My new favourite band, rather than favourite new band. I first heard Cardiacs just a few months ago, but they’ve been active for 30 years! It seems that they have a cult following but are otherwise basically unknown, even to lovers of unusual music. These guys should have been pop stars, but their vision is just too eccentric. They release music on their own label, the Alphabet Business Concern, and are pretty much outsiders from the music industry.
Cardiacs make some of the most amazingly brilliant music I’ve ever heard, overflowing with energy and ideas. They even have their own musical genre: pronk: prog punk. The band prefers ‘psychedelic’. To those descriptions one could add metal, jazz, ska, music hall, classical, britpop, etc. As for comparisons with other artists, imagine a collage of fragments of Wire, John Zorn/Naked City, XTC, Madness, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Sparks, Bonzo Dog Band, early Genesis, Split Enz, King Crimson, Devo, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Gentle Giant, Danielson, the Residents, Jim Thirlwell, Syd Barrett, Pixies, Talk Talk, Queen and Mr Bungle. Apparently they are favourites of and an influence on Blur, Radiohead, the aforementioned Mr Bungle, and no doubt many other musicians in the know.
Here’s some classic 80s Cardiacs:
How could anyone not love this band? They’re so adorable! Here’s a live vid from their stripped down, four piece, 1990s incarnation (the last minute or so is especially killer). And luckily for us there’s lots more at YouTube.
As for albums, a good starting point would be 1995’s ‘Sing to God’ – a double album (also released as two separate albums) which is brilliant from start to finish, and is also one of their most ‘rocking’ releases. Finding their recordings can be difficult, but their website has CDs for sale (although some are out of print) as well as several mp3s available for download.
If you’re a music lover, do yourself a favour and check these guys out. Then recommend them to your friends. Cardiacs deserve to be much better known. They’re a musical treasure.