Pitchfork

Veteran Welsh folk-pop band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci have disbanded after 15 years and eight studio albums. Posting on their official website, band members Euros Childs, Richard James, Megan Childs, and Pete Richardson wished to "thank everyone who came to the gigs and bought the records over the years." The group also indicated that reissues of its first three records, Tatay, Patio (both 1994), and Bwyd Time (1995)-- all originally released on Ankst, the Welsh label that also spawned fellow countrymen Super Furry Animals-- will go ahead as planned and be out by year's end.

Gorky's were formed in the late 1980s and named themselves after Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, tacking on the Welsh words for "dimwit" and "monkey" to complete a tag that arguably kept the group from gaining the acclaim it deserved. Settling on a lineup of the then-teenage Childs siblings, James, and fellow childhood friends John Lawrence and Euros Rowlands, the quintet began by recording bedroom songs to cassette. Throughout the first half of their career, Gorky's took cues from Canterbury folk and the more pastoral end of British prog, particularly Soft Machine and the Incredible String Band, before moving in a country-folk direction after the late-1990s departure of Lawrence.

The 1997 album Barafundle most effectively split the group's chief impulses-- whimsical prog-folk and delicate balladry-- and positioned them for the mainstream breakthrough enjoyed by fellow Welsh upstarts SFA, Stereophonics, and Catatonia. Major-label follow-up Gorky 5, however, was the band's weakest effort to date, and it was deservedly ignored. To compound its commercial disappointment, the group had the misfortune of continually just missing the UK top 40, placing five singles in the UK top 50 (and eight in the top 65) yet peaking at No. 41 with 1997's "Patio Song". The group also suffered poor luck and timing gaining an indie audience-- they would, for instance, have fit perfectly among the freak-folk movement.

Despite the frustrations-- the loss of co-founder Lawrence, an unsuccessful flirtation with chart success, and a disappointing major-label experience-- Gorky's re-positioned themselves in the late-90s as an autumnal, introspective acoustic-pop outfit, delivering a string of should-be critical successes that remain sadly underrated-- Spanish Dance Troupe (1999), The Blue Trees EP (2000), and How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart (2001)-- before ending their career with the understated but ultimately disappointing Sleep/Holiday (2003).

In addition to their studio albums, Gorky's released a pair of Ankst-era compilations-- the U.S.-only Introducing Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and 20-- and a handful of singles and EPs. Here's hoping that the band finds a larger audience when it releases the inevitable career best-of. For a title, we suggest Victory Laps and Sgt. Pepper Tones.

Euros Childs and Richard James have already begun solo careers. Childs has several solo shows scheduled throughout the summer:

05-31 Paris, France - La Fleche d'Or
06-04 Bristol, England - Bristol Trinity Centre (Venn Festival)
06-10 Devon, England - Llama Festival
06-30 Catalonia, Spain - Villarosa Festival
07-22 Dolgellau, Wales - Sesiwn Fawr Dolgellau
08-03 Norwich, England - Norwich Arts Centre
08-08 Swansea, Wales - Barrons
08-10 Swansea, Wales - Maes B (Eisteddfod)
08-12 Rasslebygd, Sweden - Emmabodafestivalen
08-19 Crickhowell, South Wales - Green Man Festival
09-02 Carmarthen, South Wales - Carmarthen Showground

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Poodle Rockin'