Albums · Studio album

Toy World

Cardiacs

Release date1981

Year1981

LabelSelf-released

Formats & catalogue

CassettePrivate cassette

Originally sold only on cassette at concerts and through the Cardiacs fan club.

Overview

Toy World is Cardiacs’ second cassette album and the first release issued under the shortened Cardiacs name. Recorded on an extremely limited budget, it combines songs inherited from the earlier Cardiac Arrest line-up with newer material written as the group’s identity was rapidly changing. The rough, flat recording quality cannot disguise the arrival of many ideas that would later become central to Cardiacs: manic shifts of rhythm and mood, theatrical vocals, dense keyboard writing and bright melodies pushed into strange and unstable shapes.

Tracklist

43:58

01
Aukamacic0:45
Written by Tim SmithIncludes the short outtake ‘Over’.
02
Over0:07
Written by Tim Smith, Colvin Mayers
03
Icky Qualms2:15
Written by Tim Smith
04
Over + Over + Over + Over3:29
Written by Tim Smith, Colvin Mayers
05
Dead Mouse4:30
Written by Tim SmithA re-recording of a song originally intended for the debut single under the title ‘Keep Your Dead Mice with You’.
06
A Big Noise in a Toy World3:38
Written by Tim Smith, Mark Cawthra
07
Trademark3:40
Written by Tim Smith
08
Scratching Crawling Scrawling0:56
Written by Tim Smith
09
As Cold as Can Be in an English Sea7:12
Written by Tim Smith
10
Verses0:32
Written by Tim SmithA backwards section of ‘Nurses Whispering Verses’.
11
Is This the Life?5:02
Written by Tim SmithThe earliest released version of the song.
12
Nurses Whispering Verses5:50
Written by Tim SmithThe earliest released version of the song.
13
A Time for Rejoicing2:05
Written by Tim SmithContains elements of ‘In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)’ from Eraserhead.

Line-up

7 credited

Tim Smith

guitar · keyboards · vocals

Jim Smith

bass guitar · vocals

Colvin Mayers

keyboards · vocals

Credited as Max Mayers; appears on tracks 3, 4, 6 and 8. His final Cardiacs album.

Sarah Cutts

keyboards · alto saxophone · clarinet · vocals

Her first Cardiacs album; she would later be credited as Sarah Smith.

Mark Cawthra

drums · vocals

Tim Quy

live sound · Barclaycard

Dominic Luckman

lights

Archive notes

Toy World was Cardiacs’ second demo cassette and their first album released under the Cardiacs name rather than Cardiac Arrest.
The cassette mixed recordings by the earlier Cardiac Arrest line-up with newer material by the contemporary Cardiacs line-up.
It was sold only at concerts and through the fan club and has never received an official full reissue, making original copies exceptionally rare.
‘Is This the Life?’ and ‘Nurses Whispering Verses’ were later re-recorded for The Seaside; both songs were recorded again for later studio albums.
‘Aukamacic’, ‘Icky Qualms’, ‘Trademark’, ‘Scratching Crawling Scrawling’ and ‘As Cold as Can Be in an English Sea’ later appeared on Archive Cardiacs.
‘Over’, ‘Over + Over + Over + Over’, ‘A Big Noise in a Toy World’, ‘Verses’ and ‘A Time for Rejoicing’ have never been officially reissued.
The master tape containing several unreissued tracks is believed to be unavailable, preventing a complete restoration of the album.
Live versions of several Toy World songs were later issued on The Special Garage Concerts and Some Fairytales from the Rotten Shed.