As part of his tour in support of his fifth solo album, Babelsberg, Now.Wave presented Gruff
Rhys’ latest dates on the tour (he performs again on the 16th September) at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. Rhys, better known
as a member of the Welsh neo-psychedelic band Super Furry Animals but also
collaborator with electronic musician Boom Bip with their venture Neon Neon,
presented an evening of two halves: the first featured Rhys (later joined by
his touring band) performing an “encore” (as Rhys himself explained, “We
couldn’t come on after the
orchestra!”) drawing upon works from his previous solo albums, and a rendition of
a Super Furry Animals non-album track, while the second half brought the
Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra onto the stage to provide backing for a full
performance of the Babelsberg album.
As the audience entered the performance hall, a DJ (Andy
Votel) was playing electronic music and some “deep cuts” of instrumental or
unusual covers on two turntables. When the time came for Rhys to enter onto the
stage, Votel left and Rhys walked on to a reworking of Strauss’ ‘Also sprach
Zarathustra’ before launching into four songs which he performed solo (save for
the squeaking sound of birdsong played via a vinyl record for the second and
third songs), the first three of which were in Welsh; Rhys has never shied away
from recording songs in his native tongue (even in his days with the Super Furry
Animals, they released an entirely Welsh-language record called ‘Mwng’) before
switching to English for a heart-tugging rendition of ‘If We Were Words (We
Would Rhyme)’ (taken from his third solo album Hotel Shampoo). Rhys switched on a metronome to create percussion
and played along to the ticking of it; this stripped back arrangement helped to
highlight the sense of fragility inherent in the lyrics. From here, Rhys was
joined by band member Osian Gwynedd who provided an ambient drone on the organ
at the back of the performance area for his performance of ‘Colonise the Moon’
(B-side to the Super Furry Animals song ‘Lazer Beam’ from 2005). During the
song, as Rhys sang ‘I vomited throughout your saxophone solo,’ his touring band
guitarist emerged onto the stage to play a maudlin saxophone solo, befitting
the cold, remote tenor of the song. The rest of the band then joined Rhys
onstage as they launched into the Welsh language ‘Y Gwybodusion’ from Rhys’
first, entirely Welsh language, solo album. Rhys then switched back to English
for ‘Sensations in the Dark’ which, like virtually all the songs from this
point on, was kicked off by drummer Kilph Scurlock yelling ‘One, two, three,
four!’ and really going for the drums, which were mixed a tad too loudly throughout
the course of the performance. During a flute solo (played by the band
guitarist), Rhys put down his guitar to hold up a board which said ‘Applause’,
with the audience duly providing it! A very James Bond-esque musical theme
haunted a blistering performance of ‘American Interior’ (from the album of the
same name) complete with a smoking electric guitar solo. The ‘encore’ section
ended with the rousing song ‘Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru’ from the Candylion album which climaxed with a quickening tempo and frantic drum
solo as Rhys held up a board saying ‘Back in 10 mins’ while Scurlock proceeded
to hammer out an extended solo while Volter set up his decks to provide music
during the brief intermission.
The Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra took their place onstage
as Volter left with his decks as the second half of the performance was due to
begin. They performed an ‘Overture’ of the orchestral parts of the Babelsberg album, an album which recalls
the early solo work of Scott Walker and Love’s 1968 orchestral-rock masterwork Forever Changes. Rhys and his tour band
emerged onto the stage, with Rhys holding up a board announcing they were
performing Bablesberg, Side 1 and the
ensemble launched into the album’s opening track, ‘Frontier Man.’ This song,
like the next (‘The Club’), suffered from Rhys’ vocals being buried by the
orchestra on one side and Scurlock’s drums on the other in the sound mix, a
fact which Rhys himself was aware of, as his hand gestures to his tech crew
indicated. Fortunately, the issue was addressed for the next song, ‘Oh Dear!’
whose horn arrangement was reminiscent of the song ‘Alone Again Or’ by Love. Recent
single, ‘Limited Edition Heart,’ arguably one of the most gorgeous, poppy,
songs Rhys has written, sounded glorious with the live orchestra. ‘Take That
Call’ again benefitted from the live orchestra with the string arrangement recalling
the strings on The Beatles classic ‘Eleanor Rigby.’ The band then left the
stage so Rhys could perform with just the orchestra for ‘Drones in the City’
which soared as high as the titular drones do!
The band soon re-joined as Rhys held the sign indicating we
were now into ‘Side 2’ of the album with ‘Negative Vibes’, which, despite its
title, is actually quite a positive, optimistic song. Here, the song commenced
with Rhys and the band with the orchestra not coming in until halfway through.
It was a similar set-up with the following song, ‘Same Old Song,’ with its Leonard
Cohen-esque feel to it. Ennio Morricone, however, sounded like the inspiration
to the orchestral arrangement on ‘Architecture of Amnesia,’ with its cinematic
sweep. Album closer ‘Selfies in the Sunset’ brought a sense of serenity to the
night before the band and orchestra launched into the non-album song ‘Harvest
the Pixels’ which, of all the songs performed, sounded closest in tone to the
orchestral-chamber pop mood of the 1960s recordings Bablesberg was influenced by. The orchestra’s strings and horns galloped
along with a suitably groovy mood and two audience members took to the stage to
dance along. As the song ended and audience members took to their feet to
deliver a standing ovation, Rhys held up a final board which stated, ‘The End.’
Both halves of the performance presented wonderful songs,
impeccably performed. The only drawback was with the sound mix, where the drums
were too loud. The tech crew did the best they could but there were moments,
especially during the opening of the second half, where Rhys’ vocals were just
overpowered. Hopefully this issue will be resolved for the second performance
and the audience are treated to a superb live rendition of a wonderful album
and interesting songs from Rhys’ extensive back catalogue.
Reviewer - Andrew Marsden
on - 15/9/18
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