Euros Childs - Donkey Island
[Wichita]

You’d be forgiven for thinking you know exactly what to expect from Euros Childs’ first solo release. Over the course of the last decade he’s been enchanting us as one of the main protagonists in Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, a band that should be proclaimed a welsh national treasure, thanks in no large part to Euros’ own peculiar brand of wistful psychedelia. As their foremost songwriter it is his wide-eyed, pastoral melancholia that has come to be synonymous with their sound.

Judging by ‘Donkey Island’ Euros is making a conscious effort to leave behind the acid tinged folk of Gorky’s for something slightly more electronic. To quote the man himself his intention was to get “as close as I could to party music”. Now you’d be hard pressed to imagine this filling many dance floors, but it does possess the usual, slightly twisted brilliance that everything he touches seems to have. From the opening, almost novelty keyboard salvo, it sounds like a hallucinogen crazed wedding band have been unleashed, but by the time the chorus bounces into sight, it all seems to make perfect sense.

It seems a little strange at first, at least to someone used to listening to Gorky’s, to hear Euros Childs distinctive voice placed against this alien musical backdrop, but this is infectious enough to melt even the coldest heart within a couple of listens. He ends up sounding less like a fish out of water and more like a man who can turn his hand to anything.