Love Kraft was recorded in
Figueres, a small city in
Catalonia, Spain. The album represented a departure from the band's previous working methods: although all five members had always contributed to the development of the songs,
Gruff Rhys had been the main songwriter. On
Love Kraft this was no longer the case, as Rhys,
Huw Bunford,
Dafydd Ieuan and
Cian Ciaran all contributed songs and lead vocals. Of the "30-40" songs written by band members the group chose "the more introspective ones" which meant that some of Rhys's tracks were left off the album as they were "energetic and poppy" and "didn't really fit in with everybody else's work". Several '
found sounds' were recorded and used on the album including the buzzing of a
Brazilian
electrical substation, the sound of
pool balls being rubbed against each other and a recording of
Huw Bunford jumping into a swimming pool. The latter opens the album, preceding the intro to "Zoom!".
Love Kraft was
mixed in a suburb of
Rio de Janeiro at the request of Brazilian born Caldato. According to Rhys the band toyed with the idea of using
Latin musical elements and had fantasies of "
Marcos Valle doing backing vocals, and getting
Rogerio Duprat to arrange the strings" but ultimately thought it would be a "bit too embarrassing" and actively tried not to make a "Brazilian sounding" record. The album is named after a
sex shop, Lovecraft Limited, near the
Ankst Management offices on Cowbridge Road, Cardiff and is also a reference to
American horror writer
H. P. Lovecraft. In a 2005 interview with
The Daily Telegraph,
Gruff Rhys explained that the name also stems from the fact that the record has "a general warm glow of love" and that it was originally conceived as a "love record" before "some of the lyrics went completely off the rails". ==Release==