SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

Cian Ciaran, the keyboard player, just released his album this past Monday. As a long-time fan, I am pleased and even a little bit shocked at how good it is. The LP is just as good as Gruff's solo efforts.

Here is the Spotify link: http://open.spotify.com/album/0br5g7CaWyvJnLZUsrdTmg

revisiting this after not listening to it since release: https://soundcloud.com/acid-casuals/alto-due-pugnali-e-mezzo

damn good track.

Surprisingly, Bunf seems to be the one with the freshest sounding side project: https://soundcloud.com/the-pale-blue-dots

https://soundcloud.com/the-pale-blue-dots/aquarium

Loving this stuff.

They've reunited...

Super Furry Animals may currently be on an extended hiatus, but the Welsh psych rock icons are aiming to be top of the hops with the launch of their own beer.

Produced in conjunction with the Celt Experience Brewery, members of the band will be stirring up a storm when their new beer – named Fuzzy (after their debut album Fuzzy Logic) is unveiled at a special event next month.

Those who love their beers can taste the new brew at the one-night only Fire Festival on Saturday, February 1. Billed as ‘a celebration of innovative craft beer, art and smokey food’, it will be held to celebrate the Celtic Experience’s new village development at its brewery on the Pontygwindy Estate in Caerphilly.

The Festival will include free samples of the brewery’s acclaimed craft beers and a live performance from the Super Furry Animals – a live brewing performance that is.

Gruff, Guto, Cian, Daf and Bunf – who have been pursuing their own projects since they released their last album Dark Days/Light Years in 2009, will put the finishing touches to their own collaborative beer, which will be available in pubs around Wales and chosen outlets in London in March.

Fuzzy Beer, follows the launch of Goldie Lookin’ Ale – a collaborative beer between Welsh rappers Goldie Lookin’ Chain and Newport-based Tiny Rebel Brewery last year.

“We’re making it with our own specially formulated recipe, although I can’t tell you what that is,” laughs Furries keyboard maestro Cian Ciaran.

“Me and Daf (SFA drummer Dafydd Ieuan) met Tom who owns the brewery last year and we all thought it would be a good idea to make our own Furry brew.”

Although the band won’t be playing live, several members of the group will DJ on the night.

to brew a beer. :\

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/welsh-rock-icons-super-furry-6530196

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHV_6H2hQnM

American Interior is to come in four formats – a 13-song album, to be released on 5 May, which will be Rhys's fourth solo album; a book, described as "a psychedelic historical travelogue in which Gruff traces Evans' incredible journey from North Wales to new Spain, alongside the tale of his own strange American road trip following in Evans's footsteps", which will be published in late May; a film directed by Dylan Goch, documenting Rhys's 2012 tour; and an app consisting of 100 entries telling Evans's story.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/29/gruff-rhys-new-album-film-book-app

Loving the new Pale Blue Dots song:

https://soundcloud.com/the-pale-blue-dots/slow-reaction

Also got a new Gulp song this past week:

https://soundcloud.com/sonic-cathedral/gulp-seasoned-sun

Not been a bad year for SFA, if you're not looking for an actual SFA album.

Shocked, but not displeased, a publisher picked this up:

Rawlins, formerly digital editor of Artrocker, will document the story of the Welsh rock band's rise to iconic status.

The book, acquired by publishers The Friday Project, will tell the story of the band's time signed to Creation Records.

It will also cover their lavish marketing campaigns, which included equipping an army tank with a techno sound system and making plans to convert an aircraft carrier into a nightclub.

Lead singer Gruff Rhys said of the book: "Revolutionary, crazed and beautiful musical events and conversations that originally happened through the medium of a cracked youthful version of the Welsh language in the mid-nineties are presented here for the first time in quality English.

http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a577691/super-furry-animals-biography-for-release-in-2015.html#~oHu8lpFCxBKD8T

Also, new song by The Earth. It's really good:

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/3-baby-bones

I had a feeling Ric would get something like this put out eventually, and given his passion and enthusiasm for the band it should be at the very least pretty good. Why he hasn't gone the whole hog and covered their Epic Records/Rough Trade years too is a huge mystery, though.

Vol 2

I just feel like there's, max, a dozen people out there that want to read this story. I'm not complaining, though. I've wanted an SFA book for years.

Gruff's book doesn't count.

Even though I care the least I probably ever have about this band right now, I'll definitely be still giving this book a read. Partly because I enjoy reading books of this ilk, and partly because I'm interested to see how much depth the book actually goes into. Hopefully I'll learn something new from it, or it'll give me a new perspective on albums and tracks I've played to death in the past. It'll be interesting to see how much it sells, too... I can't help but feel that the perfect time to do something like this would have been around the time of Songbook, and covering the years 1994-2004.

It would be annoying to put out the biography and then for them to reform five minutes later

Well, they're technically not broken up... And it seems likely they'll get together sooner than later. So that'll probably happen.

I wouldn't be fazed if they never got back together again to make music, and I wouldn't feel much of a loss either. At one point the thought of SFA splitting up would have been incredibly depressing, but I'm really unsure if they've got anything more to give.

I don't think they'll ever release an epic album that changes the world, but I think those days are behind any band any of us knows about. Hopefully their time apart has taught them some new tricks. I think it has, but I know you're not really fond of anything they've done since DD/LY.

The Friday Project picked up the last two Kristin Hersh album/books, it's not that much of a stretch for them

I guess you're right, 'cause I have no idea who that is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guYOL2FLpCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcgMiyv05Tc

Gulp's Vast Space is currently streaming: http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/07/super_furry_ani_13.html

I meant Season Sun, the name of their album. Oops.

Gulp is officially out. You can listen on Spotify

Got to see Gruff in Manchester a couple weeks ago. It was one of the best live performances I've ever been to, and he was all on his own. The show was equal parts lecture and music performance. I never realized how naturally charming and funny he is.

In other news: https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/sets/the-earth-keltic-voodoo-boogaloo

The Earth's second LP is streaming. The Earth is Daf's band. Someone from Catatonia is also in the band. I know people around here hate Catatonia. The Earth's front woman also sings for the band Slowly Rolling Camera. I think this is a pretty decent record. It's a lot better than the first one.

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/sets/the-pale-blue-dots-lots-of/s-eSrBc

Bunf's new album is streaming.

The Pale Blue Dots' new album is no longer streaming, but some new tracks available for stream. The album comes out next Monday (digital only). The Pale Blue Dots are also in session on Marc Riley tonight:

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/reach-for-the-keys

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/devastation

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/slow-reaction

Some words from a website called Clash Music:

http://www.clashmusic.com/news/track-of-the-day-2110-the-pale-blue-dots

The ongoing hiatus of Super Furry Animals has dulled one of the most potent psych-pop voices around.

Thankfully, it has allowed the various members of the Welsh ensemble to engage in all manner of weird and wonderful projects.

Huw 'Bunf' Bunford is the band's lead guitarist, but recently struck up a friendship with composer Richard Chester.

Swapping ideas, the pair quickly descended into the studio to lay down some of fragments on tap. Piecing the whole thing together, The Pale Blue Dots were born.

Matching psychedelic flourishes against sweeping arrangements, a Bowie strut with lush harmonies, the project's debut album 'Lots Of Dots' is forthcoming.

Bunf says: "This is our Jekyll and Hyde moment. We love pop music, but we also like to lie down, listen to something, and not have to get up to press 'next track' for at least half an hour. The album definitely has a number of songs that could find themselves on the radio, but over the coming months we’re looking to take people on a journey into sound. By distributing found sounds online, and forming new compositions using archive material, The Pale Blue Dots is going to set out to demonstrate the pure pleasure in just listening."

Also, a new Cian Ciaran single came out a couple weeks ago:

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/sets/ciaran-wilding

The first track is a cover of a song by an artist I'd never heard of before. The second track features that artist's vocals. I actually kind of prefer the second track

I get the feeling no one around here cares about this stuff, but I hope someone out there might. I still see the odd "SFA ARE THE BEST BAND EVER" on the internet, so I hope this news reaches someone.

Not bad tunes in the Love Kraft vein, but pretty inessential. Damn, I miss this band.

Don't think it's happening until Gruff stops making his own albums. Everyone else in the band is recording and producing their albums together.

Hi! I'm a lurker and a regular visitor to ilxor and this thread in particular. Super Furry Animals were and still are one of my favourite bands ever since I heard Mark Radcliffe play Hometown Unicorn on his late night BBC Radio One show. I can remembering him marvelling at the guitar solo on the song.

I've really enjoyed watching Gruff's solo shows since his first solo record, he's become a really engaging and entertaining performer. I wonder if the band got back together again would the live shows be a lot more interesting than they used to be. I can remember a show on the Phantom Power tour being a bit hard going with too many slow and midpaced songs all in a row.

I'm looking forward to hearing Bunf's record and am hoping that it gets released on vinyl or at least CD, the clips I've heard sound great. From that Clash interview it sounds like they're trying to do something interesting.

ha! i was just subjecting my coworkers to Love Kraft and Hey Venus yesterday!

Calimero, I agree that Gruff's solo show is a lot better than many of the SFA shows I've been to. Two of his shows were some of the most memorable I've ever been to. The first one was a Candylion show that also featured Tony Da Gatorra. He also had some other guys on stage with him. I'm not sure who they were.

The second one was his totally solo American Interior show. My wife, who has almost zero interest in Gruff or SFA, enjoyed the American Interior show as much as I did. He really refined his act for general consumption. I wish I'd seen him with Y Niwl and Kliph Scurlock backing him, but I still loved it.

SFA are very stationary and ehearsed and also rely a lot on backing tracks. That's been my issue with their shows in the past. I've still seen a couple really memorable shows. The one where they wore those fiber optic boiler suits was awesome.

I also saw Gruff on the recent American Interior tour in a church, there was a drum kit and amps behind him which made me think Kliph and Y Niwl would join him at one point. It turned out the gear was for the church band! Despite this disappointment it was a great show, the songs sounded fine without a band, and Gruff was an entertaining and interesting storyteller.

I didn't really appreciate Yr Atal Genhedlaeth until I saw Gruff play a gig for it a few months later and then saw how he builds up the title track. It was interesting to see him play it again, and slightly differently, on this recent tour.

Like your wife, my partner had zero interest in the band, but now loves him after seeing a few of his gigs, the two films and an American Interior q&a. I don't think that would have happened if I'd taken her to a few regular SFA shows!

Gulp and The Earth recently played my town but I will was too lazy to see them, has anyone here seen either of the two bands live?

I have not seen either band. I hear Gulp is pretty good live. There are a couple nice videos online. I'm sure it's a lot more stationary than a Gruff show. I don't know much about The Earth, but I will say I really enjoyed their new album (I said that already, I think). It sounds much fuller and more varied than their first LP. I know it's not an essential release, and the vocals aren't going to pull in a lot of SFA fans, but I recommend it.

Strangetown, the record label that's put out all this other stuff, just sent .wavs of the new Pale Blue Dots album. It's unfortunately extremely short (under half an hour), but I love the whole thing. I never knew how much Bunf contributed to the band's sound. I always kind of at Gruff and Cian as the holy alliance. Honestly, The Pale Blue Dots' album comes closest to capturing the sound I fell in love with so many years ago. I understand that they are going to record more songs in the studio, so I guess Lots of Dots is more of an EP than an LP. There is an odd dance-y track with Bunf on lead vocals at the end of the album that I did not expect to like, but I can't get it out of my head.

I guess I have to give Richard Chester some credit, too. There are some great strings on the album.

I always kind of viewed*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y22dwqhMXSU

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029nbdr

The Pale Blue Dots sounded kind of rough on their first outing, but they'd only rehearsed the night before. I enjoyed Daf coming in with his "Ice Hockey Hair" drums every couple minutes.

Yeah, I've had a similar new found appreciation for Bunf's contribution to the band. These days I'm able to recognise his voice more easily!

I never realized how prominent Cian's voice is on certain songs. Take for instance "Chewing Chewing Gum." It's almost his first lead vocal.

The Pale Blue Dots' album is streaming again (it's officially out today):

https://soundcloud.com/strangetown-records/sets/the-pale-blue-dots-lots-of

I stole a fuse from their tank at Phoenix Festival 1996. Not many bands you can say that about tbh,

Can we just say they've split up now yet?

If gruff embarks on another multimedia extravagnza, sure. All the rest of them are recording, producing and releasing their music together.

Can we just say they've split up now yet?

― PaulTMA, Tuesday, November 4, 2014 12:46 AM (21 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In my mind, they pretty much have.

I'm still in denial. If they announced it, it would feel like when Supergrass split up. A band that always seemed to be there putting out good to great albums every couple of years. Both bands that make me incredibly nostalgic.

If they were split it up, wouldn't they just say they're split up? Gruff keeps insisting there'll be a 10th album.

From what it sounds like, it doesn't seem like any of the band members have or are aware of any concrete plans for Super Furry Animals, and none of them seem particularly enthusiastic about it either, which makes me feel that the ship as sailed. I can't help but get the impression that there's a gulf between Gruff and the rest of the band, too. If they have split up and they're keeping quiet about it, then that's somewhat of a shrewd move, really. People will be more accepting of/tolerate even the shittiest of solo products if they feel a new Super Furry Animals album is eventually going to happen: like "hmm, yeah, okay this Neon Neon/Cian/Earth/Pale Blue Dots album is a bit shit, but that's okay, they'll get around to giving us the real stuff soon". Remember also that Blur never actually announced that they'd "split up" either following Think Tank, but they may as well have done for all that's happened since.

I'm still in denial. If they announced it, it would feel like when Supergrass split up. A band that always seemed to be there putting out good to great albums every couple of years. Both bands that make me incredibly nostalgic.

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, November 4, 2014 10:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When Supergrass split up, my overall feeling was one of unrealised potential. As good as records like In It For The Money and Road To Rouen are, I still think they had a lot more ground to cover and a lot left to explore as a unit. The album they were working on when they split, Release The Drones sounded very promising.

By comparison, I think the Super Furry Animals have explored every avenue they possibly can together. I honestly don't see where else they could possibly go from here. It would be a good time to leave it, I think. They've already released 10 records if you count Out Spaced as a "proper" album, anyway.

Gruff's certainly drawn more attention to himself, with his most critically-acclaimed album and a fantastic stage show. The rest of the guys clearly have their work set out for them. we'll agree to disagree on the quality of the other side projects, though I've never been a neon neon fan.

Can't say much about Supergrass. I always found them pretty slight. "Alright" is a nice song and their self-titled album seemed to draw more flack than it deserved. I kind of left them behind. I know most that read this thread probably rate SFA similarly, but that's life.

Def spidery. He's their Spiderman.

Impressed with Chris Shaw's ability to carve the space for certain textures to rip your head off in these very busy mixes, i can see why he's so proud of his work on this stuff

Wherever I Lay My Phone is easily my favourite thing on Guerrilla - it allows the sonic experiment to play itself out for six minutes and build into something anthemic, an instinct they'd shown before obviously and one they'd revisit a lot more on RATW. I don't think putting the sonics into song-structures worked against their interest value. I'd argue SFA's strengths revolve around their interpretations of pop music!

I can understand that.

I like "let's get juxtaposed, juxtaposed" as a subversion of "let's get physical, physical" for example.

To me their strength was in pulling away from the song-center, that's what I feel is most essential and unique to their approach... so relegating the center to something like a perspective point would be a logical conclusion.

I guess I'm more interested in the ability of their experiments to disrupt than cohere.

Otoh my fave sfa track is prob Mountain People which does exactly what you're saying. I don't like any of their other tilting wave machine tracks nearly as much tho.

Can't really choose between Ice Hockey Hair and Slow Life, to absolutely nobody's surprise

Ice Hockey Hair would be my second or third choice. Genuinely surprized to realize that two of their most anthemic tracks are my favorites, it is not a quality I tend to prefer.

Mountain People wasn't always a favorite mind you. As best I remember, the crazy synth riff and dissonant guitar anti-solo at the end of Herman <3's Pauline was the first thing that really hooked me as a pissed off 14 y/o.

I had a cassette of Fuzzy Logic before that but wasn't into it.

It's cute that after giving Ron Mael a shoutout on Fuzzy Logic and sticking his portrait in the liners, they reasserted their appreciation for Sparks by writing a song about Einstein's patents on the next one.

I think the celebratory element was something I tolerated more than enjoyed at the time, for the most part. It was all about the comic and charicatured expressions of rage.

They were certainly very good at channeling this anger into fun, collective release

Deflatormouse I took maybe 4 mos off ilx, but in poking my nose back in, and immed learning more than i can absorb, i suppose— that’s why i’m here 19 years after greenspun stuff. Ppl here often really know, and can explain. (RATW is still apotheosis lol).

They were my favorite band from the time I was 13 to 17-ish. I've had almost 25 years to think about why and I'm still figuring it out lol

I def share the deranged, antic sense of humor so that's part of it. But I'm really bad at processing my emotions so I'll probably never figure it out. That might be one of the reasons I was drawn to this band, their approach to dealing with emotions could be very indirect.

https://podfollow.com/1566723156/episode/284bd5820a835740a4d52e0b8e8ed7dd22e00cde/view

Fairly interesting convo with Guto & Cian. Cian's audio is pretty bad, but listenable enough.

Just picked up the long-overdue vinyl reissue of Rings Around the World. It’s been many years since I’ve listened to this album front to back, and I had all but forgotten what an end to end masterpiece it is. Even the songs I don’t love really _work_ in the context of the album. Sequencing FTW.

Altho for my money, the CD version with the back-to-back punch of “Tradewinds/Roman Road” is even better than the original album proper.

Only noticed more recently how Fragile Happiness is one of their best songs

The instrumentals are fun to listen to, just to really hear what they threw at this thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtU9GQwUbk

(they released an additional 'disc' last Friday with all the demos, etc.)

Think juxtaposed comes out particularly well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQx78IMM3DY

“Acoustic” mix of Tradewinds is so lovely, wow

We'll go to Miami
Take old friends and family
We'll stay out and party
Does Will Smith lie?
Does he ever cave in and cry?

One of the weirdest things I've discovered from all the reissues & rarities:

They'd been working on "John Spex" since the Guerrilla sessions and somehow ended up turning it into "Lazer Beam," easily the worst SFA single ever and runner-up for worst SFA song in general.

I think they could've turned it into something cool. the LFO & Danger Mouse remixes were all right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG7BxOUIYJY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvyPrlYPm0Q

I think they had something...

"Point your random finger at the sky" always stuck out as a weird lyric. Now I see it's based on the sample in the second outtake.

Def. one of SFA's biggest failures. I could never suss out a good melody or idea in the song. At one point I imagined a nice cosmic guitar solo in place of the "We will conquer utopia with space chariots" bit and thought that might lead the song somewhere.

https://thepalebluedots1.bandcamp.com/album/lots-of-dots-2?fbclid=IwAR0uLj0ypugR3T4IiMoI-0GeYidAMhH4_F_LYWPsOK4A5Jr-bevVqx-IasA

My favorite side project. Insta-buy.

Pale Blue Dots album is out in a couple days. Looks like just a few copies left.

http://thepalebluedots1.bandcamp.com/releases

This new track that features Gruff is quite nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX9V838P76I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFezk2G-lp8

Well, Bunf just managed to release the best SFA-related thing since SFA were around.

Two and a half weeks later - by far Bunf's best song, aside from "White Socks/Flip Flops." I need an entire album that sounds like "Thermos." He even finally got his voice sounding a little less shaky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtNeuXVqvi4

Cian harmonizes with Gruff beautifully. Their pairing on “Download” is sublime.

― afriendlypioneer, Monday, September 6, 2021 3:23 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Cousins. Which adds a further layer to their obsession with The Beach Boys.

I'm all about Bunf right now.

Thermos is so good.

The first song ever recorded as Super Furry Animals, featuring actor, Rhys Ifans on lead vocals revealed by the band with time-limited, Bandcamp release: Of No Fixed Identity

Former lead singer and friend of the band, Ifans, performed the track in the studio in 1993 before taking the path towards a Hollywood career

Left in band archives for almost thirty years, the Bandcamp-only, one-week release emerges in support of the www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-severn-estuary/ campaign.

The song that started it all for Super Furry Animals and kept under wraps for almost thirty years, Of No Fixed Identity, featuring actor, Rhys Ifans on vocal duties has been surprise released by the band – but it’s only available strictly from Bandcamp and for a very limited time only.

https://superfurryanimals.bandcamp.com/releases

Never knew that stuff was recorded or that Gruff was in the band at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7w6P75Gqs

I am loving this new track. It’s SFA all the way.

Looks like Das Koolies are going for it. 15 track album in September. Not a single song from the released EP or singles to date.

https://www.qobuz.com/nz-en/album/dk01-das-koolies/tkpgobxtyr2ob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmgwRdT3ijw

https://www.roughtrade.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.roughtrade.com%2Fmedia%2Fthumbnails%2Fproducts%2FDas_Koolies_-_DK.01_62c1b38f_thumbnail_2048.webp&w=750&q=100

Tracklist:
1 Best Mindfuck Yet
2 Out Of This World
3 Nuthin Sandwich
4 Shakedown
5 A Ride
6 Collide
7 Katal
8 Pain Down The Drain
9 Montezuma
10 Holy Shit
11 Masters Of Mankind
12 Alligator
13 Sky
14 Sorry
15 Wired For Sound

A new world emerges via a musical ‘big bang’ emanating from Das Koolies’ post-industrial Cardiff docklands hideaway, as the band announces that their debut album, DK.01 will be released on Fri 22 September 2023. Made with the help of contributors and influences as diverse as MC Killa Kela, 17th Century composer, Henry Purcell and their four decades together as Super Furry Animals, the album promises a genre-bending expansion of their most electronic-leaning and experimental ideas.

Quickly following up the success of the release of their debut The Condemned EP, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce return with DK.01’s first blast of friendly fire in Best Mind F*ck Yet, forming an instant connection between their past and future. Embryonic versions having played the Furries off the stage during their MWNG tour in the mid-00’s, and featuring actor/former-SFA front man, Rhys Ifans on vocals, any band biographers will be compelled to furiously update their records as the strings-laced kraut/techno pounder is born into the band’s border-free land of possibility.

Best Mind F*ck Yet’s earthquake release comes with a new video emerging as part of the band’s creative link-up with artist, Edwin Burdis/Dah Dit Dit (Arctic Monkeys, Blossoms, The Coral), continuing to develop a visual world to complement the audio following the release of an animated video for The Condemned at the start of this year.

The release of the fifteen track DK.01 this autumn re-opens the book on the quartet’s long-term friendship and musical union at the next chapter, with their meandering tale together having begun in the vortex of north Wales’ illicit rave scene in the early-1990s. Last seen on stage together as the Furries’ final tour concluded in 2016, Bunford, Ciarán, Ieuan and Pryce reconvened Das Koolies around poker nights and half-remembered riffs shortly after, scratching a persistent, 30-year itch to perform a factory reset and deep dive into the synth-driven sound they’d heard in their heads all along.

Looking forward to the album’s release Das Koolies say: “The return has been welcomed. Unanimously. Dissent, however, will be tolerated. An abundance of ideas, new inventions and old friendships percolate, produce and persist. Come this way as a dead end is circumvented to show an open road.”

Alongside Ifans, guests set to appear on the album include influential British MC Killa Kela and the physical infrastructure of Cardiff, Wales’ capital city itself, as field recordings of percussive strikes on metallic structures make their way onto the record, symbolising the freedom with which ideas entered the studio from all possible sources.

Referring to classical composer, Henry Purcell with a bassline inspired by 300-year-old examples of the same, plus completing one demo that has existed in one form or another since 1998, DK.01 will reveal and celebrate the elasticity of time and the musical ideas within it, as it will inevitably expose the band’s own liberty to do just as they please.

DK.01 will be released in multiple physical formats including collectors’ edition vinyl variants, whilst the band also works towards making their live debut to coincide with the release in September.

Das Koolies DK.01 was produced by Das Koolies and mixed in collaboration with Grammy nominated engineer, Tom Forrest (Duke Dumont, Basement Jaxx) and MPG (Music Producer’s Guild) UK Music Producer of the Year 2022 Marta Salogni (Bjork, Depeche Mode).

Thanks for the update afriendlypioneer.

This reminds me that I have to run the SFA poll this year and I'm thinking September/October will be when I run it. I have other plans for the board this summer.

Good idea. I’ve begun enjoying their latter-day albums more than the classics lately so I’ll throw the results a bit. :)

ranking SFA songs would certainly be a struggle, possibly a chore. but i can volunteer to do something like what the table is the table did for the Low poll i.e. repeating that i can't understand how some of you like their Epic stuff as much as their Creation stuff.

guess i've already done that actually.

ranking albums more manageable although it's a tough call between Radiator and Guerrilla.

fwiw i listened to Radiator a couple of months ago and some of the lyrics are so cringe, i mean they always were but my tolerance for this ain't what it used to be.

i can deal with the dad jokes but "why do we do what they tell you" is too much.

i.e. repeating that i can't understand how some of you like their Epic stuff as much as their Creation stuff.

I got into them when Rings Around the World had just come out in the UK. Must've been late 2000? (I could look this up.) The whole thing swept me away -- tour, DVD, 5.1 surround, the b-sides. I don't listen to it much anymore and I doubt I'd call it my favorite album, but it hit me hard and that carried into Phantom Power. Phantom Power culminates with one of their greatest-ever songs, maybe their greatest A-side? I liked how quickly they could turn inward and create epic-seeming ballads, so I enjoyed the rest of the album as well. I was a little too late for the '90s albums, but obviously they're all classics for the most part. Radiator's production is unbearable 2 me these days, unfortunately.

I've been waiting for them to unleash the synths & bass, so the new stuff w/o Gruff is especially exciting. DD/LY felt like the start of something really good, and then it ended.

i'll have to come back to this, but what don't you like about the production of Radiator? i love it.

Mario Caldato is one of my favorite audio guys of all time, the records he did with Young MC, Tone Loc and the Beastie Boys sound amazing. especially Loc's. i def fantasized about SFA hooking up with him in the 90's, but when they did it was like 'ehh, i wish they'd just go back to Gorwel Owen's place'.

i started with Fuzzy Logic but thought it was just okay. Radiator was the one that made them my favorite band. i don't think any of their other albums would have grabbed me to the same extent. that is to say, i was extremely committed to liking Guerrilla before i heard it. it was a much more challenging album (in the sense that it's pointedly hollow and disposable and relentlessly goofy) and i wouldn't have made the effort otherwise. Northern Lites (the advance single) did not prepare me for this. of course, those are the qualities i love about it now.

On paper/in theory, Guerrilla is my favorite SFA album and Rings is my least favorite. In terms of what i would actually want to listen to, Guerilla is probably 2nd to Radiator and RATW is somewhere in the middle or, that is to say i might choose to listen to it over a few of their later albums.

RATW was the first major SFA album (regarding Mwng as a Mutations-like "not the real follow-up" release) that doesn't take a surprising left turn from the previous. For the first time, it reshuffles and builds on their existing stylistic trademarks instead of introducing new ones.

But my chief complaint is RATW represented an abdication of their previous insurgent stance against the mainstream pop and rock they had been poised to infiltrate, and recast them as a nerdy indie band who revel in their record collections. i think a comparison of the way different kinds of references are deployed on Fuzzy Logic vs. RATW is telling. it was a huge shift in attitude.

whereas i regard Guerrilla as something like the Duck Soup or Gremlins 2 of alternative rock.

I don't know if i consider Fuzzy Logic to be classic, probably not. a lot of the b-sides are better than the songs on the album (i like Dim Bendith and Hon Ywr Gon Syn Mynd... way more than anything on Fuzzy Logic. Mario Man is the only track on it that foreshadows the classic Rhodes-driven SFA sound with swirling, processed background vocals. Out Spaced is better.

i do like Slow Life a lot, but not as much as the rest of you. i'd stopped caring by then.

Fuzzy Logic is a good record but I prefer every single album they've done since. SFA arrived pretty well-formed, but still not - crucially not - completely imo, which is why its continued popularity over several obviously better post-RATM albums (imo) comes over a bit of a disservice to me. Radiator was the advancement they needed and then Guerrilla through to Phantom Power is their peak in my ears.

For me the "reshuffling and building on their existing stylistic trademarks" is why RATM has the 'feel' of their best album. It's the confident, all-encompassing summit of an approach and doesn't miss a beat - the consciously obvious joins included. But as such it isn't lightning in a bottle and in reality it ties with Guerrilla as the one I love best.

RATW* lol

The 'we can do anything we want' rock-pop sprezzatura of RATW was my first album/non-singles exposure to sfa and it blew me away, though I totally understand the -no longer insurgents- ref by deflatormouse.

I really like Phantom Power tho not as much, and then subsequents were to me a bit deflated and uninspired versions of that.

As to Guerilla Radiator et al., I enjoy them a lot, but given my exposure point to the band, they seem mostly formative. Maybe it's like afp seemed to say, "how you see this band depends on where you came in."

As to Guerilla Radiator et al., I enjoy them a lot, but given my exposure point to the band, they seem mostly formative

ok, that actually makes a lot of sense. i could see that.

the thing is, i kinda prefer RATW over some of their later records because it still has traces of that insurgent edge, and it's totally absent in anything they did afterwards. But the softening of it was much more striking at the time than the continuity, and it put me off them. i like a few of the songs, mainly Alternate Route to Vulcan Street and Juxtapozed with U. but, though i enjoy it less, i see Love Kraft as the culmination of what they started doing here.

i think the first 3 or 4 albums are ultimately expressions of anger. however cartoonish or indirect, on some level they're "about" how to process and deal with anger. how do you bring it out into the world in a constructive way? that's the question at the heart of their cartoon mania. And then on Mwng the anger and the mania is tempered somewhat by a surprising tenderness they hadn't really shown before (disregarding Fire in My Heart because it totally sucks).

i remember something imago (i think?) said about RATW as really "going for it" in the sense that they channeled the sonic experimentation into more cohesive songs. i couldn't get my head around that, because i always thought their big, bold push to infiltrate the mainstream on Guerilla was "really going for it", and on RATW they seemed to have picked a lane made the decision to stay in their lane from then on (i get that chart positions don't necessarily tell this story).

i guess what i'm saying is yeah, i can see how the perspective changes depending on where you came in.

about arriving fully formed or not, i believe Smokin' and TMDGAF were both written and demoed before Fuzzy Logic, and it may be more a case of the song selection obfuscating their identity. i've def always thought there's a strong case to be made that it's their worst album. it's obviously not my least favorite for reasons i've already enumerated.

Also lol @ "RATM" :)

I mean, tense verse, heavy bluesy chorus, repeated use of "fuck"... "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" is basically a RATM song

Just bought this.

https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/a6f2c85b-12ea-4590-b445-f7c3dff96766/Hei%20Vidal%204000x4000%20cover%20jpeg.jpg/:/rs=w:1500,h:1500,cg:true,m/cr=w:1500,h:1500

Originally released in 1992, Hei Vidal! is the third album by revolutionary DIY Cymraeg pop band Ffa Coffi Pawb. Formed in Bethesda in 1986 by sixteen year old friends Gruff Rhys and Rhodri Puw (later joined by Gruff’s Super Furry Animals’ bandmate Dafydd Ieuan and Dewi Emlyn).

Made by a bunch of 21 and 22 year olds, Hei Vidal! is an album that distills the band’s obsessions with early ’70s power-pop (all the B’s from Bowie, Bolan and Big Star) as well as Neu! and My Bloody Valentine into a sound that predates the fuzzed out return to glam a few years later. It merges motorik grooves over saturated shoe gazing fuzz with impressionistic studio manipulation, orchestral synthesiser arrangements and brutal yet surreal imagery and word play in the Welsh language.

Having signed their songs over to a local publisher who eventually disappeared off the face of the Earth, Ffa Coffi Pawb’s music has been out of print for decades (with the exception of the 2004 compilation album Am Byth, released on the SFA associated Placid Casual label). After untangling a complicated web of time, Hei Vidal! will be available on streaming services and vinyl for the first time having only been on cassette and very few CD copies on its original release on Ankst in 1992. The reissue marks the 30th anniversary of the band’s final show at Builth Wells Memorial Hall in August 1993 (supported by a young Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci).

Single available on Spotify is p good!

Any news on the Phantom Power 20th anniversary reissue? Hoping that's coming this year.