Coz rock'n'roll rules ok!

I don’t know why but I only seem to listen to Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci on gloriously sunny days.

Not that I particularly associate them with summer or fun times.

In fact, I think there’s a certain amount of sadness in the voice of Euros Child. I wouldn’t say it was depressing or melancholic as such. But his delivery is always tinged with a certain weariness. A kind of innocence lost. As though his eyes have just been opened to the realities of life and he’s escaping into the weird and wonderfully awkward psychedelic folk that he and his band played. What this has to do with me only listening to them on sunny days is anyone’s guess but as it’s a gloriously sunny day, it seems appropriate to post these two session tracks.

‘Spanish Dance Troupe’ was one of my favourite songs of 1999 and indeed featured on virtually every mixtape I made that and the following year. There’s something magnificently evocative about it. Like a children’s book brought to life in a deranged mariachi influenced music. A warped dreamlike tale that mixes rock and roll dreams with running away to join the circus. It is both delightfully random and yet unashamedly poignant.

The second track is from an album that initially disappointed me. I like it more these days but is still probably the Gorky’s album I’m least likely to reach for. It was darker and less fun than previous records. For a band whose sound could already be described as wilfully awkward, this move towards a more serious sound seemed like an enforced straightness. As though theye were attempting to avoid being pigeonholed by the press as the wacky Welsh band and reined themselves in. Whether it was a deliberate shunning of the mainstream attention that had threatened to enter their world or whether it was just a blip I don’t know. But subsequent releases saw the band lean toward a softer, folkier sound. One that moved further from their psychedelic beginnnings, allowing them to remain playful but in a more mature tone.

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - spanish dance troupe (live session version) original version available on 'Spanish Dance Troupe'

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - the tidal wave (live session version) original version available on 'Gorky 5'

mp3 / music / gorky's zygotic mynci