SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

Had a flashback of the Barrowlands 1999 gig after SFA posted the tour poster on IG the other day - I remember both songs being played live, for the only time I can remember. Also only time I can remember seeing an eccied guy dry-humping his friend in time to the outro of Mountain People

Well this was certainly a surprise:

29/01/2020@DasKoolies https://t.co/41rHCzF6Vc pic.twitter.com/Hem4AlGESl

— Shaun Gordon (@slipp3000) January 27, 2020

I presume this means they're back... under a different name.

If you don't recall:

HB: That's right. When we were recording Guerrilla, it was such an overly ostentatious studio, ironically called The Real World. You had so much room. [keyboard/electronics man] Cian started getting bored, I think. There was a lot of waiting around and dissecting, so we ended up starting a parallel band called Das Koolies. We all took on different characters. I think the Stereophonics were next door and they came in to see what we were doing, so we exposed them to Das Koolies. Their late drummer, he was quite taken aback. He said to concentrate on what we were doing.

It's a shame "Citizen's Band" and some of the b-sides aren't on the album proper over, say, "Nightvision", "The Teacher", or "The Door...". Guerrilla is still my least favorite of the early albums by quite a bit, but now I realize it's mostly a matter of what they selected
― Vinnie, Thursday, November 7, 2019 7:15 PM (two months ago)

Completely disagree.

There was actually an interview in the press cycle for 'Guerilla' where they talked about sequencing the album and how the moment they elected to cut 'The Matter of Time' in favor of the 'The Teacher' was a point of no return. 
The initial songs on Guerilla are something like the establishing scenes in Gremlins 2, before the picture descends into plotless anarchy and exaggerated Tex Avery gags take over. The  just exists in its own cartoon universe where the laws of fixed identity don't apply. It's a totally unique entry in alternative rock and its only real companion pieces are by Yann Tomita and Daphne and Celeste. 

The period leading up to the release of 'Guerilla' was easily the most exciting time to be a SFA fan and I've coveted these demos and outtakes ever since. But the biggest surprise turned out to be the level of inspiration in the oldest demo for 'Colorblind'. Before it was fleshed out into a full song and given a plodding classic rock arrangement, 'Colorblind' was a mission statement that encapsulated the over-the-top zaniness of Guerilla and had the potential to be one of its central tracks. I can almost hear Joe Dante's gremlins on vocals. 

'Fire in My Heart' is the only real dud. It's too earnest and too obvious at the same time. I think Gruff probably intended it to be the token country number per his "jukebox" concept, but that intention was lost in the band's interpretation of the song. 
Just like 'Mario Man' subtly foreshadowed the turn they would take on 'Radiator', 'Citizens Band' is unfortunately the track that resonates with the RATW-Love Kraft period of SFA. I enjoyed it very much, but never would have believed that it pointed out the direction of their future. When Gruff said 'Guerilla' was going to be both the most experimental thing they'd done and also the most pop, you thought they'd continue along vaguely those lines rather than go on to make records that Mojo magazine readers would salivate over. 

It's only through the lens of their Epic albums that Guerilla feels like an outlier in their catalog, or whatever Stereogum wrote. At the time it was almost the culmination of everything they'd promised, though its goofiness came as a surprise. No matter; 'Guerilla' will go down as the time the Super Furry Animals' antics got the better of them and they couldn't hold a record together. They would never be that cool again. 

Put 'Matter of Time' on the album and take 'The Teacher' off, and all this is negated. 

Re: the talk upthread about whether they should have packed it in sooner, I can live without everything they did after Mwng. Not that they've ever made a bad record by any means, but Rings established a stylistic continuity coupled with a rounding off of their edges that characterizes all 3 Epic albums, and that their third act never redeemed. There are some excellent bits of music on all of their albums but that was the last thing I would ever want or expect from SFA and I'm baffled that nobody else seems to think so. All lack the urgency of their late '90s material and 'Love Kraft' seemed like a natural place to stop.

Kinda hoping this Das Koolies record is more outtakes from Guerilla rather than a new project with Gruff absent or involved a diminished capacity,  which is probably what it is. 

...We were, after all, promised an album of electronic music that never materialized in addition to the album of Welsh language songs that did.

I have a feeling you’re OTM about it being SFA without Gruff, unfortunately.

I've seen elsewhere that it's new music per Kliph. Guessing it's some sort of Cian project with appearances from everyone not named Gruff.

Though I've heard Guto is just another name for Gruff, or maybe it's the reverse. Can someone confirm?

It's the diminutive of Gruffudd (which is Gruff's full name) but also a name in its own right here in Wales.

Anyway, they've started posting some brief snippets

29.01.2020 pic.twitter.com/6CUE7slbnY

— Das Koolies (@DasKoolies) January 28, 2020

I guess all will be revealed in about three hours. I'm hoping for something that sounds like the great outros they were blasting out in 2015/2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S41DTo8PzmY&feature=youtu.be

ooof this is basically a Primal Scream outtake

My god it sounds like La Isla Bonita with a Moog Taurus.

Certainly not at all what I expected. Love the last couple minutes.

Meh-ng

Turrican’s specter is haunting this thread.

youchhh. Sounded like a 12" remix of 1m30 song. Give me Love Kraft II already :)

Don't know how accurate it is but seen one tweet saying they're made up of 4/5 of SFA so guess Gruff isn't involved

Das Koolies comprises SFA mainstays Huw ‘Bunf’ Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce, although not at this stage Gruff Rhys (who has his own new solo album coming later in 2020). Instead, Bunford, Ciarán and Ieuan have shared lead vocals on “It’s All About The Dolphins”, which is billed as a song about “a specific case of animal mistreatment”.

According to the press release, “More material follows, with more diverse inspiration, more voices taking to the front and more free musical expression.

From Uncut

if this is the quality of material I can expect from "SFA minus Gruff" then I guess he really was the glue huh

Don't think much of their non-Gruff material was ever highly regarded anywhere, though there are some highlights...

I liked the Acid Casuals album but of what I've heard, that's about it.

Seems the decline in their popularity started with Love Kraft, when the other guys started writing and singing songs. I'm sure it's not as simple as that. Any band that's around 10 years has it hard. I like some of theiir songs, particularly Bunf's 'White Socks/Flip Flops' on the last album.

In any case, I hear Gruff's new solo album is a power pop version of Babelsberg.

"Sex War and Robots" is a top 20 SFA tune for moi.

I like nearly every non-Gruff SFA song to make it to an album, tbh

'Mt.' and 'Back on a Roll' are the only ones I find subpar, but I've noticed the general consensus around the other guys' songs is usually kinda negative.

It's funny, I have a friend who didn't realise Cabin Fever wasn't Gruff...

That is pretty funny. I've noticed a few reviews that either mention Gruff's vocals on tracks that aren't his or say the voices are indistinguishable. They do kind of sound alike when they speak, but I think their singing voices are pretty distinctive...

Meanwhile

Playing some acoustic numbers live shortly from @steve_lamacq ‘s spaceship on @BBC6Music outside @ClwbIforBach - Caneuon byw ar y radio toc - ar radio 6 📢 pic.twitter.com/YxmEC8TY7L

— Gruff Rhys (@gruffingtonpost) January 29, 2020

I think quite a few of the songs on their most popular albums are basically Cian's, with Gruff's vocals added almost as an afterthought. Eg. Download, Some Things Come From Nothing, Alternate Route To Vulcan St etc.

Bunf's backing vocals in particular add a lot of harmonic interest and often elevate melodies that would otherwise be pretty corny to soaring heights, like the chorus of Ice Hockey Hair. But it's not really a lead singer's voice and Gruff's voice is much fuller and more powerful than Cian's or Bunf's.

Don't think this is a case of who writes the songs as much as who sings 'em. They have usually empasized the textural element anyhow and Gruff's willingness to allow his best songs to showcase instrumental colors and textures has been key to their approach.

I mean, I don't think the decline in their popularity is due to other members talking lead vocals, if that's what came across ^

That probably has a lot to do with where they fit in the broader conversation of pop music, or alternative music or whatever. At one time they were a very "now" band, and really engaged in that conversation. And sort of gradually withdrew from it over the course of 3 LP's on Epic. Which, yeah, is a pretty common thing for a band that's been around +/- 10 years.

I think Gruff, in his second career as a "national treasure" has been more engaged in the present moment than he was in SFA during their 'mature' period. Not musically, except perhaps in the sense of downscaling his live productions, etc. But in that he's shown an understanding of the diminishing audience investment in music and musicians, that it's no longer really enough to just make records and promote them and tour them. So he's added performance art, research, comedic anecdotes etc to that...

He's fully embraced the traditional role of a bard, the reversion to old fashioned minstrelsy that new modes of record distribution have demanded and that other artists have struggled to negotiate. And it really suits him.

I believe the reason for SFA's hiatus from 2009 had a lot to do with that, actually. They weren't light enough on their feet.

I think you're right, yet his songwriting feels much less vital and interesting as a solo artist. I guess that's where the 'theatrical productions' like the Candylion & Praxi Makes Perfect performances step in, as you have said.

...because in SFA, his songs were used to showcase instrument textures and record production? In particular, the 70's soul instrumentation + ultrafuturist Germanic/Japanese electronics was just icy cool, a frigid combination. It was never really about the base layer folk-punk ditties?

SFA without Cian = boring SFA.

It wasn't songwriting that made Radiator an exponentially better album than Fuzzy Logic, etc.
SFA albums varied in direct proportion to the ingenuity of their production, with songwriting as a relative constant.

Actuàlly idk, Mwng is pretty great.

...We were, after all, promised an album of electronic music that never materialized in addition to the album of Welsh language songs that did.

― Deflatormouse, Tuesday, January 28, 2020 3:10 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

cian confirmed fairly recently that the hard drives containing those files were either lost or had been corrupted, I can't remember which

That is heartbreaking.
Still a little unclear as to whether the lost electronic album and the lost Das Koolies album are one and the same. What is fairly clear now, in light of that Quietus itw from 2015, is that the material on that Furry Techno leak is not the Das Koolies thing. The band claimed that those tracks were demos for Guerrilla, and I didn't really buy that for whatever reason. But at least two of 'em turned up on the reish.

Brent D asked Gruff about the techno demos at some show many moons back and they claimed the longest track on the disc was called steelworks in stone and was a Das Koolies song. If I remember correctly it sounds like an acid casuals track called music machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a_87I8nxe8

No idea what a Moog Taurus sounds like, but I suppose identifying it on here would lend credence to what Gruff said. They are notoriously forgetful so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just talking shit.

Thanks for the link. Right, I was thinking Furry techno wasn't a Moog Taurus + steel drums record. The bassline in Music Machine doesn't sound obviously like a Taurus to me (the bassline in All About the Dolphins does), but it's also not so far off that I can conclusively deny what it is. A bunch of their tracks feature the Taurus sound pretty heavily; that really farty, buzzy synth bass. Smokin' for one.

...and I don't seem to have Furry Techno on my hard drive anymore. ughh.

Actually starting to entertain a possibility that this lost album never existed and it's an elaborate prank they've played on their fans. Now that they're emptying the vaults, the hard drive is corrupted - how convenient!

In all seriousness I think it's far more likely that they exaggerated the quantity of unused material from the Guerrilla sessions to the press. Although Mwng certainly gives credence to the claim that they potentially had albums' worth.

I hope the Diana song resurfaces at least. They claimed it had one of their best pop hooks.

LP with split coloured black & white vinyl Early in 2016 Ali Chant texted me, asking if I still wanted to record some stuff at his studio - as property developers were about to knock it down.Another creative space bulldozed away for capital gain.Politically it was a shit year.The noise building for the Brexit referendum that would fuck with the future of the young was in full swing.Bowie died, and on the morning of the first recordings I had the worst migraine.I left the building and threw up in the street.I wanted to commit to the lyrics and sing live so I think I was stressed about getting them ready to sing.I had a batch of songs I wanted to record but I didn't have a record label or any plans of what to do with them.I gathered incredible musicians from my square mile in Cardiff in the van and drove to Bristol.Kliph on drums, Steve on bass and Osian on piano.I sang and played guitar - We recorded live takes for 3 days then I sat on the songs for almost 2 years.Eventually handing them to composer Stephen McNeff to work on orchestral arrangements.I called the album that was mixed by Samur Kouja; Babelsberg - and I'm very happy with it.This album meanwhile is an exploration of how it came to be - and the songs in their raw state.A companion piece rather than the definitive article.Most tracks are similar to the final work except for Selfies in The Sunset which is pre-duet and much longer.At some point it would be great to release the amazing orchestral elements too.Maybe both records could be played at once.In the meantime please enjoy the fruits of Kliph Scurlock's mixes and demo digging for (Don't) Welcome The Plague As A Blessing.I'm very grateful to Lisa Jen and Mirain Haf from the band 9 Bach for singing the background vocals.Kliph for overseeing this project, Rough Trade for their enthusiasm and thanks to the designers; thanks Uno Moralez for agreeing to have his incredible Babelsberg sleeve illustration carved up, and ace designer Mark James for this final article. Further thanks to Ali, Steve, Osian and also to Robin Turner for lending his ear at the time.1. Frontier Man2. The Club3. Oh Dear!4. Limited Edition Heart5. Take That Call6. Drones in the City7. Negative Vibes8. Same Old Song9. Architecture of Amneisa10. Selfies in the Sunset

https://recordstoreday.co.uk/releases/rsd-2020/gruff-rhys/?fbclid=IwAR3C3YSg_nas_aC3J-QLEfLC4dIhpPx0UTYrC18TFkxGWwrVrwPS8EL_LeQ

fbclid=IwAR3C3YSg_nas_aC3J-QLEfLC4dIhpPx0UTYrC18TFkxGWwrVrwPS8EL_LeQ

MEH.

fbclid=IwAR3C3YSg_nas_aC3J-QLEfLC4dIhpPx0UTYrC18TFkxGWwrVrwPS8EL_LeQ