search and destroy: gorky's zygotic mynci

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.

Another year, another substandard Euros Childs album. Anyone listen to 'House Arrest' yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI0WFeiZHI

*sigh*

Those Gorkys albums still remain painfully unaffordable and practically non-existent in LP form. Who can fix this? Also Richard James put out a moody instrumental (synth?) album which I scanned through on bandcamp.

It's near criminal that you can't hear Bwyd Time anywhere other than YouTube. I'd love a reissue

I wonder if there'd be lots of interesting unreleased stuff that could be used for expanded versions. Euros has certainly be very prolific as a solo artist.

*been very prolific

i’ve loved a lot of those Euros albums - his recent all covers album was especially good. It’s just prohibitively expensive to order the LPs in the states.