Mwng
"MUMMY, MUMMY, that man's singing in a funny language!"
Stuart Clark
"MUMMY, MUMMY, that man's singing in a funny language!"
Free to do what they bally well please following the closure of Creation, Super Furry Animals have reverted to their native tongue and made a record that only 3% of the UK's population will be able to understand.
If it all sounds a bit Liam O Maonlai-ish, fear not, because the music's just as gloriously fucked-up as ever. Assembled for a bargain #6,000, Mwng - it's pronounced 'moo-ing' and means "mane" - is basically a more pastoral take on Guerrilla, with Gruff at times coming on like a Celtic Nick Drake.
Things get off to the sprightliest of starts with 'Drygioni' ('Badness'), a get in, do the damage and then bugger off glam stomper that has more than a touch of the Supergrasses about it.
Muscle-stretching exercises completed, it's into 'Ymaelodi' ('Joining The Periphery') which is as jolly a three minutes as the Super Furries have ever produced.
Better still is 'Ysbeidau Heulog' ('Sunny Intervals'), a sax mad tribute to ELO and Roxy Music that Gruff advises is best listened to wearing a spangly red catsuit. Even without the proper attire, it's a wonderfully exhilarating listening experience which suffers not one jot from being in Welsh.
In fact, putting your own (doubtless wrong) spin on proceedings is very much part of Mwng's appeal.
The Nick Drake-isms we were talking about earlier are particularly evident on 'Y Gwyneb Iau' ('Liverface'), an anti-war song which reaches almost superhuman levels of wistfulness. The sound of Burt Bacharach after a particularly hectic night on the magic mushrooms, the closing eight-minute epic, 'Gwreiddiau Dwfn' ('Deep Roots') exorcises any lingering doubts that Super Furry Animals may somehow be allied to Britpop.
Hooray for devolution!
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