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Jun 12, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Ryan Eddleston

Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals has announced a new album, Dim Probs, and shared its first single, “Chwyn Chwyldroadol!,” via a music video. Dim Probs is in Rhys’ native Welsh language and is due out September 12 via Rock Action. Below, check out the new single, followed by the album details.

Dim Probs (which translates to No Probs) is Rhys’ first fully Welsh language album since 2019’s Pang!. Ali Chant (Yard Act/PJ Harvey) produced the album, which was recorded and mixed in Bristol, England in late 2024.

Rhys had this to say about the album in a press release: “Dim Probs is a result of spending the last few years preparing a compilation album of ’80s private press Welsh language electronic music cassettes with friends. The compilation itself may never come out, but some of its machine textures are ingrained in this record… counter-balanced by the fact that I wrote it all with my cheap Swedish catalogue acoustic guitar as main instrument. I dressed up some of these very basic recordings to various degrees; friends from my longterm touring band (Kliph Scurlock, Osian Gwynedd, Huw V Williams and Gavin Fitzjohn) pop up on a few songs each and old friends Cate Le Bon and H Hawkline add backing vocals on the side openers (‘Pan Ddaw’r Haul I Fore’ and ‘Chwyn Chwyldroadol!’). Given the times we are living through, the title Dim Probs [No Probs] is a dark joke, especially as the lyrics, hopefully in a playful way deal variously in death (‘Taro #1 + #2’), weeds (‘Chwyn Chwyldroadol!’), war (‘Cyflafan’) and pestilence (‘Acw’). You get the picture.

“I used to have to translate Welsh lyrics for the sleeve notes but now with apps like the frighteningly powerful Google Translate you can just point your phone at them. What’s even better is that there will be a slightly different translation every time. I like this element of chance interpretation. Pete Fowler has been drawing a motif of an old dog on a magic carpet flying through the debris of late capitalist Planet Earth for a few months now and was kind enough to donate one of the more sketchy ones (a bit like the album itself perhaps) for the cover. The album was recorded swiftly in Bristol at Ali Chant’s studio. I worked the songs out in advance then I’d drive or catch a train over the border and capture them fast. My hope was to retain the energy of the first take and not make something overwrought with arrangement.”

Of the new single, Rhys says: “‘Chwyn Chwyldroadol!’ is a meditation on existentialism and the beauty of domestic garden weeds—comparing them to some 1970s Welsh language folk and hard rock bands like Ac Eraill and Shwn. For the video, my neighbor Ryan Eddleston had picked up a canister containing a few spare hundred feet of 35mm film going spare from the critically panned Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s 2008 American detective thriller Righteous Kill, some of which was apparently shot in nearby Newport. He shot me on that film picking weeds in the garden on a portable 1960s Arriflex camera favored by the French New Wave and Coppola that was lent by another neighbor Sam, who used to sing in The Poppies. Sam developed it frame by frame in his bath and Dylan Goch edited it on a laptop in his kitchen round the corner. I love the video they made. My only worry is that one day Robert and Al might come looking for their film stock—they look hard as nails on the cover.”

Rhys’ last album, Sadness Sets Me Free, came out in January 2024 via Rough Trade. It was his best selling solo album to date.

Read our 2015 interview with Gruff Rhys.

Dim Probs Tracklist:

1) Pan Ddaw’r Haul I Fore
2) Cân I’r Cymylau
3) Saf Ar Dy Sedd
4) Taro #1 + #2
5) Dos Amdani
6) Chwyn Chwyldroadol!
7) Cyflafan
8) Dim Probs
9) Adar Gwyn
10) Gadael Fi Fynd
11) Slaw
12) Acw

Gruff Rhys Tour Dates:

June:

12th Tunbridge Wells, The Forum
14th Ipswich, Brighten The Corners Festival

July:

5th Port Erin, IoM, Mananan Festival

August:

8th Wrexham, William Aston Hall
9th Liverpool, Yawn Festival16th Glasgow, Big City Festival
29th Brighton, Psych Fest

September:

13th Bethesda, Ara Deg Festival
18th Portmeirion, Town Hall
19th Machynlleth, The Tabernacle
20th Treorchy, Park and Dare
30th Bodedern, Memorial Hall

October:

1st Rhydymain, Village Hall
3rd Rhoshirwaun, Village Hall
4th Crymych, Market Hall

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