Super Furries Front-man Collaborates On Zombie Opera
2/27/2008 By Brock Thiessen

There’s no denying Gruff Rhys is a bit of weird dude. But with his new collaboration, he’s taking his eclectic nature to new levels, making what may be a world first — a zombie opera.

The Super Furry Animals’ front-man has recently helped Brazilian artists Diego Medina and Desirée Marantes craft Zombieoper, two discs and 24 tracks worth of undead musical madness.

In true rock opera fashion, the album follows the bizarre tale of zombies who suck the earth dry of brains and then shoot themselves off into outer space in search of a fresh supply of grey matter. And while English speakers may initially have trouble following this story since Zombieoper is primarily sung in Portuguese, the record’s website does offer a PDF of lyrics and song explanations in English. Through them you can learn, for example, that “Zombies are way nicer than human beings. They don’t segregate. They don’t have to be beautiful, or natural, or intelligent. Anyone can be a zombie, you just have to be able to move.”

Along with Rhys, Medina and Marantes have roped in a pile of other South American collaborators to help with their excursion into horror rock, such as Gabriel Bubu, Kassin and members of the Os Massa collective. Also, Zombieoper is free to download at the album’s site www.zombieoper.com.

In other Rhys news, his new project with Boom Bip, dubbed Neon Neon, will makes its debut March 18 via Lex with the album Stainless Style.
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