Stoner folk usually limits itself best to in-jokes for the in-crowd and in this sense, the 2005 debut from the Super Furry Animals' frontman, recorded exclusively in Welsh, was for SFA acolytes only. Rhys was in danger of becoming rock's own Howard Marks.

However, the follow up, written in Wales during downtime from the recording of the forthcoming SFA album, is a nice surprise. Sure, Rhys is as playful, eccentric and plain out-there as usual but the project resists self-indulgence and is instead adventurous, lush and whispered, full of melody and endearing strings and beats. Mixed in Brazil, there's a laid-back tropicala feel throughout (like a happy Beck circa Mutations), while only two Welsh tracks and one in deliberately pidgin Spanish mix things up. The closer is a 14-minute, two-chord trance-rock ditty about life on board a plane prior to 9/11. Why of course it is, Gryff. Of course it is.

Download: 'Candylion', 'Con Carino', 'Skylon!'

Neil Dunphy Shaz OyeOfficial Bootleg Radical Faeries Records (34m 38s) . . .

With a voice somewhere between Nina Simone and Tasmin Archer, Oye, a black lesbian from inner-city Dublin, sings about war, prostitution, the shooting at Abbeylara and so on, making her one of the more intense singer songwriters around. This eight-track album, recorded live in Tralee in October last year, follows Oye's critically acclaimed debut album, Truth According To. . . with some new material all performed without backing band. Thus, alone with nothing more than a guitar, it's her voice that really does it.

Download: 'Do Not Stand On My Grave and Weep', 'Finding Neverland', 'Sylvia Falling' ND