Metal Detecting Shamans: Gruff Rhys - Candylion

Ronnie Parry raises a glass to our Gruff's solo gem.

There's a curiosity in Gruff Rhys's music stretching back to his formative years in the eighties. It's always spoken in enigmatic riddles, riddles of romantic and wry Pop poetry, and this aspect is an inevitable driving force behind his first solo LP.

Candylion has a quintessential colour, melody, subtletly and sparkle; an album dyed in the attractive and poetic sensibilities of prime Furries, with a lurking kind of danger and menace forming a contrary beat. Ambiguity is as much Gruff's pal as he is ours, and with his surreal humour grounded by a down to earth sensibility, he continues to be a beguiling proposition.

A mixture of humour and grim reality could adequately describe this album, were it not for the fact that, as is always the case with Gruff and co, it wouldn't be near enough. For one, there's the vocals of Lisa Jen, vocals which hum alongside Gruff in the title track with a sublime, ethereal air like they've matured together for a hundred years, and instrumental gadgetry, lyrical wizardry and downright strangeness further light up the atmosphere.

Alternative magic and humour abounds as 'The Court of King Arthur' evokes the quaint joys of metal detecting with a shaman's touch, while 'Beacon in the Dark' voyages to the depths of new oceans with a thousand happy winks. 'Gyrru, Gyrru, Gyrru' meanwhile sports the kind of Welsh language phonetics that make you fall in love with our lyrical heritage all over again, and the tight rhythms of 'Ffrwydraid yn y Ffyrfaren' - when they could meander like unwanted lovers - erupt like explosions in the sky.

Mellow jazz is something that suits Gruff like slippers, hash-pipe, and Dandy & Beano, and 'Painting People Blue' has a rarefied atmosphere to give the illusion that he's spent his entire life in esoteric American bars, drinking from officially inscribed fonts of magic, but of course that must have come in his last incarnation.

Shimmering with the smile of effortless creation, Candylion goes through the emotions of the contemporary world with an artless grace, incorporating them into the unmistakeable World of Gruff with terrific virtuosity. To say the guy's a national institution would be a fitting understatement.

© 2007 Ronnie Parry

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