Entertainment

Apparently, the Kingston upon Thames based band the Cardiacs made some pop success inroads during the mid eighties after a few years milling around the weirdo, post-punk underground. But that heady latter period has little to do with what makes the ensemble engaging for Brit DIY enthusiasts. Up until a few years ago, the band was still kicking around, mounting a substantial tour back in 2008. But during the seventies, the Cardiacs sought to marry a low rent DIY aesthetic with some spacier and futuristic musical stance. It kinda worked.

Founded in 1979 by brothers Tim and Jim Smith - isn’t it nice that their name’s rhyme – the Cardiacs, or as they were originally known, Cardiac Arrest issued a pair of tapes, the latter being Toy World. With its splotchy cover art and oddly constructed songs, the effort worked to push the band to the forefront of what was eventually to be recast as the darker side of new wave. Such prominent focus on keyboards, though, makes the band’s earliest punk allegiance a bit murky, perhaps necessitating a reappraisal of how proggy psych acts from the early seventies influenced this ensemble.

Anyway, Toy World, mounts more than a couple extended compositions, at times a bit reminiscent of Magazine and Howard Devoto, another Brit who kinda loved keyboards. The Cardiacs’ “Is This The Life” isn’t exactly cut from the same mold as the former Buzzcocker’s second, lesser known band. But with all those keyboard washes functioning as a song’s main melodic figure, it’s difficult to separate the two.