Releasing a Welsh-language album might seem an unusual thing for a band to do. But Super Furry Animals are not a normal band.

With the four albums they have released to date they have been hailed as one of the most inventive and exciting groups around.

Their new album Mwng (Welsh for 'mane') sees the group retreating from the combination of pop and blistering techno attacks of past releases, and heading towards a simpler, more organic sound.

It wasn't a conscious political decision to do the album in Welsh Gruff Rhys

It is also their first wholly Welsh-language album.

"There's nothing specifically Welsh about the music," says frontman Gruff Rhys.

"I lead a bilingual life anyway. I think Mwng is quite Anglo-American sounding.

While Welsh is each band member's first language, Gruff says he does not necessarily find it easier to sing in it.

"It wasn't a conscious political decision to do the album in Welsh. We just did it because that's what we felt like doing.

"When we were growing up we had no interest in playing the harp. We wanted to get away from that whole Celtic thing."

The band have always been inventive performers

Mwng is a timeless record which could have come out any time in the last three decades.

"It's more similar to Radiator than Guerrilla," says Gruff, "in that the songs lent themselves to a more immediate sound.

"Mwng was mostly recorded live in the studio, but we did not sit down and say it was going to have a specific sound. It just happened that way.

The new album also contains SFA's first cover version - Y Teimlad (The Feeling) by 80s experimental band Datblygu.

It is also possible to hear traces of the Beach Boys, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, ELO and even Prince on the album.

Super Furry Animals discography

1996 - Fuzzy Logic 1997 - Radiator 1998 - Out Spaced 1999 - Guerrilla 2000 - Mwng

"I've no idea why the influences came out so much on the record," says Gruff.

"We made it in our producer Gorwel Owen's studio, where Gorky's recorded most of their stuff - we used the same harmonium as them.

"I think a lot of it sounds like the third Velvet Underground album. But we didn't sit down and say it was going to have a specific sound - it just happened that way."

SFA's music has won them plenty of fans

Not only is Mwng the first Welsh-language album they have recorded - it is also the first release on their Placid Casual label.

"We didn't trust anyone else to release the Welsh album.

"A lot of record stores and companies wanted to do adverts for Mwng that said "Made In Wales", which is not what we want at all."

Welsh-language music has become more widespread recently, with Big Leaves and Tystion both releasing critically acclaimed recordings in their native tongue.

"Bands like Datblygu paved the way for us, and it made a difference that they were proud of coming from Wales without being a load of English-hating hicks," said Gruff.

SFA won't be touring the new album in the UK

"We won't be touring the new album heavily. We played at Cardiff's International Arena in December, and that was the culmination of three years' touring and the ideas we'd had.

"It all got a bit Spinal Tap, with the monsters and the quadrophonic sound."

Forever an unpredictable band, SFA will not be releasing any more singles from Mwng after the limited-edition Ysbeidiau Heulog (Sunny Intervals).

The band is so prolific that they are already back in the studio in Monmouth, recording a new album.

"It's going to be heavy metal," says Gruff with a grin.

Knowing Super Furry Animals, it will turn out to be anything but.