search and destroy: gorky's zygotic mynci

Tatay is just too much fun, it captures their crazier side with some moments of real beauty so perfectly. Yffordd Oren and Kevin Ayers are two my favourite Gorkys moments.

'Happiness' isn't too bad either, but yeah, totally with you on Sleep/Holiday. Tatay has some wonderful stuff on it... the whole of the 'Anna Apera' suite! ('Gegin Nos' in particular being a favourite).

Oh god, 'Y Ffordd Oren' is absolutely perfect, one of their best ever songs!

Oh yeah Happiness isn't too bad. I think Mow The Lawn was their first and maybe only weak single.

Y Ffordd Oren would join If Fingers Were Xylophones and Game of Eyes in my three favourite Gorky's moments.

Contemplating DJing 'Game of Eyes' at Indietracks now, not sure if it'll work - as good as they are the songs aren't necessarily dance-floor fillers.

I'm obsessed with Cristina despite the awful "magazine-a" rhyme

^^^their best song

balladic twee-prog stalker folk executed with just the right level of inexplicable wonder and beauty

'Christina' is good and all, but wouldn't make the cut in my own personal Gorky's Top 20.

Contemplating DJing 'Game of Eyes' at Indietracks now, not sure if it'll work - as good as they are the songs aren't necessarily dance-floor fillers.

― emil.y, Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Barbed Wire' might work!

Wouldn't Poodle Rockin' be an obvious choice to put in a DJ set? If Bwyd Time was longer maybe that would work?

I don't like Poodle Rockin so much, tbh.

Nah it's one of those crap singles they did - every album seemed to have a silly rocker on it for a while viz Sweet Johnny, Mow The Lawn.

Pretty As A Bee is so beautiful but the only one I like off Sleep/Holiday. Man, that's a band with a weird career arc

Listening to Bwyd Time now. How were they only teenagers when they made this? Love Oraphis yn Delphie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0sF4--G3sI&index=5&list=PL0778A7FBC4C07F55

Solo but dang this song is my favorite song of all time right now.

https://thealbumwall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/happy-birthday-barafundle-guest-post.html

Some nice words about one of their best albums.

Their solo careers have been really disappointing.

Have any of you heard John Lawrence's stuff? Oh. My. God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgAXEjG2VC4

That...I did not expect.

When he left, the band became much less adventurous.

Euros' solo career has just been a string of middling or just ok releases. There have been a couple albums that are almost worth listening to a few times, but he hasn't written a great song in years. I always feel like he just isn't trying, but clearly he just lost it...

I guess you're right but I think he does well with competition and company like most people

I saw them live in 99 or so and they were very good - on the Long to See tour

Jonny was pretty middling, too, and he was matched with an equally (at least at one time in his life) talented partner.

I've listened to everything Euros has done and hold out hope he'll write another great song. He was a fantastic songwriter at one point in his life. Truly unique and wonderful.

With a voice as sweet as honey.

Absolutely love gorkys

How i long still my favourite and an album i listen to after 10 or whatever years

Will have to relisten to barafundle

Barafundle > How I Long > Bwyd Time > Spanish Dance Troupe > Gorky 5 > Other stuff

It's all good though. That John Lawrence thing is pretty out-there huh?

I'm pretty much fine with your ranking, but Patio & Tatay are exceptionally good, as is the odds and sods compilation (which contains many songs from the first couple releases anyway).

I've never been able to get into Sleep/Holiday, but I suspect it isn't as bad as I thought it was. I need to give it another chance. "Mow the Lawn" is just really bad. I always hated those obvious "rock" singles labels seemed to force on bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHzBOdFIs3g

John's doing his thing, I suppose. I kind of remember enjoying an Infinity Chimps album back in the day.

I honestly think Patio is one of the greatest debut albums ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPb409jrb4

In its own class.

Patio is one of their best releases, particularly on the CD version with all the extra stuff like 'Dean Ser' and 'Hi ar Gan'

i think i only gave patio a cursory listen... IIRC it's quite garage-rocky compared to the stuff that came after?

Yeah, it's quite garage-rocky in places, particularly on stuff like 'Barbed Wire', but I hear traces of post-punk in there on stuff like 'Dafad Yn Siarad' and 'Sally Webster' ... the psychedelic folk thing wouldn't kick in until Tatay, which is sorta a middle ground between Patio and Bwyd Time.

i just can't believe how young they were when they made all this music. Bwyd Time is an exceptional psychedelic record and they were, what? 6 years old or something when they made it

nice american music club t shirt there

Euros Childs would have been about 20 when Bwyd Time was released. The last Gorky's LP (Sleep/Holiday) was released long before he turned 30.

And he's released nothing of note since. :(

I saw Gorky's live in '97 and thought they were great, then saw them again a couple of years later and thought they were shit. Prime example of "I only like the early stuff" for me unfortunately - I like most of their stuff up to and including Bwyd Time. Barafundle and Gorky 5 are OKish in parts I suppose although haven't listened to either in years. I think Spanish Dance Troupe was the contemporary album for the 2nd time I saw them so never listened to it, they seemed to go from this awesome psychedelic racket to strummy acoustic boredom.

Some of their prettiest songs are on Gorky 5 and Spanish Dance Troupe!

I guess I don't like their pretty songs...

I really like the pretty stuff, but I also love the weird, psychedelic Gorky's. The weirdness seemed to end with John Lawrence's departure...

euros really seems to have followed kevin ayers' career path post gorky's.

I'm impressed that they were all listening to Soft Machine in their teens in the pre-Napster early '90s. It wouldn't be as unusual now, but back in the early '90s it was very unusual.

Hippie parents?

euros really seems to have followed kevin ayers' career path post gorky's.

Bit unfair on Kevin Ayers tbh.

I should look into the Kevin Ayers/Canterbury Scene a bit more. I love this sort of whimsical / psychedelic stuff in general so I can't believe it's taken this long. Is there a good primer or a good album to start with?

Probably his first solo album. I'm think there's been some good KA comps over the years.

Though I seem to remember that Gorkys were particularly fond of "Shooting at the Moon".

The only post-Barafundle GZM album I've heard is The Blue Trees (which I quite liked), I should remedy that. My favourite by far though is that collection of the early EPs.

Love Gorky's. I can really appreciate and at times adore the early weirdness ('The Game of Eyes' is as cool as it is insane and scary) but I'm mostly fond of the pretty stuff. I think that Spanish Dance Troupe is my favourite album (title track probably fave song, along with non-album single 'Young Girls & Happy Endings'). There's great songs to be found throughout their discography, for instance 'Frozen Smile' of Gorky 5 is gorgeous.
Sleep/Holiday is my least fave, I find it rather boring.

Euros solo: I have 'Chops' and 'Miracle Inn', both are nice, there's a particular highlight in the title track of Miracle Inn.

I like the Jonny album a lot too, 'Candyfloss' and 'You Was Me' are excellent.

I remember Gorky 5 getting a bit of flack back in the day. I'm listening to it now and I think it's gorgeous, though a little depressing. It's also one of the only Gorky's albums to feature Euros screaming.

"Sweet Johnny" is one of those aforementioned kind of annoying rockers, though.

I just did a look at Discogs 'cos I realized the voice on a couple tracks didn't sound like Euros, and I found out John Lawrence (the proggy lad up above) did some lead vocals on Gorky 5. I actually really like his voice on this album.

Always wondered why Richard James didn't sing his own song on Barafundle (Sometimes The Father Is The Sun) but always did otherwise

John Lawrence frequently sang lead vocals on GZM songs throught his stint with the band. He wrote 'Softly', 'Not Yet' and 'Tsunami' on Gorky 5. Spanish Dance Troupe is the last LP with Lawrence.