| GRUFF RHYS - GYRRU GYRRU GYRRU Having coined his first song, 'I'm Getting Old', at the ripe old age of five, (it was the tale of a train driver contemplating his demise), wily Welsh pop warlock Gruff Rhys has since become synonymous with technicolour army tanks, fifty-foot bears, and myriad hits with bonkers techno-rockers Super Furry Animals. Now moonlighting with an ace solo dodge (and backing band), Rhys' current album, Candylion is the follow up to 2005's Welsh-language, wide-eyed wig-out, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. It's a haunting, nostalgic, bucolic wonder, whose theses straddle Patagonian Spanish, desktop publishing, and Micronesian mammals. Offering a swooning, shorn and loveable correlative to the Super Furries' bounding, bountiful psych-pop, Rhys' autonomous acid-folk grooves are adorned with raggedy rock and puckish verse and cranky guitars and toy-box electro: all of which warmly conspire to ensure that Rhys' verdant endeavours – both live and on record - continue to be met with ardour.
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