For the next Super Furry Animals album, the pop experimentalists are giving up words and going instrumental, front-man Gruff Rhys revealed over the holiday weekend. "Weve been working on an instrumental record for almost two years now, Rhys told BBC 6 Music. "So were ploughing ahead with that and weve got 24 hours of recorded music.
While the bands 2000 full-length, Mwng, was entirely sung in their native Welsh, the as-yet-untitled new album their eighth would be the Furries first minus lyrics. Instead of vocals, Rhys said the band have been filling in the gaps with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra, who have been brought on board for the project.
"We did a session with the BBC Concert Orchestra, but with core members of it six or seven musicians helping to develop ideas that we can use and then adapt to a larger orchestra in future, Rhys said. "Its a case of editing it and getting it to under an hour, or some palatable size.
"We dont really want to re-record the same album over and over again, Rhys added. "I think in the Super Furry Animals were always into melody, except this time we can mess about with the texture if we havent got any lyrics to get in the way.
"We work instinctively so we like being able to whistle ideas at each other, and by working with a small group of orchestral musicians we can shout ideas at them and whistle stuff as we go on. Then we can arrange the stuff weve made by whistling and humming ideas for a larger group of musicians.
Rhys did not provide any hints of when we could expect the new instrumental album but considering the Super Furry Animals have apparently been at it for a good two years now, were hoping the end is near.
Super Furry Animals "The Gift That Keep Giving
While the bands 2000 full-length, Mwng, was entirely sung in their native Welsh, the as-yet-untitled new album their eighth would be the Furries first minus lyrics. Instead of vocals, Rhys said the band have been filling in the gaps with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra, who have been brought on board for the project.
"We did a session with the BBC Concert Orchestra, but with core members of it six or seven musicians helping to develop ideas that we can use and then adapt to a larger orchestra in future, Rhys said. "Its a case of editing it and getting it to under an hour, or some palatable size.
"We dont really want to re-record the same album over and over again, Rhys added. "I think in the Super Furry Animals were always into melody, except this time we can mess about with the texture if we havent got any lyrics to get in the way.
"We work instinctively so we like being able to whistle ideas at each other, and by working with a small group of orchestral musicians we can shout ideas at them and whistle stuff as we go on. Then we can arrange the stuff weve made by whistling and humming ideas for a larger group of musicians.
Rhys did not provide any hints of when we could expect the new instrumental album but considering the Super Furry Animals have apparently been at it for a good two years now, were hoping the end is near.
Super Furry Animals "The Gift That Keep Giving