― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 15 June 2003 15:04 (twenty years ago) link
what's "20" like?
― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 15 June 2003 15:11 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 15 June 2003 15:12 (twenty years ago) link
What should I get?
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 2 September 2004 03:51 (nineteen years ago) link
Gorky 5 - I always imagine the band being trapped in one of those snowglobes. Lots of grandiose swirling ballads. A lot of people don't like it so much because it was such a step away from Barafundle but in it's defense it does have some excellent moments, among them "Sweet Johnny", "Dyle Fi", "Catrin" and the remarkable "Hush The Warmth".
Spanish Dance Troupe - A slight return to their odder days. I'd say this was their most like Barafundle but not exactly. "Faraway Eyes" reminds me of Cockney Rebel in a weird way and the title track is awesome. I'd say this is one of their strongest later albums.
The Blue Trees - Many peoples favourites but not mine. It's a live in the studio acoustic mini album. It's not awful by any means, just a bit short and straightforward for me. "Face Like Summer" and their version of "Fresher Than The Sweetness In Water" are both awesome.
How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart - I was disappointed by this one at first but in recent months it's become one of my all-time favourites. Tim, I think you'd like "Can Megan" off of this one as it's kind of similar to "Starmoonsun". Like Gorky 5, this album takes a bit of adjusting to as it's a totally different sound and structure to the other albums. The songs are mostly warm very well produced pop/folk ballads but there is a certain prog-iness to them. The title track for instance is based on a very simple idea that builds and builds and suddenly transforms and blossoms right at it's peak.
Sleep/Holiday - Another one which I've had since last year but have had trouble with. I can't give it classic status just yet but again there are some rated tunes on here. The prog element of the last album is raised here - there are a lot of long tracks and this disquieting stillness to the whole thing. Tracks like "Pretty As A Bee" just seem to hang there like leaves waiting to fall from trees. I'd say it's more of a mood/ambient album than anything else and apart from the rather irritating "Mow The Lawn", should be treated as such.
Over all I'd say that the quintessential Gorky's is "Barafundle". As someone said way upthread, it is where the old and new style Gorkys meet. They'd perfected their craziness and were dabbling in pop and balladeering too. I like the "Bwyd Time" album a lot as well.Apart from "Barafundle", all the albums are well worth checking out without exception. I can't really rate one over the other as they're all very different and equally deserving.
The Gorkys are famous for mentioning the seasons in their later albums and I'd go so far as to assign a month of the year to each one. Let's do it just for fun:
Barafundle: AprilGorky 5: JanuarySpanish Dance Troupe: SeptemberHow I Long: JulySleep / Holiday: November
Agree?
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:20 (nineteen years ago) link
Alba, I'm glad there's been a spate of Groky threads cos it's made me listen to them loads recently and I think I'm starting to realise they could well be up there with Pavement, Blur and the Boo Radleys as one of my favourite bands.
I even went so far as to burn off a CD-R of the best of their non-weird chillout "How I Long"/"Dyle Fi"-style ballads and they've been the recent soundtrack to my sunny lunchbreaks.
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:27 (nineteen years ago) link
Er, I didn't mean "Apart from" - I meant "As well as"
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Richard from the band has a country-rock sideproject which I saw the weekend before last. It was pretty nice. Dunno if they've recorded anything
― DJ Mencap0))), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap0))), Thursday, 2 September 2004 09:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I should note that my renewed interest in GZM was inspired by realising that every time I was disappointed by some highly rated prog/psych/folk album it was because I wished it was more like Barafundle.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 2 September 2004 23:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 23:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 00:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 00:19 (nineteen years ago) link
PERFECT!
― dog latin (dog latin), Saturday, 4 September 2004 06:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:00 (eighteen years ago) link
Introducing Gorky's Zygotic Mynci is one of the best compilations I have ever heard. So perfectly sequenced that it's hard to believe the songs weren't actually recorded for this end. Search that.
― Deluxe (Damian), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap0))), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 10:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Deluxe (Damian), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:05 (eighteen years ago) link
They were very good at that Peel thing.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bad Day At Dadrock (Dada), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― enjoy bell woods, Wednesday, 11 January 2006 23:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― keyth (keyth), Thursday, 12 January 2006 00:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lotta Continua (Damian), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― keyth (keyth), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:20 (seventeen years ago) link
Gorkys Zygotic Mynci have decided to call it a day and split up.
Richard, Megan, Euros and Pete would like to thank everyone who came to the gigs and bought the records over the years. The re-issues of the first three Gorkys albums - Patio, Tatay, and Bwyd Time - will go ahead as planned and will be released before late 2006.
:-(
This is shit news, first band break up I've been upset about in ages!
And slightly bizarrely, it's currently the number 2 story on the BBC online entertainment news page. Hmm.
― JimD (JimD), Friday, 26 May 2006 23:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― keyth (keyth), Saturday, 27 May 2006 02:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― JimD (JimD), Saturday, 27 May 2006 08:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― LC (Damian), Saturday, 27 May 2006 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― mynci madness, Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― AaronHz (AaronHz), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― LC (Damian), Sunday, 28 May 2006 23:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 06:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 08:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link
Actually, Spinal Tap was at the forefront.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 13 April 2017 12:53 (six years ago) link
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.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 13 April 2017 13:26 (six years ago) link
i liked the version of "catrin" by the gentle good.
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Thursday, 13 April 2017 13:48 (six years ago) link
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
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:14 (six years ago) link
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.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:49 (six years ago) link
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.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Thursday, 13 April 2017 14:51 (six years ago) link
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.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 13 April 2017 15:07 (six years ago) link
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.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 13 April 2017 15:08 (six years ago) link
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.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Thursday, 13 April 2017 17:34 (six years ago) link
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.
― PaulTMA, Friday, 14 April 2017 16:51 (six years ago) link
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.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Friday, 14 April 2017 17:09 (six years ago) link
see, SDT is overall a 'weirder' album than Gorky 5 so the idea that he was the experimental guy sdoesnt really float
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Friday, 14 April 2017 17:59 (six years ago) link
and his stuff on Gorky 5 is about the most straightforward he ever did
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 16 April 2017 18:02 (six years ago) link
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.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Sunday, 16 April 2017 19:53 (six years ago) link
Another year, another substandard Euros Childs album. Anyone listen to 'House Arrest' yet?
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 16:52 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI0WFeiZHI
*sigh*
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 16:53 (six years ago) link
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.
― slightlydazed, Thursday, 13 July 2023 06:04 (eight months ago) link
It's near criminal that you can't hear Bwyd Time anywhere other than YouTube. I'd love a reissue
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Thursday, 13 July 2023 08:31 (eight months ago) link
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.
― brain (krakow), Saturday, 15 July 2023 12:39 (eight months ago) link
*been very prolific
― brain (krakow), Saturday, 15 July 2023 12:40 (eight months ago) link
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.
― slightlydazed, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 07:06 (eight months ago) link