SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A guest series by The Robster

#2: Moog Droog (1995, Ankst Records, ANKST062)

Not ones to rest on their laurels, Super Furry Animals spent the summer of 1995 either gigging to promote their debut EP or in the studio. Just four months after that absurdly-titled initial offering, another 7” EP was unleashed into the wilds of record store land.

As would become a common theme, the title was a play on words, incorporating both Welsh and English. Wikipedia explains it rather well:

‘Moog Droog’ is an ironic anglicised spelling of the Welsh phrase mwg drwg (“bad smoke”), slang for marijuana, making a pun on the Moog synthesizer (and/or its inventor) and the slang word “droog” (based on the Russian for “friend”) from A Clockwork Orange. The letter w can be a vowel in Welsh, and in phrase mwg drwg it is pronounced approximately like the English oo in “zoo” or “too” (although the name Moog is more correctly pronounced /ˈmoʊɡ/, rhyming with vogue).

mp3: pamV? (trans: Why Me?)
mp3: God! Show Me Magic
mp3: Sali Mali
mp3: Focus Pocus/Debiel

Opening track pamV has always been one I’ve loved, yet it has always been overlooked by the band on their numerous compilations in favour of the closer. I don’t really get why, but who am I to argue. The title is another example of the band’s love of word play. The phrase ‘pam fi’ means ‘why me’, the Welsh for ‘me’ being ‘fi’ – the letter v doesn’t exist in Welsh, instead a single f is pronounced like an English v.

Track two is the first recorded example of the band singing in English. They had increasingly been performing English language songs in their set, much to the derision of the Welsh-language media. The band didn’t care – they wanted to increase their fan base, and they could only do that by venturing across the border and allowing new audiences into their lyrical world. From Wiki again:

After gigging in London in late 1995, they were noticed by Creation Records boss Alan McGee. The band have said that having watched their gig, McGee asked them if they could sing in English rather than Welsh in future shows. In fact, by this stage they were singing in English, but McGee did not realise because their Welsh accents were so strong. Super Furry Animals received some criticism in the Welsh media for singing in English, something which the band felt “completely pissed” about. According to drummer Dafydd Ieuan: “It all started when we played this festival in West Wales, and for some reason the Welsh media started foaming at the mouth because we were singing songs in Welsh and English. But they get The Dubliners playing, and they do not sing in Irish. It’s ridiculous.”

God! Show Me Magic was re-recorded the following year as the opener on the debut album.

Sali Mali is a character in a series of children’s books, later made into a TV show. Many Welsh-speaking children learned to read through Sali Mali books. The song showed a different side to the Furries, being slower and more melodic than much of their previous material.

The final track is intriguing. It has two distinct sections – the first, a chaotic punkish blast with a flute solo in the middle. The second a more laid-back, keyboard-led coda, ending as it does with repeated la-la-las. In terms of its titles – I’m not entirely sure about this, but Focus Pocus appears to be a reference to Dutch prog band Focus and their massive #1 hit Hocus Pocus, while Debiel is Dutch for moron. Interestingly, moron is the Welsh word for carrot…

Moog Droog was released in October 1995 on 7” and CD. Its artwork was a variation of the same picture used on the Llanfair… EP. Also, curiously, it lists the band members on the back alongside pictures of gorillas. Only four members are listed – Cian is missing, which is odd as I was certain he had joined the band before the first EP. Maybe he just didn’t want to be shown as an ape… Like its predecessor, Moog Droog was re-issued on both formats a couple of years later with new artwork. On one of those two occasions, it zoomed up the charts to number 163.

Before the year was out, the band recorded two sets of demos. The first, back in June, with the second around the time of Moog Droog’s release. Many of the songs recorded in these sessions would appear fully formed on the debut album ‘Fuzzy Logic’ the following year. They also signed for the aforementioned Creation label who, in December 1995, and probably keen to start letting the media know about their new acquisition, issued a one-sided promo 12” featuring one of those demos.

mp3: Frisbee [demo]

All those demos were released as part of the 3xCD 20th Anniversary deluxe edition of ‘Fuzzy Logic’ in 2016. I’ll return to them over the next few weeks.

Britpop was beginning to suffer under the weight of its own obnoxiousness and excess. Did we really need another new band in 1997? Hell yeah, we did, and as we’ll find out in the coming weeks, Super Furry Animals were the perfect antidote.

The Robster