Gruff Rhys, frontman of the mighty Welsh export Super Furry Animals and crackerjack solo artist, is back with a new album. It’s called Babelsberg, and it’s out June 8 via Rough Trade.
“I’d made a note of the name after driving past a sign when I was on tour in 2014,” Rhys says. “Cut to a few years later and the studio where I recorded the album was being knocked down just a week after I finished to make way for a ‘luxury’ apartment development. I was looking for a name that evoked the Tower of Babel — people building towers to reach an idea of heaven (but maybe creating a kind of hell — I’m an atheist by the way!) In any case I had written ‘Babelsberg’ down and when I listened to the songs together, it finally made sense why I’d done that.”
Guests on Babelsberg are as plentiful as they are esteemed. Kilph Scurlock (formerly of The Flaming Lips), Stephen Black of Sweet Baboo, and Osian Gwynedd all appear on the record, along with Stephen McNeff. McNeff’s contribution comes in the form of accompanying orchestral scores courtesy of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (a 72 piece, at that).
With the announcement of the album comes a video for “Frontier Man.” The album opener brings the unparalleled melodies we’ve come to expected from Rhys, while somehow evoking “Rhinestone Cowboy.” The video itself is sharp and witty, as Rhys imagines himself traversing rough and tumble landscapes to properly dispose of a littered plastic bottle. Watch it below.
Featured image via Beggars/Rough Trade.