With Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys seemingly hitting the best form of an already outstanding career, the bar has been pretty high for any other Furries looking to leap into pastures new. Not that this should unduly worry Gulp – SFA bassist Guto Pryce and bandmates Lindsey Leven and Gid Goundrey – their 2014 debut, Season Sun, was a gorgeous summer haze of an album, all dreams and driftwood. After a four-year gap, however, could they replicate the success?
The short answer is yes. Yes, they can. But that seems a little perfunctory, so I suppose I’d better drill down on detail. Much has been made of the words ‘krautrock’ and ‘psychedelic’ when talking about their inventive and immersive take on pop music – I can see why – but this quietly confident collection seems to draw on more than these limited spheres.
There is certainly a nod to the work of the wave of British artists for whom Krautrock was a defining influence, the melodic scope of early Ultravox and the synth-scape of The Human League dominate “Morning Velvet Sky”, but there’s much that seems steeped in beautifully realised and expansively playful folk tropes. The title track has echoes of both early and late-period Clannad – a neat trick to pull off – while “Claudia”, “I Dream of Your Song” and “Watching Ships” have a distinctly bucolic feel. The latter, at just over a minute, also provides a too-short reminder of the heart-aching impact of simplicity, a trick that hasn’t been quite so well repeated since Spacemen 3.
Closer “Silver Tides” gives an irresistible hint of what may be to come , combining the unadulterated pop nous of Euythmics’ In the Garden (produced by Conny Plank Krautrock nerds) and the fierce, unadulterated experimentalism of Silver Apples.
Of course, these descriptions are mere touchstones, easy shared points of reference to give you a sense of what lies in store. The best suggestion, however, is to fill up your glass and gulp deep.
