Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: The Blue Trees

The contemporary mainstream pop market has rarely been as vacuous as it is now, with even good novelty songs in short supply. But while painfully bright teen bands and loud rock dominate the airwaves and clog chain record stores, independent acts continue to offer refuge from the din of pure product. In fact, the left-of-center underground, populated by critical darlings and cult figures, seems to grow softer every year. From Low to Belle And Sebastian to Sigur Rós, Elliott Smith, and Badly Drawn Boy, some of the best music of the past few years has eschewed aggression in favor of laid-back singing, soft orchestral arrangements, and beautiful melodies. Call it a quiet riot, but any movement that gives the ghost of Nick Drake a belated hit is a good thing. Like Drake, a lot of these acts hail from Europe, working in a loose folk idiom; Norway's Kings Of Convenience even sounds quite a bit like Drake. The title of the duo's second album, Quiet Is The New Loud, proudly declares its aim, and the disc's dozen tracks don't deviate much from a formula of hushed harmonies and finger-picked guitar. Gingerly produced by Ken Nelson (who recently worked on great debut albums by the similarly mellow Badly Drawn Boy and Coldplay), Quiet Is The New Loud captures coffee-shop folk without its twee indulgences. "Singing Softly To Me" benefits from Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye's subdued vocals, while "I Don't Know What I Can Save You From" and "Summer On The Westhill" enlist a subtle cello to lift them above the run-of-the-mill and closer to the extraordinary. The comparatively lively "Failure" and "The Girl From Back Then" still won't bother the neighbors, but even at its sleepiest, Kings Of Convenience is enticing enough to transcend the wallpaper tag. The Welsh odd-pop troupe Gorky's Zygotic Mynci used to have more in common with its weird Welsh friends in Super Furry Animals, including a predilection for their native tongue, but The Blue Trees is enticingly unadorned and unfailingly pretty. Eight simple tracks of gentle folk and orchestral pop—more traditional but no less low-key than Quiet Is The New Loud—The Blue Trees remains so unaffected it's almost shocking, especially coming from a group better known for yelp-filled psychedelic glam raves with names like "Poodle Rockin'." It's unclear whether the mini-album truly indicates big changes in the band, but even at its most eccentric, Gorky's still began its live sets with acoustic bits akin to those found here. Regardless, charming songs like "Fresher Than The Sweetness In Water," "Lady Fair," "Face Like Summer," "Sbia Ar Y Seren," and a handful of delicate instrumentals are worth savoring and revisiting.