The sound of Super Furry Animals arguably hitting the peak of their powers, a whole six albums into a career that started in the heat of mid-nineties Creation Records excess and moved through conceptual and contractual gears to reach new highs of off-kilter-pop majesty, the band’s glorious 2003, 14-Track album, Phantom Power is announced for reissue in sparkling, remastered form on Fri 8 September 2023 via BMG Records.
Re-emerging on double heavyweight vinyl, as well as deluxe CD and high-definition digital formats, the album that gifted the world Hello Sunshine, Golden Retriever, Slow Life and more returns to reopen the never-quite-concluded debate on which, out of their nine albums to date, stands up as the best of all.
If the Furries’ nineties were defined by some as the era of tank purchases and world record-beating recordings containing the most sung profanities, then the post-millennial era found the band working at pace to pass creative milestones and achieve musical ambitions. It was the residual effects of their big budget, major label indulgence in recording its unashamedly pop predecessor, Rings Around The World (2001) and the touring demands that followed which meant that Phantom Power’s warmth and vitality arrived via a jigsaw puzzle resolved with patient contemplation.
Sparing gloss was applied as necessary between Rockfield and Monnow Valley Studios in Sir Fynwy/Monmouthshire as the band self-produced the record in the company of long-standing producer/collaborator Gorwel Owen, as well as Mogwai and Belle and Sebastian producer Tony Doogan. However, the finish across the album as a whole was purposely burnished by a combined approach of DIY recording as the band established their own AV Happenings studio at Cardiff Docks and enlisted Beastie Boys’ producer, Mario Caldato Jnr to add bite to the record in closing sessions in Elephant and Castle, London. Rarely seen ‘executive producer’, Kurt Stern returns to the fold in 2023 to provide the reissue’s sleeve notes.
Critically acclaimed, yet no less confounding for some commentators as the Furries scribbled over the accepted lines of genre boundaries for a sixth time, Phantom Power’s cultural significance was further deepened as the band were revealed to the press as yeti/dog hybrids for the Golden Retriever promotional video. Collaborating with hair designer and video director Peter Gray, the tailor-made suits followed the band right through to their most recent tour in 2016 as encore stage costumes, as well as strands of original fur being embedded in vinyl copies of their 2019 Super Furry Animals at The BBC box set.
Yielding some of Super Furry Animals’ most saleable songs, advertisers and television makers put in calls to try and use many of Phantom Power’s richly melodic, heart-filling songs. Bleed Forever scrolls through on the closing credits for 2010’s biographical take on Facebook’s creation, The Social Network, while US teen drama, The OC, soundtracked a tender kissing scene with Hello Sunshine. Coca-Cola’s well-reported attempt to adopt Hello Sunshine for a global advertising campaign with a multi-million-pound offer was rejected by the Furries.
Unimpressed with the initial approach anyway, band members Gruff Rhys and Guto Pryce, later visited Bogota to witness, first-hand, the effects of Colombian paramilitaries reportedly working on behalf of the manufacturer’s local franchisees to violently put down workers’ rights movements.
With band archivist, Kliph Scurlock, reprising his role as tape detective and collaborator with the band on compiling unheard mixes, demos and out-takes, Phantom Power’s impressive remastering was undertaken by Donal Whelan at Hafod Mastering. Taking care to preserve the glory of the main album’s track listing, including the intricacies of a range of samples taken from a job-lot of vinyl records featuring incidental TV and film music bought by Cian Ciarán, as well as the raft of unheard song versions, the reissue assures fans old and new of an enhanced listening experience for tracks they know well and the many yet to be revealed.
A band statement ahead of the release says:
“We’ve heard test pressings of the vinyl reissue of Phantom Power and our minds, now well-worn and occasionally more cynical, were completely blown. Isn’t everything amazing these days? Well, in this instance it’s true, this remastered version is amazing. When it comes to rarities, everything’s here for completists but everything here is worth listening to, as much as for what the songs became but for what they were at the time. Come back in time with us again.”
With updated packaging featuring the original illustrations by Pete Fowler and designed by Mark James, the full track listing for the 2023 reissue of Phantom Power is as follows:
Double Vinyl & CD 1
1. Hello Sunshine
2. Liberty Belle
3. Golden Retriever
4. Sex, War & Robots
5. The Piccolo Snare
6. Venus & Serena
7. Father Father #1
8. Bleed Forever
9. Out of Control
10. Cityscape Skybaby
11. Father Father #2
12. Valet Parking
13. The Undefeated
14. Slow Life
CD 2
1. Father Father #3
2. Summer Snow
3. Blue Fruit
4. Cowbird
5. Sanitizzzed
6. Motherfokker feat. Goldie Lookin Chain
7. Lost Control
8. The Man Don’t Give A Fuck (Live)
CD 3
1. Father Father*
2. Hello Sunshine*
3. Aluminium Illuminati
4. Cabbages (retitled Cityscape Skybaby)*
5. Golden Retriever*
6. Hummingbird (retitled Cloudberries)*
7. Billy’s Gone (retitled Out Of Control)*
8. Head First (retitled Paddling Pools)*
9. No Go (retitled Summer Snow)*
10. Father Father*
11. Sex, War & Robots**
12. Bluebird 1**
13. Bluebird 2**
14. Bluebird 3**
15. Bluebird 4**
16. Walk You Home**
17. The Undefeated**
18. Every Building Has Been Built**
19. Blue Fruit**
20. Valet Parking**
21. Valet Parking***
22. Out Of Control ***
23. Paddling Pools***
24. Miami Vice***
25. Slow Life***
*Stiwdio Ofn Demo, Gwanwyn 2002
**AV Happenings Demo, Chwefror 2002
***Rockfield Rough Mix, Mai 2002
The Super Furry Animals were and remain the multi-instrumental Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan, Guto Pryce and Gruff Rhys.
Release Information:
Super Furry Animals: Phantom Power (20th Anniversary Reissue – Remastered)
Release Date: Fri 8 September 2023
Formats: 2LP Heavyweight black vinyl with die-cut sleeve/ 3CD Digipack / HD Digital
Label: BMG
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