VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Despite the Lennon-aping antics of their peers, Wales’s Super Furry Animals were the closest Britpop came to the adventuring spirit of the Beatles. Their indie rock, psychedelic pop, dance, country, glam, and space-folk mashup was as pioneering as their aesthetic was madcap … These homecoming gods showed us the old magic.” —The Guardian
The madness and the majesty of Super Furry Animals’ chaotic emergence as an indefinable, thrillingly exciting addition to the innovative margins of mainstream rock and roll is irresistibly encapsulated in the US reissue of their 1996 debut album, Fuzzy Logic for Record Store Day 2017 on Saturday April 22nd via Everloving Records. From the two-decade deep well of their adventurous catalogue come B-sides, a legendary festival performance, and demo versions from low-key 1995 recording sessions, revealing the genesis and winding roads taken by many of their early hits.
Super Furry Animals are composed of Huw Bunford (Guitar/Vocals), Cian Ciaran (Keyboards/Effects/Vocals), Dafydd Ieuan (Drums/Vocals), Guto Pryce (Bass), and Gruff Rhys (Vocals/Guitar). This is the original lineup that burst onto the music scene in 1995 with the release of their first EP “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (In Space).” They were quickly recognized as being amongst the most interesting and inventive bands of the ‘90s British music boom and a string of lauded albums. Renowned for an energetic and exhilarating live show, the band has become synonymous with their native Wales and are considered a bona fide national treasure.
The significance of the reissue and the forensic remastering process was heightened as the band learned of the tapes’ near destruction in a storage fire sometime between the original Rockfield Studio sessions in late 1995 and their retrieval in 2016. Official Furries Archivist and Co-Compiler, Kliph Scurlock dusted off the smoke-tinged reels and led a fingertip search for each and every track, working with Mastering Engineer, Donal Whelan to unpeel layers of primitive, mid-nineties digitization, correct subtly corrupt edits, and expose the warmth and ingenuity of the original, analogue recordings in superior, high-resolution.
Gruff Rhys says: “The reissue is radically different to the original, some songs have alternative beginnings and endings and people will notice the difference in definition, especially in high-resolution digital and the new vinyl cut. 1995/6 was an overwhelming whirlwind of touring, gimmickry and mayhem for us so it’s been a real treat to take some time to relive and reassess all these songs and compile everything that we recorded in that short, magical period in one place. In the unfamiliar environment of a big studio, Fuzzy Logic didn’t end up sounding anything like what we’d had in our heads for those years of songwriting building up to it, but it does have that undefinable vigor and energy of youth which isn’t included in the price of hiring a multitrack studio.”
Super Furry Animals spent six weeks in Rockfield Studios, South Wales completing the album, which was then released on Creation Records in May of 1996, climbing to 23 in the UK charts. The productivity of the time is evident in a separate collection of eight rock-solid b- sides, including the boisterous, fan favorite, “Guacamole,” creating parallels with bands such as The Beatles, The Smiths, and The Jam, all renowned for the songs on the flipside being of the same, unquestionable quality as the lead.
