John Lawrence

.. MyGen Profile GeneratorMojo, Feb 2010 John Lawrence ‘Rainy Night’ **** Lawrence MusicFormer Gorky’s guitarist scales dizzy heights of semi-acoustic excellence. After parting company with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci at the time of their pastoral psychedelic landmark Gorky 5, guitarist John Lawrence initially pursued a more electronic course, in the suitably simian guise of Infinity Chimps. But this first album under his own name finds him embracing the old-school methodology of the singer-songwriter to improbably riveting effect. Transcending the stock postures of a market place a wash with pseudo-folk affectation, Rainy Night conjures up the authentic atmosphere of a lost acid-folk classic from 1975 without ever loosing it moorings in the present day. At once isolated and fiercely engaged (“the hooks of society are tearing me apart / you know they’ll make you feel so bloody guilty just for following your heart”), Lawrence emerges as a twenty first century troubadour of the highest calibre. Ben ThompsonUncut, Feb 2010 John Lawrence ‘Rainy Night’ **** Ex-Gorky’s man, quietly reborn as Lawrence of Snowdonia... As a founding member of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, John Lawrence epitomised their unbridled approach to music. Since leaving the band in 1999, however, he’s kept under the radar, painstakingly recording Rainy Night in his Snowdonia studios. The music sombrely and, often harrowingly reflects his isolation in such rugged surroundings. Stylistically it’s like a lost, vintage CSNY album, with aching pedal steel, dense acoustic guitars and heart-rending, uplifting vocals and harmonies. “Rainy Night” conveys the atmosphere of living in one of the wettest areas of the British Isles, while “Pre-Armageddon Blues” simply explodes with anguish at personal loss and the wrongs of the world. Mick Houghton