Legendary Welsh trailblazers Ffa Coffi Pawb to reissue classic albums

Revolutionary DIY Cymraeg pop band Ffa Coffi Pawb have announced limited edition vinyl, CD and digital reissues of two of their albums via their own Ara Deg label.

Dalec Pelion comes out on 21st February 2025. Clymhalio is due for release later in 2025.

Obsessed with power pop, Krautrock, death rock and glam rock, Ffa Coffi Pawb were one of Wales’ most far out bands back in the day. Although loved by all who heard them, their music seemed to fall between the cracks due to both rudimentary distribution methods and crazed deals with music industry bods who quickly disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Now, in the white heat of the 21st century and following the critically acclaimed 2023 rerelease of their third and final album Hei Vidal!, Ffa Coffi Pawb have dusted down and cleaned up their two other albums – Dalec Pelion (their first album, originally released in 1988) and Clymhalio (their second LP from 1991).

Recorded by experimental electronic producer Gorwel Owen in a flat above a Post Office in Rhosneigr and initially released on cassette by Bangor label Casetiau Huw, Dalec Pelion will finally be released on vinyl (as well as CD and digital platforms) for the first time on 21st February 2025. The album has been remastered by Super Furry Animals’ archivist Kliph Scurlock and features brand new artwork by H Hawkline. Hear Valium from Dalec Pelion here.

Of that period, singer and guitarist Gruff Rhys says: “We’d released 50 copies of a home made cassette of songs, jams and cut-up audio collages that were recorded on a cassette recorder microphone and sold at record fairs and pubs from a Kwik Save carrier bag, Then the band saw the inclusion of the track ‘Octapws’ on a Pop Positif compilation vinyl EP, which was followed by a meeting with experimental electronic producer Gorwel Owen who, in 1987 invited Ffa Coffi Pawb to record at his home studio in near by Ynys Môn. The recordings were made in dribs and drabs over a few months in a flat above Gorwel’s parent’s Post Office in Rhosneigr and became our first studio album Dalec Peilon – released on the Bangor cassette label Casetiau Huw in 1988.”

📻 Announcing a new Ffa Coffi Pawb re-issue 🎷

💿 ‘Dalec Peilon’ – February 21st 2025 – LP / Ltd LP, CD and digital
🎧 ‘Valium’ out digitally today
📺 Ffa Coffi Pawb documentary by @DylGoch on S4C and BBC iPlayer 22nd December 2024 pic.twitter.com/XLM8Aggggq

— Gruff Rhys (@gruffingtonpost) December 12, 2024

Dalec Pelion tracklist:

1. Mynd I Lawr
2. Nyth
3. Valium
4. Telyn Wedi Trwsio
5. V-Yw
6. Octapws
7. Gwres
8. Pendramwngl
9. Mae’n Gwneud Fy Mhen I Mewn
10. Dalec Peilon

Ffa Coffi Pawb were formed in Bethesda in 1986 by sixteen year old friends Gruff Rhys and Rhodri Puw – later to be joined by Gruff’s Super Furry Animals’ bandmate Dafydd Ieuan and Dewi Emlyn. Over eight years, the band played experimental gigs and released gloriously psychedelic pop music before bowing out in 1993 at a gig at Builth Wells Memorial Hall in August 1993, supported by a young Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

Now, thirty plus years after that final curtain, Ffa Coffi Pawb’s story is due be told through a specially made S4C documentary. broadcast on December 22nd at 9pm. The show – directed by Dylan Goch (Separado/American Interior) – features brand new band interviews and previously unseen footage captured all across Wales. Ffa Coffi Pawb will be available on the BBC iPlayer and streamable via www.s4c.cymru after broadcast.