Megan look a like
(her off Neighbours that I can't remember the name of)
(a biography)
Some would argue that the best pop music is the most simplistic, others would say it should have a bit of mystery, that the best pop should always sound a little different. Take a Gorkys Zygotic Mynci, their best known songs is by far their simplest, the near hit 'Patio Song' from last year's Barafundle LP. What most critics and diehard Gorky's fans love about the band, though, is their sheer inventiveness. They love the fact that Gorky's can't readily be classified.
Since they formed in a Pembrokeshire schoolhouse back in 1991. Gorky's have always blazed a unique trail. Just recently, they completed their fifth LP, the first fruits of which can be heard on a new single, 'Sweet Johnny', released on May 25th. The LP, itself provisionally titled 'Gorky 5' is scheduled for release in August.
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, after some early shuffling, settled to the now familiar line-up of Euros Chllds (vocal/keyboards), John Lawrence (guitar),, Richard James (bass). Megan Childs (violin), Euros Rowlands (drums). For these new recordings undertaken at Monow Valley, Monmouthshire, at the begining£ of the year, Gorky's took a new approach. The tracks were all recorded essentially live which gives the songs greater directness and assurance.
You can hear this on 'Sweet Johnny', another typically brave choice of a single with its three distinct phases each held together by a bigger and bolder sound: Gorky's sense of humour and fun hasn't diminished, though, carrying through on to the video for 'Sweet Johnny', the first directed by cult TV duo Adam and Joe. The video has the five Gorky's singing and playing In Action Man boxes while the commentry spoofs familiar promos by Blur, The Verve, Prodigy and Robert Palmer, no less.
Gorky's are still a very young band, on previous LP's they've often delved back into their past for long forgotten songs. This time around the songs were all fresh and newly written. This is Gorky's in a grown up world (having grown up in a band), and with a greater edge and more congruent than ever before.
The maturity of the songs and the depth of their playing believe their years. There's a new confidence that can also be attributed to a year spent touring following the release Barafundle last spring. After years of playing their own sporadic tours, last year saw them playing more of there own headline shows, all the major festivals, and supports with the likes of Spiritualized and Teenage Fanclub.
Dogged in the past for lazily being dubbed quirky or weird and even for being part of a Welsh scene that has never actually existed, Gorky's have always shone through by virtue of their extrodinary talent and originality.
What also separates the new songs from past recordings is a greater resonance with the real world. The new material is simply more rock and roll in its use of language and content. Watching them record in a remote Monmouthshire studio was like stepping back into the environment of music from Big Pink. There is a Band-like quality to this record that mixes traditional Gorky's influences like Kevin Ayers, Brian Wilson, The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention (and countless others befitting their obsessive and diverse musical taste) with a more American country-based song based music.
These influences are now more assimilated into their own style by their inherent understanding of what they're playing and singing. There are no apologies here for an instrumental configuration that is piano led (rather than guitar) and incorporates Megan's violin playing. Another hallmark of this LP is their use of harmony vocals to embellish the songs . Ultimately, Gorky's still sound like no-one else before or since yet somehow, on these new songs. It's a sound that no longer seems incompatible with everything else around.
There's a school of thought that Gorky's are simply too radical (too good, even) to enjoy the huge success they deserve. They're a band who critics and fans alike almost seem to cherish too much. Through four previous LP's - 'Tatay' and 'Patio' (1994); the groundbreaking Bwyd Time' (June95), these all released by the influnental Cardiff based Ankst label, and Barafundle (1996) their first for Mercury - Gorky's have by rum charmed, baffled, contused and confounded people. Yet they are still hugely accessible whether singing in the English or Welsh language.
Theirs is a remarkable and natural talent. As somebody wrote several years back about Gorky's:
"Just when all the best tunes seem to have been written, along comes a band with the key to a secret compartment ill of melodies no-one has herd before." With 'Gorky 5' it's quite clear that they still have the key but have now found another secret compartment that it fits.
May 1998