>> IN THE WAKE OF OASIS,
DOZENS OF ENGLISH BANDS HAVE EMERGED TO revive, reinterpret or just plain
steal the classic melodies of the Beatles, the Kinks and the Small Faces.
But the most exciting and innovative scene in the U.K. is now happening
far beyond the borders of the insular Brit-pop community - in Wales, where
a host of young groups led by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals
are expressing a unique musical and cultural identity.
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci actually
sing many of their songs in their native Welsh tongue (their name roughly
translates as Dimwit Reproductive Monkey) and adorn their record sleeves
with colorful images of costumed druids and violin-toting pixies. Super
Furry Animals are content to write English lyrics about a notorious Welsh
drug smuggler, Howard Marks, and a local TV weather girl, Sîan Lloyd.
Unlike the many Brit-pop bands fired up by the clamor and buzz of London,
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals hail from quiet, bucolic
regions and turned inward for their imagination for inspiration. As a result,
both bands' music tends to be experimental and psychedelic.
Introducing Gorky's Zygotic
Mynci is a compilation of previously released material in Britain,
but the album hold together as a unified project. Even though four of the
five band members are just 21 years old, Gorky's are anything but musically
naive. They draw from a deep well of 1960s and 1970s influences, merging
the madcap iconoclasm of early Frank Zappa and Syd Barrett with the skewed
melodic majesty of Brian Wilson and the British art-pop group the Soft
Machine. One tune on the record is even titled after early Soft Machine
member Kevin Ayers, and Gorky's perform an alternately devotional and zany
cover of "Why Are We Sleeping?," from the Softs' 1968 debut LP.
Throughout Introducing,
Gorky's deploy a wide range of instrumentation that includes horns,
strings and steel guitar; they also switch rhythms and tempo without warning.
On "Merched Yn Neud Gwallt Eu Gillydd," tinny, overdistorted glam-rock
guitars and quivering keyboards flow into what sounds like a glockenspiel
playing a jubilant little tune, while "The Game Of Eyes" mixes whimsical
flute and harp with wah-wah guitar and a vocal harmony bridge strangely
reminiscent of Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge."
If the music of Gorky's
is inspired by fantasy, Super Furry Animals are probably more influenced
by recreational chemicals. On Fuzzy Logic, SFA openly play their
hand on "Something 4 the Weekend": "First time I did it for the hell of
it/Stuck it on the back of my tongue/And swallowed it." But while Fuzzy
Logic is rich in hallucinogenic spirit and shimmering guitars, SFA
also evoke the decadent '70s pop of Mott the Hoople and David Bowie, while
the album's celestial flute passages and overdrive-guitar storms resemble
those of America's own Mercury Rev.
In addition to Gorky's
and SFA, new Welsh bands such as Ectogram, Catatonia and the abrasive,
infectious 60 Ft Dolls are popping into the limelight, ready to capture
your imagination with their energy and ambition. The Welsh Invasion starts
here.
- Jon Wiederhorn