In a former life, Richard James was the frontman of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, a band every bit as wacky as their name suggests. Initially recording only in Welsh, the band released nine albums of messy psychedelia which were adored by a tiny minority. Now James has gone out on his own, in between backing hotly tipped songstress Cate Le Bon. Musically, he has reined himself in somewhat, veering away from Gorky’s mystical take on things and into more conventional territory. These days singing only in English, he will air 15 songs tonight that owe more to singer songwriters like Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley than to Pink Floyd or Frank Zappa.
James is promoting his second solo record, We Went Riding and he plays nearly all of it tonight, beginning with the sweet Avalon, a song filled with his love of the Welsh landscape. Throughout his set, the lyrical content shifts between lovely and charming; so overwhelmingly in love with the surroundings in which he writes his songs and the artists who have inspired him, James doesn’t seem to have a rebellious or unpleasant bone in his musical body. Preferring to celebrate rather than challenge in his songs, he is not an arresting listen nor is he someone who seeks to offer anything inventive.
But what he aims to do — which is to bring the sounds of sixties folk, dust them off and repackage them — he does rather well. Much like the Coral and Noah and the Whale, he is unafraid of wearing his influences extremely prominently, and could find success in the same vein as those two acts.
Richard James has probably had enough adventures in Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and is settling down for an altogether more mainstream existence. Either way, his new direction is one that should win him a few more fans.
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