Gruff Rhys


YR ATAL	MWNG	CANDYLION	HEY VENUS

Gruff Rhys and Lisa Jen at the Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR

Sunday night, Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Lisa Jen (9Bach) sat down on a small stage in two chairs, side by side, before a very lucky audience. A table set before them was heaped, as is Rhys' practice, with many interesting things. They made splendid and transcendent sound.

Lisa Jen's voice is amazing: clear and pure and strong, singing with Rhys or alone, acappella, in a beautiful ballad in Welsh. Rhys seemed so very comfortable and at home on stage, his every movement and statement smooth and fitting. Jen left the stage for a portion of the show, leaving Rhys to perform alone and banter comfortably with the crowd, taking requests. He declined a request to do a Super Furry Animals song, saying that he couldn't do it without his "brothers," but then said he would be back to Portland with the band in February.

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Rhys and Jen performed in English, Welsh and Spanish, mostly dreamy and wonderfully surreal, instrumental songs from Rhys' "Candylion", including "The Court of King Arthur," "Cycle of Violence," "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru" (which Rhys said means "driving, driving, driving" for those of us not fortunate enough to speak Welsh), "Lonesome Words" and "Skylon," a great and demented ballad for which they each wore flotation vests and Jen gave a great impression of an airline flight safety lecture. At one point, Rhys created a kind of harmonic round with himself, laying down a track of his own breathing in rhythmic pants and following that with track after track of vocalizations and instrumental sounds created with the objects on the table (including a plastic hose swung through the air like a didgereedoo). The final result was an absolutely amazing, overwhelming hurricane of sound that first stunned and then incited the crowd into furious applause.

In an introduction to one song, Rhys promised we would be transported to the rain forest and we were, complete with bird and insect song, all for only $12.00. He promised we'd be back for work the next day and, sadly, we were.

LINKS

Candylion Official 'Candylion' promo site. Lots of good stuff ...reviews, lyrics, tour dates etc.

Candylionmusic A MySpace site with more good stuff.

Superfurry.org The Jonathan Ross Interview in which Gruff says "aye" a lot and not much else.

BBC Wales Reviews, quotes, biography....and much more BBC goodness.

9Bach The website of Lisa Jen's band 9Bach....hear all 4 tracks from their recent single "Pontypridd".