Cardiacs--where to start?

[PeterG]

Although largely as a result of the same small swathe of reprobates, I love that a thread about Cardiacs has in excess of a thousand posts.

+1

[Don Arnold]

I'm also late-to-the-party with all things Cardiacs. I've scanned through this thread and listened to a couple of the linked offerings and I like what I hear. The jury is out though on whether I will be a Cardiacs fan or not. That being said I'd love to try a couple out for size.

First, I'd value some opinions from my fellow PE'ers (and obvious Cardiac FANatics). If you were to recommend TWO albums (my preference would be studio recordings - no live or compilations) for a newbie to begin with, which TWO would they be? One caveat is both of these would need to be available inexpensively because I'm on a tight budget right now.

I do realize that I could mine this thread further to potentially answer my question but....it seems you Cardiacians jump at any opportunity to post a thread about the band!

Personally, I'd start with A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window and then get On Land and in the Sea. Those two hooked me big time and are probably the 'easiest' intro point. And if you like those, get Songs for Ships and Irons which is in a similar vein.

Brief update on my pending journey into the land of the Cardiacs. No, still haven't made a purchase - I'll do that when funds are available. I typically prefer to have my virgin listening experience of new music to be from the disc, shortly after being removed from the jewel case for the first time! I didn't want to wait longer in this case so I decided to take a listen on youtube at some tracks from A Little Man. Wow! Great stuff indeed. I can certainly hear what all the fuss is about. On my first run through I found myself thinking of Van Der Graaf Generator (on steroids), both musically and vocally, and circuses. The vocals will take some time to get used to, but they are obviously an integral part of the Cardiacs sound.

When opportunity strikes and I pick up my first Cardiac disc(s) I'll let y'all know what I think.

[chalkpie]

^Not sure what this means, but I am a pretty huge Cardiacs fanatic and pretty much a non-fan of VDGG. Anyway, enjoy the ride man when you take it!

[zombywoof]

I am both a VdGG and Cardiacs fanboy, and I totally get the connection.

[Lieto]

Dive might be the best song ever. The staccato sax excerpt :40 in that Sarah plays is just perfect. Rewinded that lick (its the instrumental equivalent of DDDDDDDDDIVE!) at least 10 times. She's amazing

[Gazoinks]

Dive might be the best song ever. The staccato sax excerpt :40 in that Sarah plays is just perfect. Rewinded that lick (its the instrumental equivalent of DDDDDDDDDIVE!) at least 10 times. She's amazing

I swear this thread reads my mind sometimes. I was just debating whether or not to say something like this. I Love the way it starts with this really punky guitar part and then goes in a completely different direction 9 seconds in. It's probably also one of the most fun Cardiacs songs to sing along to, especially the Anna Ford part. Did they ever do it live? Seems like it would've been awesome.

[Kavus Torabi]

^ Quite frequently. Always fun to play.

[Mr.Flower]

I swear this thread reads my mind sometimes. I was just debating whether or not to say something like this. I Love the way it starts with this really punky guitar part and then goes in a completely different direction 9 seconds in. It's probably also one of the most fun Cardiacs songs to sing along to, especially the Anna Ford part. Did they ever do it live? Seems like it would've been awesome.

Love Dive and can imagine it really was a great live track. My Cardiacs-fandom has always come from the more alternative/punky viewpoint, rather than a progressive rock/RIO one, so i really dig this one. Its one of the most fun songs they ever did (and they certainly did a few - particularly Cardiacs Mk1).

On a bit of a tangent here, but over the weekend i was doing a bit of YouTube watching and saw John Grant @ ABC Glasgow (2013) doing (i wanna go to) Marz - and lo and behold, his drummer is wearing a lovely Cardiacs Daisy T-shirt. Not very 'progressive' (more ambient americana - if that's really a thing), but its totally beautiful song. If you've got a few minutes to check it out, i'd recommend it.

[PeterG]

^Not sure what this means, but I am a pretty huge Cardiacs fanatic and pretty much a non-fan of VDGG. Anyway, enjoy the ride man when you take it!

Ditto...for me Cardiacs & VDGG are at the opposite ends of my musical listening scale.

Cardiacs - Daily to weekly
VDGG - Never ever.

[zombywoof]

Cardiacs and VDGG are both Top 5 - Top 10 all time favorites for me. Love them both, equally.

[chalkpie]

Cardiacs and VDGG are both Top 5 - Top 10 all time favorites for me. Love them both, equally.

So according to my calculations - your top 5 favorites would be (in no order): Tull, FZ, Cardiacs, VDGG........and Crimso? I might be wrong with Crimso.

[chalkpie]

"Goodbye Grace" and "She is Hiding Behind the Shed". Fucking hell.

I have been having this fantasy of hearing "The Home of Fadeless Splendour" performed with a huge chorus in a hall surrounding the audience with a huge 120-piece orchestra. If this has never happened, it just has to.

[thedunno]

Cardiacs and VDGG are both Top 5 - Top 10 all time favorites for me. Love them both, equally.

Tim Smith and Peter Hammill the musical heroes from my youth. When you ak about my all time favourite albums I usually place STG at 1 and Pawn Hearts at 2.

Tim Smith and Peter hammill are completely different musically and in character so I can totally understand that some people like the one and cant stand the other.

[PeterG]

"The Home of Fadeless Splendour" .

It makes me sad Chalky that you never got to experience the full majesty of it live in London back in the 90s...as well as the other tracks from HB & EB

HB & EB still my favourite album and always will be. As I've mentioned before it was the new album that came out a couple of years after I got into Cardiacs.

[chalkpie]

It makes me sad Chalky that you never got to experience the full majesty of it live in London back in the 90s...as well as the other tracks from HB & EB

HB & EB still my favourite album and always will be. As I've mentioned before it was the new album that came out a couple of years after I got into Cardiacs.

Oh man....I know. Like I said here a while back, I was in Birmingham (Brum!) in '93 for the semester and I could have seen Dominick Luckman's last gig (Dec. 2) and Bob Leith's first gig (Dec. 3) in London had somebody taken me by the shoulders, shaken me, and said "Get Your Fuckin' Arse to London to see the Greatest Band in the World!!". I didn't even hear of them until probably 2005 or so here. The math just didn't work out in my favor.

As for HE & EB, not many albums could de-throne "The Rotters' Club" to use as my avatar (which is still a Top 5 all-time album for me - I LOOOOOOVE Hatfield), but HB has that magic quality! "Fadeless Splendour" is pretty much the greatest anthem I think I have ever heard. My kids now know it really well, actually the first four tunes on HB (including "Goodbye Grace").

Cheers to Tim (wherever you are).

[zombywoof]

So according to my calculations - your top 5 favorites would be (in no order): Tull, FZ, Cardiacs, VDGG........and Crimso? I might be wrong with Crimso.

More or less. I love the mighty Crim as much as any of us. You could probably swap CAN in there somewhere, too.

[Mr.Flower]

Just thought i'd take this opportunity to wish everyone on this thread and everyone in the Cardiacs family a very merry Christmas.

[zombywoof]

As this is Christmas Eve, this marks the 1 year anniversary of the first time I heard On Land and in the Sea and got my mind blown to pieces. Amazing record!!

[Lieto]

Its a shiny and Merry Christmas for all of us in the pond! A year ago today I got ALMAAHATWWW and I was forever changed.

[loosefish]

A lot of Tim's music always feels a bit Christmassy to me (without sounding naff, obviously).

It's something of an xmas day tradition for me to listen to all of STG after loading up on turkey and wine and maybe having a bit of a smoke. Still sounds awesome. Won't be doing that today sadly, as i don't have my cd's with me

I do have the first NSRO however


If we don't get a photo posted of Tim in a Santa hat i'll be highly disappointed

[Gazoinks]

Merry Christmas, guys! Now get your butts to Wayside and treat yourself to the copies of Sea Nymphs and Mr. & Mrs. & Mr. that just showed up. Thanks, Steve, you're the best as usual!

[zombywoof]

Merry Christmas, guys! Now get your butts to Wayside and treat yourself to the copies of Sea Nymphs and Mr. & Mrs. & Mr. that just showed up. Thanks, Steve, you're the best as usual!

http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...D-spc-021.aspx

[NogbadTheBad]

Ordered Sea Nymphs, already have Mr. & Mrs & Mr.

[polmico]

Merry Christmas, guys! Now get your butts to Wayside and treat yourself to the copies of Sea Nymphs and Mr. & Mrs. & Mr. that just showed up. Thanks, Steve, you're the best as usual!

Are these going to be OOP if I don't order?

[Gazoinks]

Are these going to be OOP if I don't order?

In the past they've gone out of OOP and then are reprinted. I don't think you'll lose out for good, but you'll likely have to wait a while for them be reprinted (they're done in small batches, as you'd expect).