Super Furry Animals have been the most consistently great guitar band of the last 10 years, and I've got a stack of hard evidence to prove it.

Fuzzy logicians Gruff Rhys, Guto Price, Cian Ciaran, Bunf Bunford and Daf Lewan captured in a rare moment of calm

We're not talking about an excellent album every two or three years. The Super Furries have released six albums in the last seven years, and none has dropped below the high standard set by 1994's superb debut, "Fuzzy Logic." They're constantly lauded in the music media, and their latest album, "Rings Around the World," was short-listed this year for the Mercury Music Prize and climbed to No. 3 on the British charts.

In five years of playing gigs in Japan, the Welsh band has moved from cozy Club Quattro in Shibuya to the cavernous AX venue just up the road, where they take the stage this Friday.

Vocalist Gruff says via e-mail that he's thrilled to be coming back. "I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, the black crows on the street . . . the unique beetles . . . and the disposable digital watches. . . . I could go on all day. Our oldest fan in Japan is a guy called Hywel Glyndwr from Nagoya. He has written the Japanese-Welsh grammar book!"

Howard Marks, the infamous hashish smuggler turned spoken-word dude and writer who appeared on the cover of "Fuzzy Logic," perhaps described the band's music best: "Listening to them is like hearing all the music I've ever liked in my life."

That's not to say the Super Furries are derivative. It's just that they've seamlessly woven into their records such a massive variety of styles that the eclecticism now comes across as their own unique voice. You can hear rock, pop, folk, glam, psychedelia, even the odd stab at cheesy disco and mad techno (but that's just for fun).

The first single off "Rings" -- their second-most-mellow album after last year's "Mwng" (which in Welsh means "mane," as in of a furry animal) -- was the ultralush lounge-pop of "Juxtapozed With U." It sounds like a piss-take: Super Furries show off their songwriting skills by making a faultless, syrupy pop song, one of those things they can pull off at the drop of a hat, but generally choose not to.

"Well, it's a beautiful way of taking the piss," admits Gruff.

The band does not play by the rules. A bunch of gigs in Britain this year saw them playing random songs from their back catalog, literally chosen by lottery -- by balls with numbers on them. The only problem was when Gruff forgot some of the words of the earlier songs, but the fans helped him out.

They've also driven around in a sky-blue tank blasting nosebleed techno, had 16-meter inflatable bears appear at their events and catchily titled their debut EP "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerych- wyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod" after Wales' famously long-named town, but setting it "ynygofod" (in space). On "Rings," they even roped in Paul McCartney. To sing? No, to crunch some celery in the background, actually.

Their reputation as eccentric Welsh nutters seems to allow them to get away with gimmicks other bands would be crucified for, including a DVD version of "Rings" with a mini movie made for each track and an extra hour of ambient doodlings. Here, it seems, national stereotyping works in their favor, although Gruff says that "on the downside [the gimmicks] often overshadow our music."

After the label to which they were signed, Creation, closed, and before they were snapped up by Epic, they used their 1 million yen payoff to start up their own label, Cardiff-based Placid Casual. Their first release, "Mwng," on which the vocals are -- unlike most of their other stuff -- sung entirely in Welsh, ended up as their biggest hit in the United States.

"Placid Casual is now our hobby," says Gruff. "We have no ambitions as a record label apart from releasing good music when no one else wants to put out that particular record. Our latest release is 'Farming in Space,' by [Welsh band] Teflon Monkey."

So how come the Super Furries seem incapable of making a bad record?

Maybe it's because all five members seem to have creative input -- they have twice as many ideas as your average band that relies solely on the singer and guitarist for the tunes. Or maybe their eclecticism from day one has prevented them from getting bogged down in one style, allowing them to try different things without letting their fan base down (I mean, could Oasis get away with a disco track?). Then again, maybe they are just a bunch of geniuses that, simply put, make up the best band in the world.