Cardiacs -Sing to God -Wild, wild progressive punk! -Gotta hear!!

Cardiacs biography
THE CARDIACS are rightly famous for being the founders of a musical genre of their own: pronk (a mixture of prog and punk). Although the current sound of THE CARDIACS is closer to punk than in the first fifteen years of their career, you'd still not mistake them for mainstream rock. Their songs are just too twisted and complicated, their wall of sound approach to mistake them for mainstream rock. And for a regular audience, their still too progressive for their own good. The band was founded in 1977 by brothers Tim and Jim Smith. Even their first primitive recordings feature their trademark sound of Banksian chord sequences, ZAPPA-esque twisted time signatures, Pythonesque lyrics and a love of fast drums and gnarly guitars that betray their punk influences. (These recordings were later collected on "Archive Cardiacs" and "The Seaside"). Starting with what later became "Songs for ships and iron" the band was in the classic line-up of Tim Smith (guitar vocals), Jim Smith (bass), Sarah Smith (sax), William D. Drake (keyboards), Dominic Luckman (drums) and Tim Quy(percussion). "A little man and a house and the whole world window " and "On land and in the sea" are the band at their proggiest with a diverse instrumentation (including Mellotron, lent to the band by IQ's keyboard player) and a potpourri of musical styles in every single song. It was during this period they scored a small indie hit in the UK with the Big Ship single and were invited by Fish to open for MARILLION on a UK tour. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Sarah Smith and William Drake left the band and THE CARDIACS were now a foursome, relying on backing tapes for keys and choirs. 1992's "Heaven born and ever bright" was a step backwards but 1995's "Sing to God part 1+2" was a return to form with classic CARDIACS songs like "Fiery Hand Gun" and "A Dog Called Sparky". "Guns' was once again a step back. At the moment the band is in the studio recording a new album. Nothing much is known so far. It's interesting though that in late 2003 the band went back to their earliest, most progressive period and did a couple of shows where they played only songs from the first few years, songs that had never been played live in more than twenty years.

Disc: 1
1. Eden On The Air
2. Eat It Up Worms Hero
3. Dog-Like Sparky
4. Fiery Gun Hand
5. Insect Hoofs On Lassie
6. Fairy Mary Mag
7. Believe
8. Horses Tail
9. Manhoo
10. Dirty Boy

Disc: 2
1. Wireless
2. Billion
3. Odd Even
4. Bell Stinks
5. Bell Clinks
6. Flap Off You Beak
7. Quiet As A Mouse
8. Angelworm Angel
9. red Fire Coming Out From His Gills
10. No Gold
11. Nurses Whispering Verses

Psychelatte says: WOW this is mad!! More info progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1488
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