Cardiacs announce that their final album, LSD, will be released in September
The late Cardiacs frontman Tim Smith's final album has been completed by his brother Jim, Kavus Torabi, Mike Vennart and more...

Cardiacs will release their final album, LSD, on double vinyl, CD and as a download through their Alphabet Business Concern label on September 12. The band have also shared a video for the first single, Woodeneye.
As revealed in issue 158 of Prog, the surviving band members and additional musicians have been working under the aegis of the late Cardiacs frontman Tim Smith's brother Jim, along with former member Kavus Torabi (Gong, The Utopia Strong) to finish the album Smith began working on in 2005, and which was shelved following his heart attack in 2008, that led to a stroke and, eventually, a rare muscle condition called dystonia. Smith died in 2020.
The album has been the subject of much rumour in the ensuing years and Jim Smith confirmed to Prog that it was indeed going to see the light of day later this year.
“It’s great – it’ll knock your socks off,” he told Prog. “Some of it is old archive stuff, when Tim had done some roughs in his studio. All the time he was ill, I think he had it in his head that he was going to finish it when he got home. Unfortunately, he never made it; so I guess we owed it to him, really. It’s been a labour of love.”
Joining Jim Smith and Torabi on the record are former Oceansize and Empire State Bastard musician Mike Vennart (vocals), as well as Rose-Ellen Kemp (vocals) and Bob Leith (vocals, drums), as well as the late Tim himself, with North Sea Radio Orchestra's Craig Fortnam joining compoers Torabi and Smith in composing brass and string arrangements.
LSD has been mixed by Adam Noble and mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios, and is presented on black and two-coloured LPs in a double gatefold sleeve with slipcase, full lyric booklet and a Making Of LSD booklet featuring interviews with key personnel involved in the process. It’s double CD counterpart also comes in a slipcase with both booklets.
Pre-order LSD.
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Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.
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