Page last updated at 07:04 GMT, Monday, 16 March 2009

Online gig launches Furries album

Super Furry Animals
Dark Days/Light Years will be the Super Furry Animals' ninth album

Welsh rockers the Super Furry Animals are launching their new album via a live gig over the internet.

The band decided on this novel form of album release in order to cut down the time delay between recording the music and getting it out to fans.

They will play a version of the album Dark Days/Light Years from the studio where it was recorded in Cardiff.

The album will then be available to buy as a download, a number of weeks before it goes on sale in the shops.

The band have spent the past weeks recording the album at Music Box in Cardiff, from where they have released daily podcasts of the recording process.

Super Furry Animals
Fuzzy Logic (1996)
Radiator (1997)
Guerilla (1997)
Mwng (2000)
Rings Around The World (2001)
Phantom Power (2003)
Love Kraft (2005)
Hey Venus! (2007)

Guitarist Huw "Bunf" Bunford told the BBC News website: "We were all looking for a quick release and everything we wanted to do, we wanted to do really quickly - recording and mixing within about six weeks.

"The problem we've had in the past when we've tried to do quick albums is the time after you've finished it [before] it goes on release and that to us took too much time."

According to Bunf, there is typically a delay of around six months from finishing recording to the release date.

"We were trying to avoid that scenario and the only way we saw possible was to release it on our own terms because we wanted to control the output.

"The only way we thought might be possible would be do a live interpretation of the album," he said.

"Originally it was going to be at the end of a recording, but as these things happen it got into this realm of getting cameras and it all got a bit complex, but the idea still worked in its original form.

'Fantastic space'

"I'm sure it will be quite rough but I would envisage if I saw a band I liked, I wouldn't care if it was warts and all. I think part of the enjoyment is watching people struggle."

The broadcast will come live from Music Box, which Bunf praised as a "fantastic old institution in Cardiff which has "metamorphosised' into a fantastic space off Penarth Road".

"They've always got a space for local bands to practise. It's a rare place at the moment," he added.

The band will be in the recording room, with just a few technicians for audience, as there is no room for anyone else, he explained.

"The audience I guess is on the other side in kind of computer world.

"We really did think we'd chewed off more than we could do. It's going to be pretty intense so hopefully we'll get it all done.

However he added: "I like living on the edge."

The webcast will take place on the Super Furries website from 2000 GMT on Monday, 16 March, with the CD and vinyl version of the album available in April.

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