Gruff Rhys soundtracks Whale Trail

In a Bobbysix first, 25ThC reviews an iphone app! Very 21st Century. Before you cynically suggest we are being sponsored to write about it, shut your face. We're not. We were actually drawn to it because its accompanying sounds are created by one of our heroes...

This colourful and beautifully animated game for the iphone is a crazily addictive affair and I literally have not been able to stop playing it in every free minute since I bought it at the bargain price of 69p.

The premise is to pilot Willow the Whale as he flies through the sky collecting multicoloured bubbles and stars whilst avoiding the dark black clouds which serve to electrocute him. Once Willow has collected 7 stars he enters the frenzy mode for a short time which attracts all surrounding bubbles to him and also allows him to fly through the clouds, zapping them as he goes. The game is controlled very simply with one finger, and a press of the screen causes Willow to fly up and - if held - do a loop the loop. The purpose is also simple - stay alive as long as possible and score as many points as you can. The only problem is as soon as you die you want to play again and again and again to try and beat your high score. It is also part of Apple's game centre so you can pit your score against the world's best.

The game has been designed by Neil McFarland of award winning digital design studio Ustwo. Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals provides the music and the voiceover, in Welsh. He has just released the track Whale Trail as a double-A side digital and 12" vinyl backed by Space Dust from his recent album Hotel Shampoo. Neil's previous collaborations with Gruff include artwork for Super Furry Animals' Juxtaposed With You single and animations for the band's Rings Around The World and Phantom Power DVD Albums.

Buy this game now and then try and put it down!

Review by 25ThC.

Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo

Gruff Rhys might be better known as the frontman of brilliant and barmy Welsh psych-folk veterans Super Furry Animals but he is also growing quite the reputation as a solo artist. Excitingly, his third record, named after and inspired by his unfortunate habit of hoarding mini shampoo bottles and other complimentary hotel products whilst on tour, might just be his best yet.

Quintessentially Gruff Rhys, Hotel Shampoo opens with the kaleidoscopic Shark Ridden Waters, which sets the tone for the rest of the album, as a perky melody bounces along while the Welshman delivers a whimsical vocal. Next, Honey All Over cleverly contrasts a downbeat tale of failed love with plinky-plonky instrumentation and a gentle, catchy chorus. “Cos maybe she dug you/But she never loved you,” he sings softly. Spirits are lifted by Sensations in the Dark, a mariachi romp through brass, while, elsewhere, there is a cute duet with El Perro Del Mar and also subject-matter which deals with heavyweight issues such as eco politics and inequality. Of course, it’s all done in the typically leftfield way that you would expect from one of the creative forces behind Super Furry Animals, as faint touches of electronica mix with plenty of folky elements, some underplayed experimentation and lyrics that are equally fanciful and emotive.

Gruff Rhys' voice is as warm and unique as ever, as Hotel Shampoo manages offer many diverse, interesting elements while still being coherent and sounding like an album rather than a collection of songs. By the time strings soar through At The Heart Of Love at the back end of proceedings, you should have long-since fallen in love with this charming record.

Getting To Know... Gary Page

In the latest in the Getting To Know... series, singer/songwriter Gary Page emerges from the back of a tour bus to talk about making music using a hatstand and about how his life resembles Summer Heights High:

I would describe my music as simple but effective verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus with a tune you can hum. The intention is to try and express myself positively without sounding like a happy clapper.

Music makes me feel like a human being. There's nothing better than writing a song and then someone will have a connection with it, even if it's just a handful of people it makes me smile.
There's also nothing better than discovering a band and finding yourself compelled to buy their entire back catologue.

As well as being a solo artist, I play in David Ford's big band. I have, in my time, played percussion on a hatstand, a suitcase and a metal clanger as well as your more conventional percussion, guitar, keyboard, bass and mandolin. Whatever he asks me to do, within reason, I'll do it as I'm up for a challenge.

Touring is a bubble. I've been lucky to tour with people I love but I can imagine if you're stuck with people you don't get on with it could be hell. I've been to some of the most exciting cities in the UK and Ireland but only experienced it in the back of a van and a small venue. There's nothing better though than seeing smiling faces after a gig and feeling like you've been a part of it. I've also met some wonderful people and sometimes they invite you back to a random house party in Galway, Ireland! The first few days back home are truly awful but you quickly adjust back to life.

If I could only listen to three albums for the rest of my life, they would be:

Radiator - Super Furry Animals
Together Alone - Crowded House
Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion

Certainly not the coolest albums you're likely to own but they have a special place in my heart.

Aside from music, I work in an Inclusion Department (think Gumnut College in Summer Heights High and you get the idea) of a college in Sussex, England. Some of the kids I work with have troubles that make school work seem insignificant. It's rewarding though. In my short time there I have supported an autistic lad who has gone on to receive an outstanding achievement award and I've helped make a cracking rasberry cheescake with a partially sighted child who's an amazing kid. If you knew what he goes through day to day you'd never complain about your life.

To listen to some of Gary's charming music, visit his Myspace page.

Erland and The Carnival - Erland and The Carnival

Singer/guitarist Erland Cooper, The Good The Bad & The Queen’s Simon Tong and drummer David Nock from Paul McCartney’s The Fireman make up this heralded new offering from the UK.

Deriving their name from Jackson C Frank’s song, My Name is Carnival - a cover of which appears on the album - the trio play catchy, psych-freak folk with a mix of romantic and unsettling subject-matter. Lyrics and music are gleaned from bits and pieces of existing poetry and songs. Words from the likes of William Blake and Leonard Cohen are used and reworked, while Derby Ram takes from newspaper cuttings in its true story of teenager who - coaxed and filmed on camera-phones by a crowd below - jumped from the top story of a car park in an English town.

Britain has a rich tradition of bands that make slightly odd yet irrepressibly jaunty psychedelic folk music, and there are reference points aplenty here. Love Is a Killing Thing opens with the pots-and-pans instrumentation of Mystery Jets, You Don’t Have To Be Lonely has a Jim Noir-esque chorus, the aforementioned Derby Ram has a Super Furry Animals electo outro and there’s barely a song on the album that doesn’t sound a bit like The Coral. There are a few nice pace changes too, like the hushed Disturbed This Morning, with Cohen’s poetry given a pretty backdrop of acoustic guitars and horns.

Quintessentially English in its sound, Erland and The Carnival is a weird and wonderful treat, and potentially one of the best debuts from a UK band this year.

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
Dark Days/Light Years

One guesses that, if they wanted to, Super Furry Animals could fill stadiums. For 13 years they have effortlessly penned the kind of rock/pop melodies that most bands would kill for, yet have always had an edgier, playful side that sees them do what the fuck they want with flagrant disregard for commercial success. Three-minute ballads invariably have five-minute techno freakouts bolted on the end of them, some of their songs are sung exclusively in Welsh and, when Paul McCartney appeared on one of their previous albums, they chose not to have him singing, but simply crunching celery into a microphone.

And so it is no surprise that their 9th studio album, Dark Days/Light Years, is another slice of unhinged genius. Crazy Naked Girls, a six-minute pysch-jam with dance sensibilities, opens the record and Pric, a similarly sprawling effort, ends it. Twixt the two, Inaugural Trams features Nick McCarthy from Franz Ferdinand rapping in German. Like many of SFA’s ideas, it sounds ridiculous, and shouldn’t work, yet it does, brilliantly. Elsewhere, the record bursts with straightforward pop gems, like the Jim Noir-esque Where Do You Wanna Go? and the massive chorus of Helium Hearts, during which front man Gruff-Rhys’ vocal soars alongside strings.

Bouncing between beautiful, melodic pop and delightful insanity, Dark Days/Light Years is SFA’s best record since 2001’s Rings Around The World and is perfectly representative of a prolific body of work that makes them one of the most inventive and intriguing bands that Britain has ever produced.

Jim Noir - Jim Noir

Jim Noir’s quirky first album of pinky plonky, psychedelic electronica with naïve lyrics and pop sensibilities oozed charm and won plenty of plaudits, so it is no surprise that his sophomore effort – which again he played every instrument on - continues in a similar vein.

That’s not to say Jim Noir offers nothing new. Far from it. While this album does not digress hugely from its predecessor, it does show a natural musical progression and is generally lusher and more ambitious in its production. Alright demonstrates this well, with layers of electronica and vocals rounded off with a harmony which could almost have been lifted from Pet Sounds.

The leftfield, madcap and often frivolous lyrical content from his first record remains and, though sometimes his wordplay is a little banal (Good Old Vinyl is about him accidentally breaking his favourite CDs), overall the songs have a wonderful sense of sweetness and quintessential Britishness. Same Place Holiday is a good example of this, with its nostalgic tale of childhood summers spent in English resorts. Noir’s choruses are insanely catchy too; and are often the same line repeated over and over, making them almost impossible not to sing along to.

It’s all incredibly cheerful stuff; and sounds like Super Furry Animals having a big old cuddle with The Beach Boys. Yes, it’s really that cute, and deserves much more recognition that it probably will get. Both for its sense of unabated sanguinity and the quality of the music on offer here, Jim Noir is utterly irresistible.