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

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