The first British band to fully embrace the mushrooms’n’mildew aesthetic of The Incredible String Band in the mid-’80s, Gorky’s have watched a deluge of like-minded souls pile through the paddock in recent years. Happily, though subsequent albums have ironed out many of the quirks, their wonky folk-baroque remains very much alive. More akin to 2000’s mini album The Blue Trees than the beachy bounce of last album How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart, this is mostly acoustic guitars lovingly plucked, drums delicately brushed, fiddles softly sawn. Childs’ delivery is still a sideways treat, tottering like Robert Wyatt throughout. Black sheep of the bunch is “Mow The Lawn”, a bucolic glam-slam through Roxy Music’s “Editions Of You”.
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