As you listen to 20, a collection of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's early singles, it's hard to understand how the Coral became a critical and commercial phenomenon while Gorky's remain a cultish footnote in rock history. In the mid-90s, the Carmarthen teenagers stumbled upon many of the same attributes that have served the Coral so well: a faintly alarming eclecticism that usually coalesces into something in the neighbourhood of psychedelia or folk-rock, a proud disconnection from prevailing trends and a quirky, almost hippyish sense of humour.
Of course, they did sing a lot in Welsh. But 20 skips over language barriers by virtue of the charm and invention of these songs. In spite of their excellent later work, this may prove to be their most satisfying album. The mood is largely one of rustic disorientation, spattered by the odd splenetic outburst: a cover of Soft Machine's "Why Are We Sleeping?" is a good indicator of the general territory. But the magic of Gorkys is also their determined oddness and unpredictability. So "The Game of Eyes" is a baroque pop classic, roughly resembling "The Monster Mash" covered by Pink Floyd, while "Heart of Kentucky" seeks to graft Krautrock onto hokey country & western and just about gets away with it. Daftness and naivety, in fact, have rarely been so beguiling. --John Mulvey
Description
A best of the early years from Welsh indie quartet Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. '20 - The Singles Collection' brings togethertwenty tracks taken from the six singles which were originally released on Ankst Records between 1994 and 1996. Includes a hidden track, which is a demo version of 'Merched'. Melodic indie-pop with tastes of psychedelia and progressive rock.
20: Singles & EPs '94-'96 collects some of six short-form releases Gorky's Zygotic Mynci recorded for the Welsh indie label Ankst and features some of their best-loved songs from that period, many of which ended up on albums like Bwyd Time and on the 1996 U.S. collection Introducing Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. The title track from the Merched yn Neud Gwallt eu Gilydd (Girls Doing Each Others' Hair) EP and "Bocs Angelica" remain staples in the band's live set, and songs like "The Game of Eyes," "Miss Trudy," "Moon Beats Yellow," and "If Fingers Were Xylophones" are still perfect examples of the spontaneous, homespun psychedelia that defined Gorky's' work in the early and mid-'90s. Hearing these songs again also reveals that the plaintive, folky direction that the band ultimately pursued was there all along on "Pentref Wrth Y Mor," "Methu Aros Tan Haf," and "Gewn Ni Gorffen." Of the songs that haven't been easily available outside of their original EPs, about half of them are trippy, largely instrumental tracks such as "When You Laugh at Your Own Garden in a Blazer," the extremely straightforwardly named, abstract noise suite "Impressionistic Soundscapes," and "20," all of which could've sounded contrived and pretentious if Gorky's didn't have such a wide-eyed (or is that wide-eared?) sense of discovery in their music. The other half are songs that rival the material that has already appeared domestically, such as "Mewn," another loopy example of Gorky's' early sound, the strummy, noisy "Cwpwrdd Sadwrn," and especially "Lucy's Hamper," a lovely, reflective song from the 1996 Amber Gambler EP that displays Euros Childs' growth as a songwriter as much as anything the group put on a long-player at the time. Both the well-known and more obscure songs on 20: Singles & EPs '94-'96 still sound as fresh and delightful as they did nearly a decade ago, and the album works almost well as an introduction to some of their early work as it does as a collection-completer for dedicated fans.
Tracks:
# 1 Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Ei Gilydd
# 2 Bocs Angelica
# 3 When You Laugh at Your Own Garden in a Blazer
# 4 Mewn
# 5 The Game of Eyes
# 6 Pentref Wrth y Môr
# 7 Cwpwrdd Sadwrn
# 8 Miss Trudy
# 9 Eira
# 10 Methu Aros Tan Haf
# 11 Why Are We Sleeping?
# 12 Gewn Ni Gorffen?
# 13 12 Impressionistic Soundscapes
# 14 If Fingers Were Xylophones
# 15 Moon Beats Yellow
# 16 Pethau
# 17 Lucy's Hamper
# 18 Heart of Kentucky
# 19 Sdim Yr Adar Yn Canu
# 20 20
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