"Arch Garrison are
Craig Fortnam (North Sea Radio Orchestra) – guitars, vocals, percussion.
James Larcombe (Stars in Battledress, William D Drake, North Sea Radio Orchestra) - organ, synth, piano.

Having garnered much critical...

Craig Fortnam: voice, guitars, piano, Philicorda organ, monosynth, percussion
James Larcombe: melodeon, dulcitone, wind organ, Philicorda organ, monosynth, piano
special guest:
Pete Aves: pedal steel guitar on 'Open My Eye'

This is one of those albums that seems simple and acoustic-oriented and straightforward and when you really listen to it, you realize that it actually is anything BUT simple. Conditionally recommended.

“North Sea Radio Orchestra's Craig Fortnam and...

The Cardiacs are a great, long-lived UK outfit, founded in 1977, who combine punk energy with very odd cabaret leanings and a fondness for musical complexity that undoubtedly got them gobbed on even more than usual during the 'age of punk'. They didn't...

Not just released, but SPITEFULLY released!

"A collection of Cardiacs’ earliest works recorded between the years 1977-1979. Spitefully compiled and released on the black market without the band’s knowledge by an embittered associate for personal gain. Now Archive Cardiacs gets the digipac works done on it to reflect it's incredible contents. Simply a ‘must have’ for the collector of toneless drivel."

For reasons I have never quite understood, and maybe they never understood either, Guns, released in 1999, was the band's last studio album.

"Guns…the perfect companion to ‘Sing To God’. Cardiacs extend the blueprint ever outwards with a 12...

This stupendous live album, recorded live to stereo with no overdubs or sweetening, on May 15, 1988 during their most popular live period, features the famous/classic sextet lineup.

The Cardiacs are a great, long-lived UK outfit, founded in 1977, who combine punk energy with very odd cabaret leanings and a fondness for musical complexity that undoubtedly got them gobbed on even more than usual during the 'age of punk'. They didn't care; "wankers", they cried to the unbelievers!

"It was...

I know that Cardiacs have a lot of live albums, but they really shine live and, despite it's name, this is an excellent quality live album by the sextet, recorded at the Reading Rock Festival in front of a huge audience on August 24, 1986. It was...

"Sing to God is the seventh album by Cardiacs and their first with drummer Bob Leith.

Sing to God was also the band's first double album, due to the sheer amount of material that group leader Tim Smith had written over a number of years with little or no Cardiacs live performances. The album was initially released as a limited run of 3000 double album sets, and later as two separate CDs. It is named after a children's hymn book owned by former Cardiacs keyboardist William D. Drake, although Smith...

This has some of their great singles from their great early period, along with the mini-album The Big Ship, all of which are now only available in their original versions here!

"THE ALPHABET BUSINESS CONCERN, having a keen eye for a waspy and...

This is their 3rd album and it was originally released on cassette only. Lots of great ones on this one: how can you fault any album that brought us "To Go Off And Things" as well as "Gibber And Twitch". Well, you can't!

Update: You can't fault it, but you can improve it. As I understand it, The Seaside was originally released on cassette only. When it was later made available as a CD in the 90s, some tracks were taken off, and some parts were re-done or alternative versions to the original were...

Around the time of their great release The Seaside and opening for Marillion in the UK, this originally cassette-only release emerged. It was first released on CD in 2004 and I certainly never saw it before now.

"A Cardiacs spin-off project...

"The Sea Nymphs is an album recorded as a side project by Tim and Sarah Smith, and William D. Drake of the band Cardiacs, originally known as Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake. It was originally only available through the fan club and at concerts, but was later released generally as a CD in 1992."-Wikipedia

"The rumours that three key members of Cardiacs both past and present, namely Tim Smith, Sarah Smith and William D. Drake had been secretly recording material under the name of "The Sea Nymphs"...

Who is William D. Drake? William D. Drake was a member of Cardiacs during one of their very greatest periods (there have been more than one) and he also collaborated in the writing as well as making the under-acknowledged Mr & Mrs Smith and Mr Drake...

As the universe reels in pain from the reality, yet becomes used to the idea, of a 'post Cardiacs world', music is still being created by some of the ex-members. And the more I hear, the more I realize what a talented crew manned that ship. William D. Drake was a member of the group and this is his fourth and latest solo album. You can definitely hear traces of Cardiacs in his work, but there's a lot more too. It's mostly songs, but every now and then you will be surprised by a rather intricate and...

"Yew's Paw was an album of thirteen unaccompanied acoustic piano pieces. All of these were original Drake compositions, although inspirations included classical composers such as Debussy, Rachmaninov, Paderewski, Prokofiev and Hindemith as well as jazz, Walt Disney films and Edward Lear). As with Briny Hooves, the album was well received. John L. Walters reviewed Yews Paw in The Guardian, describing it as "piano miniatures whose 'light classical' veneer peels back to reveal a tough musical heart."-Wikipedia

"You may know Stephen EvEns as the drummer behind Graham Coxon. You may know Stephen EvEns as the occasional sticksman behind The Damned. You may know Stephen EvEns as the rhythmic backbone of William D Drake’s band, Charlotte Hatherley, and, for one brief week, Cardiacs. You may even know him as Stuffy accompanied by his Fuses.
Now get to know Stephen EvEns the songsmith, the maudlin geetar plucker and blistering noisemangler. Get to know of his embittered heart (latterly mended) and the disturbed...

Craig Fortnam - voice, guitars, organ, synth, piano, percussion
Nicky Baigent - Bb clarinet, bass clarinet
Luke Crooks – bassoon
Harry Escott – cello
James Larcombe – piano
Brian Wright - violin, viola
Hugh Wilkinson – vibraphone

“All at sea. Anchorless. Adrift. Ark is the first album to be released as a Craig Fortnam solo album. As the composer for North Sea Radio Orchestra and Arch Garrison, Craig has always made music with meaning, emotional heft and depth of...

Knifeworld is the long worked on solo project by Kavus Torabi, of Cadiacs, Guapo and Monsoon Bassoon. It's a very English, very modernly English progressive release - it's not filled with mellotrons and it doesn't sound like it's from the 70s, but it is full of good songs with great hooks and huge depth in terms of what he does with the song forms. If you like and appreciate Cardiacs, you'll definitely like this; although it doesn't sound anything like Cardiacs, it mines similar ground. Nicely done....

This 2008 release is the 2nd album by the North Sea Radio Orchestra, who are a contemporary music ensemble who happily cross genres. The band has several ties to Cardiacs and they do a piece by William D. Drake here, as well as including him and Kavus...

"The band/group(led by Craig Fortnam) have been described as 'unique english chamber music' which, at best, only describes the tools of their trade, you'll hear chamber strings, choral music, english folkiness, romantic poetry, experimental organs...

This is a hand-numbered edition of 999 copies!

“This concert is a beautiful event, for me. These musicians seem to me to have have really grasped what my songs are about; but at the same time, created an entirely fresh way of putting the music together. I feel so honored and so grateful.”-Robert Wyatt, March 2019

“One of the greatest albums of the 1970s, beautifully reimagined and re-written for orchestra. I have listened to Rock Bottom hundreds of times, and thought I was familiar with...

This is the only solo album by Cardiacs main-man, Tim Smith. It is truly a solo album, as Tim plays all instruments (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, etc) except for Sarah Smith who joins him on saxes on one track!

Originally released in 1995...

Even though he released it and it might be considered 'cheating' by some of this world's harshest critics, this is Kavus' favorite album of 2014.

"Stars In Battledress is a British duo. Brothers Richard and James Larcombe write and perform...

“Hip To The Jag, Kavus Torabi's debut solo album, is a blissfully skewed swan dive into the swirling cosmic kaleidoscope of the poet's soul. From spectral, intricate and fragile compositions to psychedelic, joyous and open drone-scapes, it is brave, beautiful and beguiling throughout.
Kavus Torabi's songs dwell on mortality, love and loss. He uses disquieting themes as a way of establishing a context for transcendent bliss.
Over the last two decades, as one of Britain's most inventive songwriters.

“Who’s to say if we’re to believe Pablo Picasso’s theory that “art washes away from the soul the dust from everyday life”, However, only a fool would deny the simple processes of guitar string to amplifier or microphone to magnetic tape/WAV file can be more than merely a hobby or an idle pastime. This is a cathartic endeavour that reflects and refracts the daily joys and tribulations to elevate and elucidate. Such is the case with the second solo album by Kavus Torabi, The Banishing.
“I started...