Pando (Dinked Edition #329)

Euphoric ‘gospel electronica’ underpins cautionary tales from rock and roll’s breakfast buffetas Das Koolies return with news of a second album with new single, Som Bom Magnífico.Extending the melodious and mad, three-decade story of Super Furry Animals projects by adding another bombastic and beautiful chapter, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan and Guto Pryce reconvene to announce the release of their second album, Pando, and four, new UK Tour dates for May 2025.

The Dinked edition of the new album comes with an exclusive bonus 2 track white label 7”, further details on which below…

A side Pando is a sound collage that presented itself in a serendipitous way with its anti-war sentiment, themes of addiction and obsession, consumerism and the fight against fascism. Perhaps it was summed up succinctly, before Das Koolies, by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator: “We have lost the way”. The four minute apéritif to the album interweaves elements from it creating a rich tapestry, summarising the album both musically and thematically. Find enclosed an invitation to audiences to discover something new with each listen.

On the B side, palette cleanser La Tôle serves as a perfect accompaniment to the main event, highlighting the nuances discovered within the sound sculpture created at ‘The Barn’ of the Baschet Sound Structures Association, the Voice Leaf invented in 1965.

Meeting every pummelling motorway mile with the beat of their psychedelic-soul-house blend since the release of their debut, Official UK Breakers Album Chart No.1 album, DK.01, in late 2023, Das Koolies’ energetic return to festival fields, intimate venues and service station shopping has affected no distraction from their mission. Committing to more time on the road at the same time as sharing rich spoils from the studio, Das Koolies include Newport, Nottingham, London and Manchester in their live plans.

Determinedly exploring capability and ambition, the band’s continued, restorative return to wired and wonderful, man-and-machine-based music, following years of psych-folk-rockexperimentation as four Furries, hasn’t meant forgetting the past. Som Bom Magnífico’s tour story, combining wistful and weary memory, rests the band’s case.

Taking on the lead lyrical and vocal role, Daf Ieuan, says: “Hindsight and rose-tintedglasses. It’s a song about a time when it was normal to order a veggie breakfast in hotels as a concession to a healthier life style, then following up by requesting to see the ‘Breakfast Wine Menu’. As Lou Reed sang: "Wine in the morning!". Everyone should live like that for a while. Could be for a couple of days or a couple of decades. We’ve never laughed so much, but never again.”

Where the band’s debut crash-landed as a 17-track double album, a varied and visceral eruption of passions revived from forgotten studio hard-drives and both ad hoc and uninhibited late-night writing sessions, Som Bom Magnífico’s smooth, soul-pop landing suggests serene waters lie ahead, cooling concurrent, superheated electronic terrain. Condensing a flood of head stretching ideas into a single album, Pando’s release is confirmed for Fri 9 May 2025 on Strangetown Records in association with Amplify Music

Side A

1. Umschalter
2. Som Bom Magnifico
3. Spider City
4. Music Machine
5. Responde A La Pregunta
6. Enjoy

Side B

1. Yeah!
2. Someone Call An Ambulance
3. Ogov Gôkh
4. White Star
5. Thoughtless
6. Undegun

Bonus 7”

A. Pando
B. La Tôle