Tripping Yarns
Torabi to piece together the fragments of music that had been left behind and now, after years of hard work, LSD is finally here. The team behind it tell Prog about the missing piece of Cardiacs’ jigsaw and what else lies in store.
Words: Dom Lawson
Not too many irons in this fire! Cardiacs and friends assemble for
LSD
.
Images: Ashley Jones
I t’s an album that should probably have never happened. But now, against all odds, it has finally arrived. The new Cardiacs LP, LSD, has been greeted with a fervent passion that few other acts could conceivably generate. The cult band to end them all, Cardiacs could easily have been laid to rest alongside their erstwhile leader and resident genius, Tim Smith, who
When Cardiacs leader Tim Smith died in 2020, no one thought the long-awaited follow-up to Guns would see light of day. But Smith’s brother Jim teamed up with bandmates Craig Fortnam and Kavus tragically passed away back in 2020. Instead, the remaining members of the band’s last functioning line-up have joined forces with a dazzling cast of friends and affiliates, and completed work on a mind-bending double album that began life way back in 2007. As Tim’s elder sibling, Cardiacs bassist Jim Smith, correctly notes, LSD really does have Tim’s stink all over it.
“Now that it’s out, I’m not relieved, because I thoroughly enjoyed the process,” says Smith. “It’s good to have it out there, and it’s nice that it’s getting a good reaction. I thought everyone would be going, ‘Oh, Tim’s not on it, it’s not the same!’ But it stinks of him, doesn’t it? They’re all his tunes. He wrote it all. All we’ve done is try and do our best with it, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job.”
“I thought everyone would be going, ‘Oh, Tim’s not on it, it’s not the same!’ But it stinks of him, doesn’t it? They’re all his tunes. He wrote it all. All we’ve done is try and do our best with it, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job.”