Just an old review...
Sean M. Cooke
Date: 9/4/01
Somehow the Cardiacs have made a long career out of being 'obscure'.
They sold a few records, opened for Blur, have a great website
(cardiacs.com), and are on their eleventh album, yet after hearing
great things about them through a friend of mine in England, I spent
five years looking for them. Being a California resident, I was
finally lucky enough to get ahold of the "Sampler" cd. It's sad that a
band as incredibly talented as the Cardiacs have to linger in
obscurity while the Backstreet Boys hog the charts. Globally.
To the average person, this group specializes in 'math-rock'. Herky,
jerky, trebly, stop-start rhythms, odd-time frames that leap out of
nowhere, exasperated vocals, and sea-chanty back-ups that would make
the Toy Dolls stop writing Agnes Has Anal Lice and take notice. An
album that, at first, will go way over your head. The key to the
Cardiacs is how great the songs really are. Stripped of the 5/4 time
interludes, and wacko arrangements, songs like "Sleep All Eyes Open"
are brutally fantastic. Beautiful in their attention to detail. Like
the world's biggest relief map. Up close.
Fang
"Sean M. Cooke" <micro...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1aef2ad8.04113...@posting.google.com...
> To the average person, this group specializes in 'math-rock'.
I'm an average person and I have no idea what "math rock" is.
It's certainly not a common term over here in Cardiac-land AFIACS .The only
band I've seen who have used the term to describe themselves is "The Oxes"
from Baltimore.
Can you expand?
F
Mark Alexander Wotton
It's a pretty odd description for Cardiacs. The only bands I've heard
described as math-rock tend to be mostly instrumental and fairly technical -
the most obvious point of similarity would be the fondness for odd time
signatures.
mrak
--
realise your life was only bait for a bigger fish
-- aesop rock
Fang
"Mark Alexander Wotton" <mwo...@cse.unsw.edu.au> wrote in message
news:slrncqt4fp....@pill01.orchestra.cse.unsw.EDU.AU...
Some descriptions are referenced here...
http://www.rundevilrun.com/mathrock.html
I hope it doesn't catch on over here as the normal abbreviation for
mathematics is "maths" and not "math".
F