In the current climate, where obsessively cool American neo-new wavers and ultra safe indie high achievers appear to dominate a severely lacklustre British guitar scene, it is hard to know how to approach the latest album from Welsh indie veterans Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. Neither cool, nor safe, 'How I Long To Feel...' is an idiosyncratic collection of very traditional songs which almost defy contemporary rock categorisation.
On first listen 'How I Long To Feel...''s all pervading sense of staunch anti modernity is mildly irritating. At it's worst, track 11 'Her Hair Hangs Long' is reminiscent of the type of tune you might expect two Victorian urchins to sing in a Dickensian playground scene.
Perserverance with this album is definitely rewarded however, as gradually, from behind this apparently sweet but average collection of melodies and their seemingly prissy folk arrangements, some genuinely good solid pop songs emerge.
'Where Does Yer Go Now' somehow fuses lush mahogany strings and a cod Hawaiian sensibility to great effect. 'Can Megan', meanwhile, is an irresistible slice of almost Beautiful South esque faux French pop.
'How I Long To Feel...''s great achievement, however, is the way that it makes sense as a homogenous stand alone entity. There is a feeling of carefully constructed, mellow folk simplicity running through all these songs. In this sense, the record harks back to a time when albums were more than just four singles augmented by whatever fillers might be lying around the studio at the time. And for all it's folksy violins and Wurlitzer organs this is, ironically, the most traditional thing about it.
