Spratleys

Tim Smith's Spratleys (originally Spratleys Japs, then Spratleys Rats) are an English psychedelic rock band conceived in 1998 by Cardiacs mastermind Tim Smith and vocalist Joanne Spratley, sparked by the warped sound of a malfunctioning Mellotron. Their debut album Pony — recorded in a New Forest studio with deliberately degraded drums — spent years as a cult artifact trading hands among Cardiacs devotees before the band resurfaced live in 2016, with Spratley's son Jesse Cutts on bass. Since Smith's death in 2020 the group has carried his name and vision forward, with Spratley's arch, plummy delivery and the band's lurch between prog, psych, and post-punk remaining its most distinctive signatures; their debut-era recordings were reissued in 2026 alongside the forthcoming album Bloom.