Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The word is (over) used a lot when it comes to music, but there's no denying that Cardiacs were utterly unique. Emerging from the suburban commuter belt between the outskirts of West London and sleepy Surrey, they created a world of their own where vicious punk rock and implausiably complex prog were joined in joyous union, with the geniunely genius songwriting of singer/guitarist Tim Smith at its heart. 'Heaven Born & Ever Bright' is their third studio album and arrived after a slimming down of their classic six piece line up to a much sleeker four, but the songs attain an intensity and scalpel-like precision even its predecessors find hard to match. Smith would never pick actually pick a favourite of the four Cardiacs studio LPs, but when asked he would usually simply declare that he felt this one was underrated. Some four years after his death, following a tragic and lengthy debilitation after he suffered a major stroke and an episode of cerebral anoxia in 2008, it's perhaps time Cardiacs fans righted that wrong.