Cardiacs - "Toy World" (1981) [Full Remastered Demo Album]

Recorded June 1980 - March 1981 Crow Studios Surbiton, Surrey, England Side 1: 0:00 - 1. Aukamakic 0:43 - 2. Over [outtake] 0:49 - 3. Icky Qualms 3:06 - 4. Over and Over and Over and Over 8:21 - 5. Dead Mouse 12:49 - 6. A Big Noise in a Toy World 16:25 - 7. My Trade Mark Side 2: 20:59 - 8. Scratching Crawling Scrawling 21:57 - 9. As Cold as Can Be in an English Sea 29:10 - 10. Verses 29:42 - 11. Is This the Life? 34:32 - 12. Nurses Whispering Verses 40:08 - 13. A Time for Rejoicing [incl. "In Heaven" by David Lynch & Peter Ivers] ------------------------------------------------------ Support the Cardiacs community here: https://abc-mary.myshopify.com/ Tim Smith - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Production, Songwriting Jim Smith - Bass Guitars, Backing Vocals Sarah Smith - Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Keyboards, Backing Vocals Colvin Mayers - Keyboards, Backing Vocals (Tracks 4, 5, & 7 only), Co-Writer (Track 4 only) Mark Cawthra - Drums, Backing Vocals, Engineering, Co-Writer on Track 6 Peter Kunzler - Engineering Produced by Tim Smith and Cardiacs CARDIACS · "Toy World" 1981 Demo Album Perhaps the most accurate quality you'll find anywhere as far as I am aware (as of January 2020 and January 2021 when I worked on this). This brilliant, one-of-a-kind pop band released a number of extremely rare demo albums as cassette tapes in the early 1980s -- and I was shocked that the versions I discovered circulating online are all recorded at a much slower, incorrect speed, resulting in the recordings all being the wrong pitch as well. As a result - and again, if you're reading this and know where to find a better quality recording than what's out there send it my way - all previously available copies or bootlegs fail to properly represent the original sound captured during the "Toy World" recording sessions. Thanks to the limited amount of properly remixed tracks from these sessions available on the 1989 compilation "Archive Cardiacs," I had an official reference with which to compare, create, and clean up a bootleg rip of "Toy World." Now at the original speed and original pitch, at last, the way it should be... even if a band member previously referred to the cassette mixes as "so shit it wouldn’t matter if they were copied onto washing-up sponges." Indeed, this is still an incredibly raw recording to begin with and there's only so much you can change. Still, my ears are happier with it than they've ever been. As far as I know, and with the master tapes lost to time, this is the closest you can get to experiencing Cardiacs' second-ever studio project. I implore any producer friends I know with more experience to take this project on themselves, and perhaps someday their management will organize a full proper re-release as with those special "Archive" mixes... But I'm happy to have done this. Long live the music of Tim Smith and all his friends. Kiss the big ugly shark :) 🌼🌼🌼