The Genius Of... Tim Smith #2

#2: Jibber and Twitch

This is one of those songs that if someone asks "What do Cardiacs sound like?", you can say "Like this!" It's an utterly ridiculous song, shambolic and chaotic. Yet it all fits perfectly and couldn't possibly work any other way.

Jibber and Twitch first emerged on the Cardiacs' third cassette-only album 'The Seaside' in 1984[1], the first such album of theirs to have a half-decent sound quality. It demonstrated, perhaps for the first time in recorded form, the intensity of their music and Tim Smith's brilliantly deranged musical mind. It remains the only studio version of the song, but it did reappear as the opening number on the 'Special Garage Concerts' CD which captured Cardiacs live in 2003 playing some of their earliest material. Hearing this, you realise there's no secret studio trickery going on in the original - it is  meant to sound like this even in its most organic form.

It's a fun song, more than anything. Well, it is if you can stick it - many can't. It is Cardiacs at their maniacal best.

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[1] I have a bootleg of them playing it at Stonehenge Free Festival[2] in 1981, so it was already an established live track.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Free_Festival