{"id":10632,"date":"2026-04-30T09:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/super-furry-animals-precreation-percolation-reviewed-entertaining-origin-story-of-the-returning-welsh-vagabonds-154442\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:36:20","slug":"super-furry-animals-precreation-percolation-reviewed-entertaining-origin-story-of-the-returning-welsh-vagabonds-154442","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/super-furry-animals-precreation-percolation-reviewed-entertaining-origin-story-of-the-returning-welsh-vagabonds-154442\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Furry Animals\u2019 Precreation Percolation reviewed: entertaining origin story of the returning Welsh vagabonds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heavy Stereo, Hurricane #1, Arnold, Kevin Rowland in suspenders\u2026 it\u2019s generally accepted that Creation Records did not invest their Oasis windfall wisely. Yet amid the frenzy of the mid-\u201990s guitar-band goldrush, they did make one very shrewd acquisition, swooping in to sign Super Furry Animals after only the band\u2019s second show proper outside Wales \u2013 even if Alan McGee subsequently let slip that this may have been more a case of luck than judgement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Heavy Stereo, Hurricane #1, Arnold, Kevin Rowland in suspenders\u2026 it\u2019s generally accepted that Creation Records did not invest their Oasis windfall wisely. Yet amid the frenzy of the mid-\u201990s guitar-band goldrush, they did make one very shrewd acquisition, swooping in to sign Super Furry Animals after only the band\u2019s second show proper outside Wales \u2013 even if Alan McGee subsequently let slip that this may have been more a case of luck than judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially I just heard Super Furry Animals as being similar to Blur,\u201d McGee told SFA biographer Ric Rawlins. \u201cSo I thought, \u2018Well, fuck! Blur sell lots of records, I could have my version!\u2019 Little did I know that I was signing The Beach Boys meets fucking Gong meets Isaac Hayes on a fucking acid trip.\u201d Perhaps McGee was too busy test-driving Rolls Royces to give it his full attention, but the clues were certainly there. Although they were still in their infancy as a live band, by the time the Furries threw in their lot with Creation, they\u2019d already recorded a wealth of brilliant, fizzing, haywire pop songs \u2013 including a couple of future Top 40 singles \u2013 all of which are collected on this comprehensive early years round-up.<\/p>\n

Disc One comprises the two four-track EPs the band released in 1995 on venerable Welsh indie Ankst Records. Displaying a budding talent for myth and mischief that would soon find them befriending an international drug smuggler and rocking up to festivals in a tank, \u201cLlanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod (In Space)\u201d was declared to have broken the world record for the longest EP title ever. Recorded cheaply but inventively at Gorwel Owen\u2019s Stiwdio Ofn on Anglesey, it contains all the elements that would come to define SFA as a vital force in British music, dragging the centre of gravity away from London.<\/p>\n

The harmonica-driven glam stomp of opening track \u201cOrgan Yn Dy Geg\u201d may exist primarily as an excuse for a ribald joke (the title literally translates as \u201cOrgan In My Mouth\u201d), but the band were quick to establish a unique MO that allowed such japery to co-exist alongside pointed political messaging and a deep sense of cosmic yearning. The layered \u201cba-ba-ba\u201ds and sly key changes of \u201cFix Idris\u201d \u2013 while also inescapably reminiscent of the theme tune to Jim\u2019ll Fix It \u2013 reveal a band keenly studying Brian Wilson\u2019s blueprint for transcendence, while \u201cBlerwytirhwng?\u201d is a gorgeous existential strum that ends with a cacophony of filter sweeps and general mayhem.<\/p>\n

Follow-up EP \u201cMoog Droog\u201d contained Super Furry Animals\u2019 first truly great song, the irresistible \u201cGod! Show Me Magic\u201d. Later beefed up for debut album Fuzzy Logic, it\u2019s two minutes of\u00a0 rollicking power-pop boogie that proved they could be gleefully sardonic in two languages. Again, its insouciance was offset by the shimmering, questing \u201cPam V?\u201d and the unexpectedly moving \u201cSali Mali\u201d, named after a popular Welsh children\u2019s character, but whose English translation reveals it to be a love ballad of epic proportions (\u201cWhen the sky comes down\/I want to be with you\u201d).<\/p>\n

Disc Two delves even further back into the SFA timeline to unearth four tracks recorded with the band\u2019s original frontman, actor Rhys Ifans. The best of these is a nifty little psychedelic shuffle called \u201cPocket Sam\u201d, on which Ifans sounds not unlike Julian Cope circa Peggy Suicide. No doubt the future \/\/Notting Hill\/\/ star would have made for an exemplary rockstar, but you can already hear his relatively conventional glam-punk growl beginning to chafe against the band\u2019s whimsical harmonies. Ultimately it was to everyone\u2019s benefit that he chose to pursue a different path to fame, allowing Gruff Rhys\u2019s more idiosyncratic talents to blossom.<\/p>\n

Amid some intriguing electronic doodles that nod to SFA\u2019s origins on the illegal rave scene \u2013 \u201cTrk05b\u201d is suitably Aphex-ish \u2013 probably the most notable new find here is an embryonic 1993 version of \u201cThe Man Don\u2019t Give A Fuck\u201d. They are yet to build a full song around it, but the idea of looping that famously sweary snippet of Steely Dan\u2019s \u201cShow Biz Kids\u201d into a euphoric anti-establishment mantra already sounds like a potent one.<\/p>\n

Precreation Percolation is nicely timed to ramp up excitement for SFA\u2019s upcoming reunion shows, and bassist Guto Pryce reveals that they\u2019re currently blowing the cobwebs off some of these early numbers for potential inclusion in the setlist. For all the charm of Rhys\u2019s various solo endeavours, or the more back-to-basics swagger of Das Koolies (aka the other four), Super Furry Animals are evidently stronger together. Let\u2019s hope their latest reunion jaunt includes a detour to the studio.<\/p>\n

EXTRAS 6\/10: Digital editions of the album contain a whole additional stash of demos, mostly instrumental sketches of songs that would end up on Fuzzy Logic. These are largely for completists only, but there is a eureka moment when a series of meandering synth bloops suddenly coalesce into the poignant, unmistakable melody of \u201cSome Things Come From Nothing\u201d from 1999\u2019s Guerilla, suggesting that the band were already thinking three albums ahead.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Super Furry Animals\u2019 Precreation Percolation reviewed: entertaining origin story of the returning Welsh vagabonds<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Heavy Stereo, Hurricane #1, Arnold, Kevin Rowland in suspenders\u2026 it\u2019s generally accepted that Creation Records did not invest their Oasis windfall wisely. Yet amid the frenzy of the mid-\u201990s guitar-band…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88,3947],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","category-super-furry-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}