Das Koolies do it ‘Sesame Street-style’ with Ogov Gôkh

Amongst the legends and myths of Wales, one enduring example is electro-wanderers, Das Koolies, formed of four Super Furry Animals. As they count down to the release of their second album, the quartet hoists a cultural signpost to Cymru’s curiosities with their latest single: Ogov Gôkh – OUT NOW. The final teaser from their second album, Pando – released this Fri 9 May 2025 – the electro-space-rock stomp writes Wales and Britain’s longest place name into their songbook and places it on the tip of listeners’ tongues.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllantysiliogogoch, specifically located on the isle of Ynys Môn and just 3km from the iconic Menai Bridge link to the mainland, the village of 3,000 residents is infamous as a head-scratcher for linguists as well as a cornerstone of tired general knowledge quizzes. Translated in English as "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave", the band’s playful reference in song is as educational as it is symbolic.

Coincidentally or not, the single marks three decades since Super Furry Animals released an EP of a similar name. Released on legendary Welsh indie, Ankst, the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod (In Space) EP broke records for the longest ever EP title on its release on Mon 5 June 1995.

“It’s a gift to the world,” remarks the band. “By breaking it down and presenting it in sections, we can all learn how to say ‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllantysiliogogoch’. Here it is in four easy parts, ‘Sesame Street’-style. Good luck!”

Picking from a new 12-track album, which follows their 2023 debut, DK.01, Das Koolies have already released their soundtrack to hotel breakfast debauchery, Som Bom Magnifico, and the gospel-electro, anti-war song White Star to set the scene for a follow up of fresh, genre-welding ideas. By bringing the ambient leak of Thoughtless into play, the band’s commitment to the electronic roots that brought them together in a pre-guitar, pre-Furries world of amped up abandon remains the same as it ever was.

Recorded and produced by the band in their long-established studio on the former-industrial outskirts of Cardiff, Wales Pando is to be released on multiple formats, including vinyl, CD, cassette and digital. Formed of Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan and Guto Pryce, their bombastic first outing as Das Koolies, a name long associated with the quartet’s underground manoeuvres, is marked as complete, leaving the path clear for Pando’s smooth synth-psychedelia and added electro-soul.