The Alphabet Business Concern ALPHCD012. 1989
A chap named Carl, who I used to correspond with in the days before email, interweb, silicon chips and such, sent me a tape of A little man and a house and the whole world window by Cardiacs. Must have been in 88. I was only really listening to thrash and hardcore at the time, and this opened up the musical gamut that henceforth drew my attention. Like.
Utter madness. Literally. I'm sure, having seen them a couple of times, that there's something greatly unhinged about brothers Tim and Jim Smith (Guitar/vox + bass). The first time I saw them at Newcastle Riverside ranks up there, just below Bongwater, in the top gig experiences of my life. They were incredible. It was the tour for this album. The drummer had this huge kit set up all around and above him on scaffold, and he was outstanding. The little guitar dude from Levitation was playing with them, and he was going mad, jumping into the pillars at the side of the stage and flailing around on the ground, all without missing a note.
Math rock? Fuck that. Try keeping track of the time and chord changes on this stuff. It's borderline prog. Being so intense it's hard to listen to more than one album in any given month, but it's always an enjoyable experience.
Utterly English.
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