Gruff Rhyss has released a new solo album, Candylion. After a loud tour with his band Super Furry Animals it was time for something more subdued and acoustic. This album is, well, beautiful. Really beautiful. If you are looking for a superb singer/songwriter album from the valleys of Wales, this is it.
The cornerstones of this record became the soft vocal sound of Psychocandy-era The Jesus and Mary Chain coupled with the sonic sweetshop of daisy age hip hop. Coincidently I had been listening and dancing hard during this period to a lot of my parents' old 1960's and 70's Welsh language pop, folksploitation and progressive rock 7 inches whilst helping Finders Keepers Records compile an album of the period which was called 'Welsh Rare Beat'. With all these pieces of my past swimming around my brain I dropped a lot of slow-mo solo acoustic numbers and built up a bedrock of varied sounds.
MP3: Gruff Rhys - Candylion
MP3: Gruff Rhys - Lonesome Words
» candylion.co.uk
» myspace.com/candylionmusic
If you want to see those two tracks: he performed them live with Lisa Gen at the Album Chart Show - UK Channel 4, 2007-01-20.
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