GRUFF RHYS - DIM PROBS - ROCK ACTION

Gruff Rhys’ ninth album, Dim Probs – released on Rock Action Records September 2025 - features the previously released tracks Chwyn Chwyldroadol!, Saf Ar Dy Sedd and Taro #1 + #2.

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: “I was in a particularly bleak mindset when I was recording Dim Probs. I’d just made an orchestral pop record, so I wanted to make something really immediate and raw. I was listening to a lot of Welsh- language post-punk cassettes, and that all came out on this record. They were recorded at the height of the Cold War, and the Welsh language wasn’t visible like it is today. There were more Welsh speakers back then, but it was still an unofficial language. I think the bleakness of that era rubbed off as I just wanted to use primitive drum machines and scratchy guitars, and howl at the state of the world. It really felt like something I needed to make.”