- Label: 'The Alphabet Business Concern'
- Genre: 'Post-Rock'
- Release Date: '25.7.25.'- Catalogue No: 'ALPHCLP012'
Our Rating:
This is the re-issue of Cardiacs second album On Land And In The Sea that was originally released in May 1989, much like the Wolfsbane re-issue I reviewed yesterday, also from 1989, this was another album that I never heard back in 1989, apart from any tunes that John Peel might have played. This re-issue gives me a chance to hear what so many of my friends were raving about. The Cardiacs are Tim and Jim Smith and Willian D Drake, Tim Quy, Sarah Smith and Dominic Luckman. It was recorded at The Slaughterhouse in Yorkshire, produced by Tim Smith and Engineered by Graham Simmonds and Roger Tebbutt, it has been fully re-mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road.
The album opens with Two Bites Of Cherry is a totally bonkers mix of agit-prog and an almost big band sensibility, with all sorts of odd changes, almost like they want to be an English Captain Beefheart, strings clash with the synths and the vocals rant away.
Baby Heart Dirt has some very dirty brass that help accentuate the vocals, that sound a bit like Tymon Dogg, the music flies off in several directions at once, I do like the fairground organ style sounds.
The Leader Of The Starry Skies is episodic and involving, while I tried my best to follow the lyrics and exactly what was going on, but seemed to get a little bit lost when the sax came in.
I Hold My Love In My Arms is a short epistle to love with totally out their prog punk backing. The Duck And Roger The Horse sounds like it was made at the radiophonic workshop, all sorts of mad noises and bits and bobs going on, this is involving and seems to go in several directions at once ending up sounding slightly deranged.
Arnauld seems to rein things in a bit, the organ has a 17th century feel to it, with the brass adding accents to the music while Tim sings about all the fishes in the sea and other things that happen to poor old Arnauld. Horsehead has a fairground merry go round feel to it, but with clattering percussive elements.
Fast Robert dashes along with stop start organ swirls and a Soft Machine on the wrong kind of acid freak out feel. Mare's Nest seems to sum up my feelings of listening to this album that unless you're into the Cardiacs particular brand of Prog punk folk madness this will be a bit of an ordeal to listen too, musically there is so much going on, its hard to focus on what is happening lyrically until the latter section when the vocals finally become clear, I wonder what I missed of the hopes and fears they are singing about.
The Stench Of Honey has some interesting woodwind battling with the keyboards and vocals, Tim explains why he thinks Honey has a stench.
Buds And Spawn is urgent and involving, the various parts fight against each other in wonderfully barking mad ways. The Safety Bowl has a mix of medieval folk virginal or celeste style keyboards with arch and overwhelming vocals and a dark edge.
The Album closes with The Everso Closely Guarded Line that has a very quiet intro, soon enough vocal interjections and musical madness slowly evolve, with weird stabs of sound and odd percussion that sounds like the drummer is running round a large kit hitting random drums and percussion blocks, when it goes quiet again your sitting wondering what will explode out of the speakers next. I can say without doubt, that if I had heard this when it came out in 1989 I would have been ranting and raving to get it off the stereo, even in 2025 it's still a rather perplexing and difficult listen.
Find out more at https://abc-mary.myshopify.com/products/on-land-and-in-the-sea-2025-remaster-lp-black-vinyl https://alphabet-business-concern.bandcamp.com/album/on-land-and-in-the-sea https://www.facebook.com/officialcardiacs https://www.cardiacs.net/
