Followers of Gruff Rhys will know that Welsh language albums inherit a special place in his discography – and so it is with Dim Probs. Given the world climate it is brave to be releasing an album whose translated title is No Probs, but Gruff’s revelation that it was written at a low personal ebb shows the underlying positivity that continues to run through his music.
It is clear that Dim Probs was not made with a pillow over its head, nor with fingers stuck in its ears. The ironic title gives Rhys licence to work wonders with songs like ‘Taro #1 + #2’, where the former Super Furry Animals singer addresses death. A seemingly routine verse, rich with FM rock possibilities, unexpectedly cuts to a chorus where Gavin Fitzjohn’s saxophone…
Tag Archive: Gruff Rhys
Legend has it that a Welsh prince called Madoc discovered the Americas in 1170, some three hundred years prior to Christopher Columbus. Legend also says Madoc and his men mated with Native Americans, thereby creating a Welsh Indian tribe whose existence belongs to myth.
Such a tale is ideal for Gruff Rhys, the Welsh psychedelic pop artist who has specialized in eccentricity from his very first recording with Super Furry Animals. American Interior captures Rhys’ own attempt to retrace the footsteps of explorer John Evans, who set out in the 1790s to find the lost Welsh-speaking tribe. Evans didn’t find the tribe and for Rhys the journey itself is the destination, a journey he chronicled in a film, in a book, and in this concept album.