As a result, genre and convention have always been at play in their work – from the Guinness Book of Records-listed E.P. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (In Space) to this year’s hotly anticipated Dark Days/Lights Years. Yet, despite their unique flavour and thick Welsh accents, Super Furry Animals, are no underground phenomenon. The clamour of genres from psychedelic rock to techno, grunge and sixties pop has captured the imaginations of a large host of devout fans and critics.
Dark Days/Light Years spans a vast array of influences with an uncanny sense of self awareness. Each track, in its playful tone and experimentation reveals the band’s style altering form. After listening to the album a number of times I couldn’t help but ask how close an influence the band’s nationality has on its music.
“It is inevitable that you are influenced by where you’re from,” vocalist Gruff Rhys’ timid voice crackles down the line. “We were never motivated to produce Welsh music and we always hated traditional Welsh music. But we were influenced by bands coming out of Wales at that time.”
From the beginning of their career, Super Furry Animals have sought to expand their work beyond country borders. An insatiable thirst for discovering and exploring new music led to each member’s very distinct preferences, which came together in a beautiful but schizophrenic form.
“When we were starting out it was the tail end of the rave era. We were listening to a lot of techno. We were also going through a phase of ‘70s pop, like E.L.O. That all got mixed up with our interest in techno. We would buy all these second-hand records from thrift stores and mix them with our techno. Also we used to play with punk bands.”
Now Dark Days/Light Years exudes experience, with the band balancing a child-like abandon and the musical experience that comes over nine albums. This freeform abandon is very evident in track titles like Crazy Naked Girls or lyrics such as “there was the mountain. It was a big fucking mountain. So I climbed the mountain.” But Gruff is adamant there was no attempt to bring any comedic elements into Dark Days/Light Years. “That’s just in our personalities. We don’t shy away from bearing our souls. Sometimes our music can be dark and depressing and sometimes we make incredibly uplifting music. We are fine with making people smile but we have never set out to make a comedy record.”
At this point Gruff brings my attention to the band’s website www.superfurry.com, where fans can view two videos taken while the band was recording Dark Days/ Light Years. As the camera swoops through the spacious and isolated studio each member is smiling and laughing as they jam together. It’s a perfect illustration of how this group produces such a playful style of music.
“Also we bring different influences in,” Gruff explains. “All the members have known each other for a really long time. [Keyboardist] Cian Ciaran runs a minimal techno label and I specialise in downbeat folk music. It definitely makes our music more unlikely and more unique. I think when you listen to it, it is very much grounded in the history of music. You can hear a lot of references because we are all record junkies. So it is important for us to bring it to a unique conclusions otherwise we just sound like our record collections.”
Calling Super Furry Animals a band of ‘unique conclusions’ may well be the most apt description available. Dark Days/ Light Years is an album of endless surprises, cheeky grins and sideways glances.
Published @ www.fasterlouder.com
Link: http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/17959/Super-Furry-Animals.htm
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