search and destroy: gorky's zygotic mynci

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.

Hippie parents?

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

Bit unfair on Kevin Ayers tbh.

― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.)

post-'74? i love both ayers and euros, but they both seem to me to be sort of wanderers.

Kevin was definitely erratic, but that's almost part of who he was. I've said it here before but I like all of his albums up to and including "That's What You Get Babe", "Yes We Have No Mañanas" is one of his best albums.

You know I completely forgot I got this last year -- and maybe I've never actually listened to it yet! Free download, 32 bands, at least some of them have to be good:

https://recordiauprin.bandcamp.com/album/iechyd-da-a-tribute-to-gorkys-zygotic-mynci

The "Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gilydd" cover is by Kliph Scurlock, formerly of The Flaming Lips. He's been involved in like every major Welsh band/artist's thing for the past 2 or 3 years.

i liked the version of "catrin" by the gentle good.

Where there any Lawrence compositions recorded for Spanish Dance Troupe which didn't make the cut after he left the band?

I remember even at the time people were saying "Oh they were better with John Lawrence in the band", even though they had already largely changed direction by Gorky 5

I'm not sure, but I'd guess not. Spanish Dance Troupe was already "in the can" by the time Lawrence left. There was a five month gap between the album being completed and it being released (which is actually pretty standard) and Lawrence left during this period.

Arguably, they were already starting to change direction on Barafundle, which increasingly seems to me to be both a "transitional" record and their most focused work.

Well, of all the solo careers, his is by far the absolute worst, so I'm not sure what did or didn't happen, but I don't think he would've done the band any good in the end.

Richard James is probably the blandest, but he has some pleasant highs.

Euros veers too far into kitsch on almost all of his albums, and the experimental ones are total busts IMO. I think he just rushes his songwriting.

I think with Gorky's it was basically the usual case of the band being greater than the sum of their parts. I reckon if they all collaborated as they did back in the early days of Gorky's, they could come up with something really good.

I've always wondered if perhaps John had contributed some songs to what ended up as SDT because he's completely absent from the writing credits, which seemed otherwise unusual as he was all over the others, to the extent of having three solo compositions on Gorky 5.

Yeah, I always found that unusual too, given that he didn't leave the band until after the LP was completed... it's hard to say what happened there. Either he was going through a dry spell as a songwriter, or he had songs and the band didn't record them for whatever reason - either they didn't fit, or he'd already thought about doing solo stuff. It's hard to say, because not much has really been said about Lawrence's departure.

see, SDT is overall a 'weirder' album than Gorky 5 so the idea that he was the experimental guy sdoesnt really float

and his stuff on Gorky 5 is about the most straightforward he ever did

I listened to Sleep/Holiday recently because of this thread - haven't listened to it for years, but was surprised to find I only dislike 3 songs on it.