp.com/album/pyromancy

https://furii.bandcamp.com/album/pyromancy even

which i would describe as 'if spratleys tried to rewrite margerine eclipse from distant memory'

i'm not sold on the whole album at all, not so much my thing

but

'goodbye evergreen' is sensational

― imago, Monday, December 25, 2023 2:30 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

might be in my top 5 songs of the year, it's up there

― imago, Monday, December 25, 2023 4:15 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

i also liked the second track, you were right, i am Adz-pilled but beyond that find it hard to connect. damaged and spoilt by hypergarbage

― imago, Monday, December 25, 2023 4:24 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hey imago, could you recommend three to five albums from the past ~5 years that would satisfy someone who loves Sufjan's commitment to pretty melodies but also wishes Javelin had more songs that burst apart the way Goodbye Evergreen does?