Super Furry Animals

Super Furry Animals are arguably the most prominent Welsh alternative rock band. The outfit was assembled in Cardiff in 1993 by five musicians. The idea was proposed by Gruff Rhys, vocalist and guitarist. He found himself basist Guto Pryce, keuboardist Cian Cirian, guitarist Huw Bunford and drummer Dafydd Ieuan. When they started together, the band’s core genre to build on was techno, yet in a short while the musicians departed to neo-psychedelic and progressive-pop sphere. After the first two years of song writing and stage performing, Super Furry Animals reached an agreement with the independent label Ankst to produce the debut EP under the incredible title Lianfairpwllgywgyllgoger Chwymdrobwlltysiliogoygoyocynygofod (In Space), all the featured songs sung in Welsh. It was shortly followed by another EP, Moog Droog, with all the compositions also performed in the band's native language.

By the end of 1995, Super Furry Animals had already become a cult act on their mother land with an ever growing fan base including various generations. As soon as the band reached recognition all over the United Kingdom, the musicians sealed an attractive offer with Creation Records providing the release of six albums. To continue attract more and more music lovers to their art, the Welsh outfit decided to write all their songs exclusively in English from then on. In spring 1996, prior to the release of the debut full-length album, they let the public taste their music with the two singles, Hometown Unicorn, and God! Show Me Magic. In June, Super Furry Animals finally released the album that borrowed the name Fuzzy Logic. It was the case when critics shared one and the same opinion and claimed this work one of the best efforts made for several previous months. To release as separate singles, the musicians picked the album’s songs Something 4 the Weekend, and If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You, to become smashing hits by autumn 1996. In December the same year, Super Furry Animals issued one more single, The Man Don't Give a Fuck that applied the sample from Steely Dan's song Show Biz Kids. This composition failed to make it to the radio due to the abundance of bad language in the lyrics, which, in fact, turned to attach even more attention to the band. In the long run, this single climbed to position 22 in the UK charts.

Super Furry Animals spent the entire first half of 1997 in the studio putting their best efforts into the sophomore long player, Radiator. The CD became available late in summer. The presented material bore some influence of the electro music back from the sixties and generally collected good reviews. In two more years, the Welsh delivered another studio work called Guerrilla. It was an experimental album rich in unexpected ideas that received a warm welcome from both old and new fans of the group. In the mid 2000, Super Furry Animals released their first album in Welsh, Mwng. One more year later, they delighted the public with a strong effort, Rings Around the World. The subsequent album, named Phantom Power, seemed to take all the efforts and creativity that the musicians could offer. Within eighteen months, they wrote more than forty songs with only few of them taken for the final record. However, the outcome, that hit the stores in 2003, ruined all the expectations and appeared a true financial disaster. In 2005, the group enlarged their discography by two more items at a time. These were the anthology Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, and the album with the brand new material Love Kraft. After Super Furry Animals moved to Rough Trade, the band released a colorful pop-oriented long player under the title Hey Venus! (2007) In two years, the musicians came up with another studio work, Dark Days/Light Years.