20TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM RE-ISSUE
Original album remastered + rare bonus tracks – CD, LP & Download
‘Popping out’ on glorious gatefold-edition vinyl and a CD version featuring no fewer than 20 unreleased rarities, Super Furry Animals celebrate the 20th anniversary of their third album, Guerrilla, by reliving every moment in a deluxe, remastered reissue. Out on Fri 1 November 2019 on BMG, the album tells the irresistible story of the now legendary band reaching for throwaway pop perfection in a big budget studio, only to find fertile ground for new levels of experimentation.
Meticulous foraging through miles of tape, digital recordings and tracks stored on now obsolete formats by Furries archivist, Kliph Scurlock has resulted in a painstakingly reassembled album with the band’s mastering guru, Donal Whelan applying the finishing touches. What has emerged is not only a refreshed version faithful to the band’s vision, taken from the original tapes to high 96k resolution, but one lavishly packaged in the original artwork devised by long-time friend of the Furries and visionary image maker, Pete Fowler. The original, die-cut, ‘pop up’ gatefold artwork houses the heavyweight, double vinyl edition, pressed from the highest tape resolution rather than the original, low CD quality of the 1999 version.
Sleeve notes by both Creation Records founder, Alan McGee and band biographer, Ric Rawlinsoffer insights into the conditions that cultivated Guerrilla and how it further cemented the band’s singular status in rock, indie and pop music.
Originally released on Mon 14 June 1999, Guerrilla was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real Worldstudios in Box, Wiltshire during summer 1998, uprooting the band not only from their native Wales to record for the first time, but also from the oversight of Gorwel Owen, the producer of Fuzzy Logic and Radiator. With a bigger budget from Creation and choosing to self-produce the album with studio wingman/engineer, Michael Brennan, in rural splendour, the band determinedly set about making an upbeat, pop record that would deliver a punch inside 45 minutes. What actually emerged was a kaleidoscopic and indefinable gathering of vibrant songs that, while brimming with intended positivity, embraced accidental studio discoveries, missteps in the recording process and a new sense of democracy as the band shared production duties.
Guerrilla, widely acclaimed by critics upon release, including growing attention amongst US-based publications, and still a firm favourite of many Furries fans, was correctly titled as the band retained outsider status as a band of adventurous visionaries that, intentionally or not, had succeeded in side-stepping the mainstream once more.
A band statement ahead of the release says:
“Super Furry Animals have fond memories of ‘Guerrilla’ and our time experimenting in the English countryside, passing Peter Gabriel on the corridor on the way to the kitchen and finding our way around a mixing desk. Our optimism, one of a hopeful pre-millennium era, was captured on this record and it’s a sensation we’re only too happy to share in once again during more turbulent times for our planet.”
