CARDIACS: THE OBVIOUS IDENTITY (1980)
1) The Obvious Identity; 2)
Visiting Hours; 3) Pip As Uncle Dick But Peter Spoilt It; 4) To Go Off And
Things; 5) Rock Around The Clock; 6) Leaf Scrapings; 7) Unknown; 8) A Game For
Bertie's Party; 9) Cameras; 10) Bite 3/a; 11) Piff; 12) Let Alone My Plastic
Doll; 13) A Balloon For Bertie's Party.
Technically, this is not yet proper «Cardiacs»
— in 1980, the band was still called Cardiac Arrest; and also technically, this
is not a properly available debut album — it was recorded in a tiny amateur
studio, located in some crappy basement in Kingston upon Thames, then copied
onto 1000 old tapes and sold at the band's concerts. In the analog era, laying
one's hands on this rarity would be a stroke of collector's luck; in the digital
era, scooping up a bunch of MP3 files becomes little problem, but, of course,
the awful sound quality is inescapable. And it is pretty awful, even way too awful for something that was copied
and re-copied several times on magnetic tape; I'm guessing that the original
recording equipment was no great shakes, either.
Nevertheless, this is a complete long-playing record, in some way, and most
importantly, it presents Cardiac Arrest, soon to be simply Cardiacs, as a band
that has already worked out its personal style and a clear understanding of
what it wants to do — subsequent recordings would obviously kill it in terms
of pure listenability, but not necessarily in terms of revolutionary ideas. At
the same time, although many of these songs would later be included on various
compilations, only one (ʻTo Go Off And Thingsʼ) would be properly re-recorded
in the studio; however, the band never really disowned the material, sometimes
performing it live, so for the sake of completeness it does deserve at least
some mention.
For the record, the players here are listed as
«Philip Pilf» (band leader Tim Smith on guitar, synthesizer, and vocals),
«Patty Pilf» (his sister brother Jim Smith on bass), «Duncan Doilet»
(Colvin Mayers on keyboards and vocals), «Little Bobby Shattocks» (Mark Cawthra
on drums), and «Peter "Zip" Boker» on vocals (the band's original
singer Michael Pugh, although by the time they got around to recording these
tracks, he was already on the way out, and so his lead vocals are featured only
on two of the tracks). This is the first clue you get as to the Cardiacs'
penchant for absurdism, theatricality, and unpredictability, but then there are
plenty more within the music itself, which is fairly unique for 1980 even
despite the abysmal sound quality.
One thing that Tim Smith abhorred was
pigeonholing; when somebody coined the term "pronk" (a condensed
"progressive punk", that is) to define the band's music, he violently
refused it, preferring instead older diffuse terms like "psychedelia"
or "pop". But "psychedelia" would probably obscure from
our view the inevitable influence of punk and New Wave bands, and using the
exact same term to describe the music of Cardiacs and the music of, say, the Knack would be a terminological
disgrace. Anyway, to hell with terminology. Some things deserve lengthy
descriptions to be understood rather than short terms.
The Cardiacs play loud, brash music here that
makes equal use of crunchy distorted guitars, played in chainsaw buzz mode or
in more traditional rock mode, alternating at will, and of pip-squeaky
synthesizers that usually like to be playful (as in a Sparks song) rather than
cruel and robotic. But sometimes
these synthesizers are used instead in Mellotron mode, providing lush (well, as
lush as you could get in a dirty basement) orchestrated backgrounds, which sounds
particularly strange when you
combine these «progressive keyboards» with punky guitar chords: see ʻA Game For
Bernie's Partyʼ, which for a couple of minutes sounds as if your local punk
band has invaded your local Catholic cathedral during a Mass service. Oh, and
did I mention that at any given time the band can erupt into (a) ska, (b) Zappa-like
crazyass structural changes every few bars, (c) hysterical Rock God guitar
solos, the likes of which seem to have gone out of style with the passing of
the early Seventies' glam icons, but make revenant guest appearances here (ʻLet
Alone My Plastic Dollʼ) just for some good ol' times' sakes?
If this all sounds like a recipe for the best
damn album of 1980 (too bad it had to be limited to 1000 old tapes), I must state,
for balance, that the actual songs sound too much like overdone brain products
of people who had too much talent to burn — there's too much of a desire to
show off here for the tunes to make real good sense. The lyrics certainly do not
make much sense, even if you manage to decode them, which is hard to do given
the circumstances — loud, brash songs sung in Estuary English on muffled tape;
but that is nothing compared to the confusion of the music, which really does try to integrate elements of punk
rock with elements of progressive (even, dare I say it, «symphonic») rock.
Listen to ʻLeaf Scrapingsʼ — one minute they sound like Yes, with a tricky time
signature outlining a mystical world populated with astral noises, and then the
next minute they sound like the Adverts or the Damned. I can't even say if I
like this or not: the best I can say is that they make a brave effort to
synthesize something thought to be unsynthesizable, even if the effort carries
more of a symbolic than a proper meaning.
In any case, no judgement can be pronounced on
an album that sounds this much like shit; I do believe that it is essential
listening for any Cardiacs fan, but in this world of free-flowing music, any
attempt to make it your proper introduction into the bizarre world of Tim Smith
may lead to unfortunate consequences.
Incredibly excited for you to be reviewing Cardiacs, big fan of the band and Tim Smith in general. Regardless of what your ultimate judgements are, considering how thoroughly off-the-radar they've remained, I'm always happy just to see them given proper attention at all!
ReplyDeleteI too am also excited that you're covering The Cardiacs, George. A part of me hopes some people might go on to discovering them as a result. Incredible band, though personally I don't think they "topped" Seaside. (I hope you'll be reviewing that!)
ReplyDeleteThere's a definite argument to be made for Sing to God as well, but we'll get to all of it eventually I'm sure.
DeleteExcited for the 70's "timeline" to get to Captain Beyond soon!
Fortuitous! I was wondering only last weekend whether Cardiacs would be included in this review stream. Such an under-rated outfit .... so cool this has become a reality!
ReplyDeleteOn the same tack of under-appreciated cult bands, one wonders whether an in-depth analysis of Australia's The Church is just around the corner? ... hint, hint ?