Pang!
Pang! is a pop album in Welsh with a couple of verses of Zulu and an English title. Pang! developed unexpectedly over the course of about 18 months and is a solo album of songs by Gruff Rhys, produced & mixed by the South African electronic artist Muzi and recorded in Cardiff, Wales. The title track features drums by Welsh-American psychedelic warlord Kliph Scurlock, brass by Gavin Fitzjohn, flute and percussion by the engineer Kris Jenkins, beats, bass & ah’s by Muzi and of course Gruff Rhys on vocals and guitar. Gruff shared some info on the title track: “Pang!” is a Welsh language song with an English title. It started life as a folk reel and soon expanded into a ‘list’ song, listing various reasons for pangs; hunger, regret, twitter, pain, bad design etc. Using the English word pang in a Welsh language track may appear weird but I suppose it’s like using the French word ‘Magazine’ in an English song. In that it’s slightly pretentious but completely acceptable.
Ask your friends if they know any Welsh, and they might stare blankly at you or assume you're talking about a certain jelly manufacturer. Play them an album with Welsh lyrics and you're liable to blow their minds.
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While Super Furry Animals remain on pause, Gruff Rhys is back with another solo record – Pang!, produced by South African electronic artist Muzi
Pang!, Gruff Rhys’ sixth collection, comes fourteen years since his first, rendering his span of solo albums now longer than that of the Super Furry Animals.
Sung in Welsh, produced by South African artist Muzi, Rhys’s latest is a chamber folk-rock minor masterpiece