| Babelsberg | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 8, 2018 | |||
| Length | 40:57 | |||
| Label | Rough Trade | |||
| Gruff Rhys chronology | ||||
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Babelsberg is the fifth studio album by Welsh musician Gruff Rhys. It was released in June 2018 under Rough Trade Records.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10 [1] |
| Metacritic | 82/100 [2] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| The Guardian | [4] |
| DIY Mag | [5] |
| MusicOMH | [6] |
| PopMatters | 8/10 [7] |
Work on Babelsberg began when producer/engineer Ali Chant contacted Rhys in early 2016. Chant's Toybox Studios were about to be demolished by property developers and he offered Rhys some studio time before this happened. Rhys had a batch of new songs, but no record label: Chant's proposal provided the motivation to finish off the lyrics.
Rhys swiftly put together a band from local musicians, comprising former Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock, pianist Osian Gwynedd and bassist Stephen Black. Over three days of recording in Bristol, the new songs were laid down live in the studio – a working method he'd been developing across the American Interior album and his soundtrack for Set Fire to the Stars . “I wanted to make a live-based record, very simple and straightforward.” [8]
“On the morning of the first recordings I had the worst migraine,” Rhys later said. “I left the building and threw up in the street. I wanted to commit to the lyrics and sing live so I think I was stressed about getting them ready to sing.” [9] The songs reflected Rhys's negative feelings about the state of the world, and after recording was completed “I sat on the songs for almost two years. I didn’t play them to anyone – the songs in their raw state reflected the gloom for me and I was worried they would age badly and seem dated.” [10]
The delay in releasing the songs was partly down to Rhys’ decision to give them some uplift by bringing in orchestral composer Stephen McNeff, with whom he'd been working on an opera about the World War I poet Hedd Wyn. “He could do all those things that are in the ’60s orchestral records I love,” said Rhys. [11] McNeff was busy with other projects and couldn't tackle Babelsberg for 18 months: in the meantime Rhys allayed his concern over the songs becoming dated by playing them once a month. He also wrote an extra song, “Selfies In The Sunset”, which was initially recorded with just Rhys on vocals before being reworked as a duet with Lily Cole.
By the time the accompaniment from the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales was recorded, “the world was still pretty bad,” [12] so Rhys felt the songs still stood up. The album's artwork was created by Uno Moralez. [13]
On 29 August 2020 Rhys released (Don’t) Welcome The Plague As A Blessing / The Babelsberg Basement Files, a vinyl-only LP for Record Store Day, featuring the original recordings of the tracks from Babelsberg, without the orchestral overdubs, in the same sequence as the finished record.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Frontier Man" | 3:35 |
| 2. | "The Club" | 4:03 |
| 3. | "Oh Dear!" | 3:16 |
| 4. | "Limited Edition Heart" | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Take That Call" | 3:42 |
| 6. | "Drones in the City" | 3:49 |
| 7. | "Negative Vibes" | 5:15 |
| 8. | "Same Old Song" | 4:09 |
| 9. | "Architecture of Amnesia" | 4:41 |
| 10. | "Selfies in the Sunset" | 4:49 |
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drift Records | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 55 | |
| Fopp | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 71 | |
| Mojo | Top 75 Albums of 2018 | 32 | |
| Rough Trade | Top 100 Albums of 2018 | 98 | |
| Uncut | Top 75 Albums of 2018 | 7 |
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums (OCC) [19] | 23 |
Super Furry Animals are a Welsh rock band formed in Cardiff in 1993. For the duration of their professional career, the band consisted of Gruff Rhys, Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran, Dafydd Ieuan. An earlier incarnation of the band featured actor Rhys Ifans on lead vocals.
Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize. He won the 2011 Welsh Music Prize for his album Hotel Shampoo, which was followed up by American Interior in 2014, accompanied by a film, a book and a mobile app. His most recent album, Seeking New Gods, was released in 2021. He is considered a figurehead of the era known as Cool Cymru.
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Drive-By Truckers are an American rock band based in Athens, Georgia. Two of five current members are originally from The Shoals region of northern Alabama and met as roommates at the University of North Alabama. The group also has roots in Richmond, Virginia.
Guerrilla is the third studio album by Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. The record was released on 14 June 1999 by Creation Records and peaked at number 10 in the UK Albums Chart. Guerrilla was conceived as a commercial 'pop' album and was produced by the band themselves, as regular producer Gorwel Owen felt exhausted after a busy schedule working for other bands. Recording took place at Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire in mid-1998 with the group experimenting with a sampler for the first time and writing a number of songs in the studio. The band tried to create a 45-minute long, immediate sounding record, and therefore chose the upbeat songs from the 25 tracks which were recorded during sessions for the album. Guerrilla was chosen as the album's title as a pun on the group's name.
Mwng is the fourth studio album by Welsh rock band the Super Furry Animals, and the first by the group to have lyrics written entirely in the Welsh language. Mwng was released on 15 May 2000 on the band's own record label, Placid Casual, following the demise of their former label, Creation. The album includes the single "Ysbeidiau Heulog", and reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart following its release—the first Welsh-language album to reach the top 20. This success led to Mwng being mentioned in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by Elfyn Llwyd, who described the record as a celebration of a "new wave of confidence in the Welsh nation".
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Bryan Charles Hollon, better known by his stage name Boom Bip, is an American record producer and musician. He is one half of Neon Neon along with Gruff Rhys. He is based in Los Angeles, California.
Count Your Blessings is the debut studio album by British rock band Bring Me the Horizon. Recorded at DEP International Studios in Birmingham with producer Dan Sprigg, it was originally released in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006 by Visible Noise. The album was later issued by Earache Records in the United States on 14 August 2007. Count Your Blessings was supported by the release of music videos for two of the album's tracks: "Pray for Plagues" on 4 June 2007 and "For Stevie Wonder's Eyes Only (Braille)" on 6 March 2008.
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Hey Venus! is the eighth album by Welsh band Super Furry Animals. It was released on 27 August 2007 in the United Kingdom. Hey Venus! is the band's first full-length release on current label Rough Trade Records and, at just over 36 minutes, is also their shortest-running studio release. The title is taken from the first line of the song "Into the Night".
"(Drawing) Rings Around the World" is a song by Super Furry Animals and was the second single taken from the band's fifth album, Rings Around the World. The track reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart on release in October 2001. Singer Gruff Rhys has described the song as being about "rings of communication around the world. All the rings of pollution".
"Golden Retriever" is a song by Super Furry Animals. It was the first single to be issued from the album Phantom Power and reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in July 2003. The song is about the relationship between singer Gruff Rhys's girlfriend's two dogs and was written in the same key, with the same guitar tuning and around the same time as several other songs from Phantom Power.
"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" is a 1932 song recorded by Bing Crosby with Orchestral Accompaniment. The music was composed by Victor Young, with lyrics written by Ned Washington and Bing Crosby. The song is a jazz and pop standard recorded by many different artists.
Neon Neon is a collaborative project from producer Boom Bip and Gruff Rhys, the frontman for the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals. They began work on the project in October 2006 originally under the moniker Delorean. In March 2008 the duo, by now calling themselves Neon Neon, released a full-length album entitled Stainless Style to generally positive reviews and earned a nomination for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.
Cate Le Bon is a Welsh musician and record producer. She sings in both English and Welsh. She has released six solo studio albums, to date, and is one half of the experimental music duo DRINKS with her partner Tim Presley. Her stage name is a tribute to English musician Simon Le Bon.
Plastic Beach is the third studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was released on 3 March 2010 by Parlophone internationally and by Virgin Records in the United States. Conceived from an unfinished project called Carousel, the album was recorded from June 2008 to November 2009, and was produced primarily by group co-creator Damon Albarn. It features guest appearances by such artists as Snoop Dogg, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, Bashy, Kano and Little Dragon.
Y Niwl are a surf instrumental band from North Wales, formed in 2009. Its members are Alun Evans (guitar), Llyr Pari (drums), Sion Glyn (bass) and Gruff ab Arwel. The band's name is pronounced Uh Nule and means 'The Fog' in Welsh. Members of the band have also long played as backing musicians for Gruff Rhys.
Classic Incantations: The German Film Orchestra Babelsberg performs A.R. Rahman is a studio recording of the five-city concert tour in India of January 2012. The musical showcased over a hundred orchestral musicians as they performed live in India as part of the collaborative celebration titled Germany and India 2011-2011: Infinite Opportunities which marked celebration of 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
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