In the league table of weird Welsh bands, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (left) are hovering in the premier division of the strange. Led by the boyish-looking Euros Childs, Gorky's have eschewed the stadium angst of the Manics, the workhorse rock of The Stereophonics and the indie lite of Catatonia, striking out instead towards that an alien pop landscape which is also being charted by Super Furry Animals. Gorky's reference points can be found in the offbeat prog-jazz of Soft Machine, the avant-parp of Captain Beefheart or the offbeat children's books of Maurice Sendak. 1997's Barafundle album captured their pastoral psychedelic sound to pleasant effect, but songs such as Diamond Dew were just that little bit too esoteric for chart comfort. The band have since been dropped by their record label, Mercury, and have lost their guitarist, John Lawrence, but their new album, Spanish Dance Troupe, proves that the Mynci still has legs.
