Gog SOUND; GO... to a concert.

Byline: CRAIG OWEN JONES

Kentucky AFC's farewell tour began last night in Colwyn Bay, and their final album - a limited edition of only 500 copies - is only available for the next two months or so, as the Gwynedd punksters make their way through Wales before a final gig at Bangor's Railway Club on November 3.

Fnord is the name of this swansong release - it sounds like a Norwegian dog: actually it's a subliminal thought-control word in satirical 70s SF trilogy flluminatus. It's a largely English-language record full of Ramones-esque melodies and chugging guitars.

In spite of the energetic treatment of these super-charged punk songs, Fnord emerges as a strangely nihilistic record. Titles such as Left To Die, Cyflafan (Massacre), Shun, and Pills 4 Ills give the whole an unsettling complexion.

Nevertheless, the music is that high-octane no-frills rock aficionados have grown to love. Stepsister Lover is a riotous mish-mash of infectious guitar hooks, and Cyflafan is heavy with Manic Street Preachers-esque chops and breaks. Pills 4 Ills is perhaps the pick, an anthemic song to take pride of place in KAFC's extensive back catalogue of foot-tapping three-minute wonders.

However, one can't quite shake the feeling that minds and creative energies are already being concentrated elsewhere. It is largely through KAFC's exertions that Welsh-language pop has been introduced to any number of English-language music listeners; their incendiary live gigs are the stuff of legend.

But this unassuming trio have conquered the Welsh-language scene over the last five years; and if there is nothing else left to achieve, it is perhaps best to finish on a high.

Kentucky AFC play Porthmadog's Clwb Chwaraeon next Friday night; go to myspace.com/kentuckyafc for more. Readers in the Bangor area can savour one of the most eagerly-anticipated gigs of the month tomorrow at Neuadd Hendre, Tal y Bont. Super Furry Animals' Cian Ciaran - now of South Walian beatsters Acid Casuals - will play a DJ set alongside North Walian electronica counterparts Tokyu, with Huw Matig Jones, Vayne Vinyl and others also supporting. Doors open 9pm; entry pounds 4 before 10pm, and pounds 6 after 10pm.