Gruff Rhys unveils new album ‘Dim Probs’ and Welsh tour

Gruff Rhys has announced details of his ninth album – Dim Probs – which is due for release on Rock Action Records on 12th September 2025.

The first track from the album – Chwyn Chwyldroadol! – is available on all digital platforms now. Gruff will play a series of Welsh live shows in support of the record (with full UK and international touring itinerary to be announced soon). Tickets for his September shows go on sale on Friday 13th June.

The description of the album reads: ‘From an infinite acoustic guitar line on album opener Pan Ddaw’r Haul I Fore that seems to build a glowing bridge in the gap between the Earth’s surface and the heavens above to the closing track Acw‘s effortless segue between spaghetti western-Wales and astral jazz in just one glorious piece of music, Gruff Rhys’ Dim Probs is a true beauty of an album.’

Recorded and mixed in Bristol in 2024 with producer Ali Chant (Yard Act/PJ Harvey), Dim Probs echoes the warmth and closeness of Gruff’s career defining first solo album (2005’s Yr Atal Genhedlaeth) and the stargazing melancholy of 2021’s Seeking New Gods. Written and performed entirely in Welsh/Cymraeg, Dim Probs places the listener side by side with one of the country’s greatest and most thoughtful songwriters in the corner of a studio as the songs grow around them from just voice and guitar. The result is an intimate and hypnotic record that mixes acoustic folk with whatever scratchy, primitive electronic machines come to hand on each track.

Gruff Rhys on Dim Probs: “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 sleevenotes 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.”

The first track from the album Chwyn Chwyldroadol! (Quin Quill-draw-ah-doll) is out now on all digital platforms. Chwyn Chwyldroadol! (trans: revolutionary weeds!) is economical with instrumentation but crammed full of melody and brimming with ideas and sentiment, the key of contained in the chorus which translates as ‘Weeds for some, gold for others’.

Gruff Rhys: “Chwyn Chwyldroadol! is a meditation on existentialism & 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 neighbour 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 favoured by the French New Wave and Coppola that was lent by another neighbour 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.”

Dim Probs is Gruff Rhys’ first fully Welsh language album since 2019’s Pang!, a record made in collaboration with South African producer Muzi. An acclaimed writer, performer and recording musician, Gruff reached the top 10 of the official charts, with Seeking New Gods in 2021 as well as taking top spot in various specialist charts such as Record Store Chart (Babelsberg, 2018), Independent Album Chart (‘Candylion’ 2007), independent Album Breakers Chart (Hotel Shampoo, 2011), and Soundtrack Albums Chart (The Almond & The Seahorse OST, 2023) with his previous records. 2024’s Sadness Sets Me Free was his biggest selling album to date.

Dim Probs tracklisting:

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

Pre-order Dim Probs here: https://gruff.lnk.to/DimProbs

Gruff Rhys has announced a series of live shows in Wales around Dim Probs release. More dates around the country will be announced in the coming weeks. Gruff’s forthcoming UK dates are:

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 Festival

16th 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