- '5 to:
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programme,’ says Rhys. Erm, what’s that then? ‘It‘sAechnology where.you a‘Ctually film sounds— you’ll be able to see‘the sounds and — every time something gets played it triggers off an image. And we’ll be able to use a let Of the films we made for the DVD as well.’
Ah yes, the DVD. Another example of Super Furies technophile tendencies is their new album, the band’s fifth. Released simultaneously on DVD, the album has been mifed in 5.1 Surround Sound, has a video for every song, and also contains a remix album, extra footage, extra uacks and a CD-ROM section.
‘We uied to make a film for our album Guerrilla, a couple of years ago but it fell apart,’ explains Rhys. ‘We still had the idea in the back of our heads, so we gave out all the songs to difierent directors, very few of whom have ever directed a film before. We asked quite a lot of website designers, artists, animators and people that normally do projections.
‘I think we’ve managed to avoid formulaic music videos,’ he continues at a snail’s pace. ‘It’s just a mess of informal information, animhtion: text and film. So much money in video- making goes on the catering, but these were made on the cheap, so it was pure creativity. 'It’s similar to the album in that you don’t know what you’re going to get next.’
The album is, indeed, a breathtakingly ambitious effort, and the best thing the band have ever released. Ranging from cyber- country to Beach Boys pop to nosebleed techno and beyond, it
I
sees the Super Furries at thg peak of their inventive powers. Ch,
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and it’s got Paul McCartney chewing celery on it.
‘It’s diverse but it’s probably our most accessible album as well} says Rhys. ‘We really wanted a cinematic feel to the record, but I suppose the extremes are more extreme, whether
it’s extremely happy, extremely down or _,
extremely hard. It’s sort of soft, strong, and very, very long.’ -
Eh? Anyhow, ,what’s this Paul
McCartney thing all about? ‘Yeah, he’s chewing celery,’ Rhys confirms. ‘Well, we didn’t want his voice on it, did we?’ It’s the best thing he’s done for years. It’s not the first time the lads have collaborated with Mr Frog Chorus. Last year saw the Super Furn'es take part in McCartney’s Liverpool Sound Collage project, a weird meld of art, music and documentary.
‘It was surreal,’ says Rhys of their meeting, which is rich coming from this lot. ‘Cian [Ciaran, SFA keyboard player] met him in the toilet and said: “Give us a remix”. The following week he sent us a load of old Beatles mastertapes, boxes of them. We just sat around looking at these old, dusty boxes. It’s an interesting twist in life.’
This is exactly the sort of thing that happens to Super Furry Animals. God alone knows what they’ll get up to next, but for now let’s just thank our lucky stars they’re in town.
The Furrymania weekend in Glasgow starts 'with a screening at Glasgow Film Theatre and club night at Renfrew Ferry on Fri 22 Jun and ends with a concert at Barrowlands, Sat 23 Jun.
21 Jun—5 Jul 2W1“. [m 15
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