To say that FFS’ performance at The Troxy in London was something of a blinder would be an understatement.
On the one hand, there was FRANZ FERDINAND, the Glasgow based art rockers, playing together with an impeccable tightness and vitality that reminded people of the freshness they brought to a 2004 music scene that was dominated by dreary bedwetters like COLDPLAY, SNOW PATROL and KEANE.
On the other were SPARKS, the veteran sibling duo comprising of Russell and Ron Mael who, with a career spanning over 45 years, have had many career ups and downs including being teenybopper pin-ups and disco champions. However tonight, their trajectory is again upwards and Russell Mael in particular had the vigour of a man who was much younger than his 66 years!
There is no doubt that the six piece’s self-titled collaborative album is one of the best of 2015. It has reinvigorated both acts and proved that age is no barrier to making great music. In the packed venue that clearly forgot to switch its air conditioning on, Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos displayed a wonderful, endearing camaraderie.
Kapranos in particular was smiling and thoroughly enjoying himself, relaxed in the knowledge that the pressure of fronting the band was now shared with his falsetto ranging spiritual godfather. Meanwhile the younger Mael was relishing working with a partner who was slightly more animated than his motionless brother. But the senior Mael did have his lively moments too.
Although maintaining his usual stern persona behind his keyboard throughout most of the show (save the amusing odd towel wipe of his armpits), for the powerful percussive climax of ‘The Number One Song In Heaven’, he loosened his tie, took centre stage and tap danced to huge roars of approval. Nicely segued into a synth boosted reboot of ‘Michael’, this song pairing provided a wonderful mid-show highlight.
Opening with the self-explanatory ‘Johnny Delusional’, the well-paced set was drawn largely from the ‘FFS’ long player. But there were a number of favourites from the SPARKS and FRANZ FERDINAND back catalogues too. While ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’ and ‘Do You Want To?’ were the staple crowd pleasers, there was also the welcome additions of ‘Achoo’ (the SPARKS song which FRANZ FERDINAND attempted at their first ever rehearsal) and ‘Walk Away’, while ‘Take Me Out’ predictably had the whole crowd bouncing.
Nick McCarthy took to the mike for his deadpan turn on ‘The Things I Won’t Get’, but rumour has it that Kapranos already owns most of the items on the FRANZ FERDINAND guitarist’s shopping list, hence the absence of his vocal! McCarthy even indulged in a spot of crowd surfing later on during proceedings.
The eccentric march of ‘The Power Couple’ had the audience swinging in all manner of loopy motions, but it was the FFS album’s rousing closing track that stole the show.
As the chant of “P*SS OFF!” rang in unison around The Troxy, the crowd punched the air in a gesture of defiant solidarity. Despite the inclusion of a fair number of hits, it was the positive reception for the FFS material that was the show’s biggest revelation and the key indicator of the album’s quality.
‘Police Encounters’ showed how FFS are a sum greater than its parts, while ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’ was a marvellous example of quirky songwriting that came over like seven song snippets cut ‘n’ pasted together for one enjoyable art school musical.
They returned to encore with a funky rendition of ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’. Seamlessy welded to the catchy ‘Call Girl’, it concluded an unforgettably fabulous evening that left the multi-generational audience sweaty but grinning as they headed home. The fact is, FFS won’t be able to go on forever, so miss them at your peril…
The album ‘FFS’ is released by Domino Records in CD, deluxe CD, red vinyl double LP and download formats
FFS UK dates include: Edinburgh Festival Theatre (24th August), Manchester Albert Hall (25th August), Glasgow Barrowland (26th August)
The debut long player by FFS could easily be titled ‘Art School Musical’. A union of FRANZ FERDINAND and SPARKS, unlike many collaborations which are often distant and detached, this visceral project has centred around working as a six piece band together in a room. The partnership appears to have invigorated both acts too. SPARKS’ career has generally been very up and down commercially, but Russell and Ron Mael have never been deterred by public or media ambivalence and the siblings have always returned like a phoenix from the flames when people least expected it.
Following their initial success between 1974-75 with brilliant singles such as ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’, ‘Amateur Hour’ ‘Something For The Girl With Everything’ and ‘Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth’, they fell out of public favour for a time until Giorgio Moroder attached their eccentric sound to disco friendly electronics for the 1979 hits ‘The Number One Song In Heaven’ and ‘Beat The Clock’. The Mael brothers would not trouble the UK and European charts again until 1994 with ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’, but it fittingly led to acknowledgment from the Britpop scene with members of SUEDE, PULP and BLUR all publically displaying signs of approval.
Meanwhile within the Glasgow art school scene in 2002, FRANZ FERDINAND formed and the song they attempted at their first ever band rehearsal was ‘Achoo’ by SPARKS. The quartet would go on to make an impact with their tempo changing guitar driven dance rock on singles like the catchy ‘Take Me Out’ and a send-up of their art school roots ‘Do You Want To’. It was around this time that a collaboration with SPARKS was first mooted, but it wasn’t until 2014 that the idea began to have realistic momentum.
So with the singer of THE KAISER CHIEFS now acting as a talent show judge and THE KILLERS more or less turning into the next U2, it is down to FRANZ FERDINAND to snatch back the intellectual artistic high ground in association with their spiritual godfathers.
FFS could well also put the Mael Brothers back in the mainstream for the fourth time in a very long career of over 45 years. A great example of how this relationship has gelled is reflected on the ironically titled ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’.
A seven minute journey that is a glorious cut ’n’ paste of both bands, there’s a terrific moment when it sounds like QUEEN with Russell Mael and Alex Kapranos exchanging operatic rants of “I don’t need your patronising! – I don’t need your agonising!”. But then, it turns into Jimmy Webb’s ‘The Highwayman’, as well as mutating into buzzy synthpop, spacey jazz, a showtune and a classical mini-symphony along the way! It is bonkers and brilliant!
The album starts however with ‘Johnny Delusional’, a stomping indie rocker with Russell Mael’s trademark falsetto and Ron Mael’s piano interludes augmented by stabs of octave bass synth. The lyrical couplet of “I want you, I know I haven’t a chance – Johnny Delusional here” accurately conveys the resigned inadequacy and awkwardness of the narrative.
‘Call Girl’ is very synth laden with a Minimoog Voyager making its presence felt. While it revisits SPARKS past adventures in Europop, the FRANZ FERDINAND element provides the Mael brothers with a thumping powertrain from Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson that probably wouldn’t have manifested itself had Russell and Ron been working alone in LA.
Beginning a little like the Midge Ure B-side ‘Piano’, ‘Dictator’s Son’ takes a choppy art rock backbone and fills it with drama. It’s an amusingly ironic title considering the controversy over Ron Mael’s look when SPARKS first famously appeared on ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1974. Meanwhile, the sparse ballad ‘Little Guy From The Suburbs’ has hints of Ennio Morrricone. With the line “There are no heroes in this life”, it is perhaps the most serious piece on the FFS collection.
Alongside some outre synth movements on ‘Police Encounters’, Russell’s breakneck speed wordplay is electronically treated as he keeps up with this bouncy slice of phased percussive madness. ‘Save Me From Myself’ features those classic SPARKS staccato ivories and with a soaring chorus and a wonderful multi-tracked vocal passage for the middle eight, it is the closest to their Mack produced tracks like ‘Angst In My Pants’.
The most electronic track on ‘FFS’ comes with ‘So Desu Ne’, a marvellously squelchy number that conceptually harks back to SPARKS’ breakthrough album ‘Kimono My House’. With drum machine, vibrato synth stabs and surreal references to Japanese culture like “a Hello Kitty Uzi” and “a Kenzo kimono”, it is rhythmically angular with a great use of samples sourced from Alex and Russell’s voices towards the close.
After all the quirky art school banter, ‘FFS’ becomes more straightforward with ‘The Man Without A Tan’ and ‘Things I Won’t Get’. Scratchy guitars and driving electric bass with bizarre orchestral sections dominate the former which comes over more as archetypical FRANZ FERDINAND, while the latter sees Franz’s Nick McCarthy take on lead vocals to deadpan an unattainable shopping list that includes Hugo Boss and Air Jordan. However, it’s a number that doesn’t become that interesting until Russell harmonises with his trademark falsetto.
It all gets quirky again on ‘The Power Couple’ where a tumbling rhythm provides a domino effect, like a circus clown march. Russell takes on an unusually low register as Alex adopts a midtone snarl in a neo-gothic piece that comes over like a Brechtian set piece adapted by MUSE. “We must make a good impression” they chant.
‘P*ss Off’ is possibly the album’s most outstanding number and one of the songs of the year. As Ron Mael’s first offering to FFS when it was first mooted in 2004, it makes a highly fitting closer. With the vibrancy of ‘Kimono My House’ and ‘Propaganda’ era SPARKS, there are jaunty ivories and camp vocal theatrics in the vein of classics like ‘Something For The Girl With Everything’ and ‘BC’. “It’s inexplicable” they all growl as the multi-track phrase of “HARMONIES” kicks in! A total joy, ‘P*ss Off’ is the ultimate two fingered anthem and is sure to become a future live favourite for SPARKS and FRANZ FERDINAND when they inevitably go their separate ways.
Like the sorcerer working with the apprentice to double the magical power, over period of just over two weeks, FFS have recorded an entertaining compendium of anecdotes that will appeal to armchair enthusiasts of SPARKS and FRANZ FERDINAND. ‘FFS’ is the most accessible work that either act has produced for several years. Full of wit and repartee, this is the sound of six individuals having a lot of fun but additionally, making something artistically spiky and satisfying.
‘FFS’ is released by Domino Records in CD, deluxe CD with bonus tracks, red vinyl double LP and download variants
FFS play the following UK dates: Glasgow Art School (16th June), London Troxy (26th June), Manchester Albert Hall (29th August)
Artist collaborations can be seen in several ways.
They are either a chance to take the best elements of great bands to form an even greater supergroup, or as has happened in many cases, there is a watering down of prime concepts which results in a fragmented mess of little interest to anyone.
So here are 25 artist collaborations that actually worked; the list is restricted to one song per main act, defined as being the one who released the parent album.
That means PET SHOP BOYS, who have been among the most ubiquitous and willing of conspirators, get to appear as themselves and as guests of ELECTRONIC and David Bowie while NEW ORDER’s Bernard Sumner appears as part ELECTRONIC as well as also moonlighting for THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS and Philip Oakey of THE HUMAN LEAGUE gets in there twice as a guest.
Over more recent years, there appears to have much more freedom for artists to collaborate, notably with SPARKS recently unveiled collaboration with Glasgow based art rockers FRANZ FERDINAND, named rather straightforwardly FFS. And this is reflected by this list here which has a bias towards new millennium recordings, although ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK is pleased to say, this is a Calvin Harris free zone 😉
SYLVIAN SAKAMOTO Bamboo Houses (1982)
David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto were making their artistic presence felt outside of JAPAN and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, and having collaborated on ‘Taking Islands in Africa’, another project was always on the cards. ‘Bamboo Houses’ expanded on the electro-acoustic textures of ‘Tin Drum’ over a catchy percussive framework courtesy of Steve Jansen. Sylvian delivered his usual mournful vocal but Sakamoto’s monologue and marimba gave the track ethnic authenticity.
‘After A Fashion’ was a blistering sonic salvo that crossed the best of JAPAN’s rhythmical art muzak with ULTRAVOX’s ‘The Thin Wall’. However, it stalled at No39 in the UK singles charts and sadly, there was to be no album. But Karn later played on Ure’s ‘Remembrance Day’ in 1988 and Ure briefly joined JBK, the band formally known as JAPAN sans David Sylvian for an aborted project in 1992 that resulted in two songs ‘Cry’ and ‘Get A Life’. Sadly Karn passed away in 2011.
Available on the MIDGE URE album ‘No Regrets’ via Music Club Deluxe
Very much seen as the odd couple, the duo’s promotional photos captured the curly haired jazz funk aficionado with The Iceman! Bill Sharpe was pianist with jazz fusion group SHAKATAK. Together with their drummer Roger Odell, they had written a piece of computerised electrofunk that needed a vocal. Engineered by Nick Smith who had also been working with Gary Numan, he suggested that the former Mr Webb would be ideally suited to the futuristic backing.
Available on the SHARPE & NUMAN album ‘Automatic’ via Cherry Pop
LES RITA MITSOUKO & SPARKS Singing In The Shower (1990)
In France, LES RITA MITSOUKO became unlikely pop stars thanks to danceable hit singles such as ‘Marcia Baïla’ and ‘C’est Comme Ça’. Vivacious singer Catherine Ringer and oddball instrumentalist Fred Chichin were influenced by the eccentric overtures of SPARKS and with a moniker in a similar vein to their ‘Kimono My House’, an artistic union was inevitable. With the two duos “feeling dirty and feeling clean”, the catchy ‘Singing In The Shower’ was a hit in Europe.
Available on the LES RITA MITSOUKO album ‘Marc & Robert’ via Virgin France
ELECTRONIC featuring PET SHOP BOYS The Patience Of A Saint (1991)
‘The Patience Of A Saint’ from ELECTRONIC’s debut was undoubtedly the highlight of that album. Featuring the involvement of both PET SHOP BOYS, the witty exchange between Bernard Sumner and Neil Tennant was accompanied by a gorgeous backing track of drum machine, swimmy string synth and minimal guitar. The song was premiered in front of 60,000 people when ELECTRONIC supported DEPECHE MODE at Dodger Stadium in August 1990.
Available on the ELECTRONIC album ‘Electronic’ via Warner Music
Following the departure of founder member Martin Price, ‘Gorgeous’ was 808 STATE’s first album as a three piece. Featuring early mash-up experiments based around UB40, THE JAM and JOY DIVISION, one of the wholly original compositions though was ‘Moses’, a rare electronically backed outing by ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN’s Ian McCulloch. Sounding like NEW ORDER with a Scouse snarl, the unusual but enjoyable partnership was the highlight of the album.
Available on the 808 STATE album ‘Gorgeous’ via ZTT Records
ELEKTRIC MUSIC featuring ANDY McCLUSKEY Kissing The Machine (1993)
Recorded for his ELEKTRIC MUSIC project after leaving KRAFTWERK, Karl Bartos’ collaboration with OMD’s Andy McCluskey featured one of his best melodies synth melodies. Bartos said “He suggested we do something together and I was up for it… We picked some cassettes and finally I found the opening notes of ‘Kissing The Machine’”. With fabulously surreal lyrics about a love affair with a sexy robot, it became a cult favourite. OMD resurrected the song in 2013.
Available on the ELEKTRIC MUSIC album ‘Esperanto’ via SPV Records
John Lydon had shown himself to be open to collaboration following 1984’s ‘World Destruction’ as TIME ZONE with electro rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. But ‘Open Up’ with the then relatively unknown dance duo LEFTFIELD came as something of a surprise. Lydon was suitably angry as he reflected on the tensions of his adopted home with a screaming “Burn Hollywood, burn!” over an intense electronic soundtrack.
Available on the LEFTFIELD album ‘A Final Hit’ via Sony Music
DAVID BOWIE featuring PET SHOP BOYS Hallo Spaceboy (1996)
BLUR’s Alex James once remarked that having a PET SHOP BOYS remix was like having your dog being taken for a walk, but then, when it came back, it was a different dog! PET SHOP BOYS certainly re-produced this Bowie/Eno composition from ‘1.Outside’ into a much more commercial proposition, even utilising the cut-up technique to decide which words Neil Tennant would sing. Reaching No12, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ became Da Dame’s biggest UK hit since ‘Jump They Say’ in 1990!
THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS featuring BERNARD SUMNER Out Of Control (1999)
‘Out Of Control’ was THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS’ sonic template actually fulfilling its potential within a song based format with Bernard Sumner as the willing conspirator. ‘Out Of Control’ had everything from a bombastic backbeat and cerebral sequences to bizarre lyrics, especially when Sumner resigned that “maybe my moustache is too much…”. The association with Sumner continued when they produced NEW ORDER’s terrific ‘Here To Stay’.
Available on THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS album ‘Singles 93-03’ via Virgin Records
SYSTEM F featuring MARC ALMOND Soul On Soul (2001)
Ferry Corsten had a huge international hit in 1999 with ‘Out Of The Blue’ under his SYSTEM F moniker. It highlighted the spiritual connection between synthpop and trance so to substantiate the link further, the Rotterdam based producer recruited Marc Almond to guest on the blinding ‘Soul On Soul’ for a spirited, club friendly workout. This all tied in nicely with SOFT CELL’s comeback album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’ in 2002.
The Dumbarton born TALKING HEADS frontman was back in the mainstream limelight for the first time since the band disbanded in 1991 with this superb online collaboration with British DJ duo X-PRESS2. David Byrne gave his best afflicted ‘Psycho Killer’ meets ‘Once In A Lifetime’ warble for what became a No2 UK chart hit. He later reworked ‘Lazy’ with orchestral embellishments for his 2004 solo long player ‘Grown Backwards’.
Available on the X-PRESS2 album ‘Muzikizum’ via Skint Records
‘Reload’ was a welcome relief after DEPECHE MODE’s paradoxically titled ‘Exciter’. The brief sojourn with Dutch producer Tom Holkenborg aka JUNKIE XL proved once and for all how well Dave Gahan’s voice worked on uptempo electronic dance tracks. He may be more interested in MUMFORD & SONS these days, but frankly, over a lively synth laden backbone is where he sounds best. The ‘Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin’ album also featured Gary Numan!
Ms Lauper was heading towards a career renaissance with her excellent ‘Bring Ya To The Brink’ album in 2008 so her collaboration with ERASURE in 2007 was quite timely. A soulful slice of Trans-Atlantic synthpop, ‘Early Bird’ was an enjoyable duet between her and Andy Bell that turned out to be the one of the more memorable tracks that emerged from ERASURE’s rather lukewarm ‘Light At The End Of The World’ sessions.
Available on the ERASURE EP ‘Storm Chaser’ via Mute Records
LITTLE BOOTS featuring PHILIP OAKEY Symmetry (2009)
At the time ‘Symmetry’ was unveiled, THE HUMAN LEAGUE had not released any new material since 2001. With a fabulous chorus, this was the nearest thing to a new HUMAN LEAGUE track with Victoria Hesketh doing her best Susanne Sulley impression. So when it was Phil talking, it was magic. “Tell me your dreams and I’ll tell you all my fears” he announced, as they complimented each other in a way that had not really even been heard on a League record before.
Available on the LITTLE BOOTS album ‘Hands’ via 679 Recordings
MY ROBOT FRIEND featuring ALISON MOYET Waiting (2009)
MY ROBOT FRIEND aka Howard Rigberg created the song ‘We’re The Pet Shop Boys’ in honour of Messrs Tennant and Lowe, who subsequently covered it by way of a reverse compliment. Rigberg went recruited Alison Moyet for her first purely electronic adventure since the YAZOO days on ‘Waiting’. This welcome union with its off-kilter synth sounds alongside her voice no doubt helped ignite her interest in working within the genre again, the result of which was 2013’s ‘the minutes’.
Available on the MY ROBOT FRIEND album ‘Soft-Core’ via Double Feature/Worried Rainbow
PET SHOP BOYS featuring PHILIP OAKEY This Used To Be The Future (2009)
‘This Used To Be The Future’ was a dream trioet that featured Neil Tennant, Philip Oakey and Chris Lowe. With Lowe singing as opposed to just speaking, this triumphant celebration of yesterday’s tomorrow saw Oakey deadpan disappointedly that things didn’t quite turn out as predicted by Raymond Baxter on ‘Tomorrow’s World’! He finally resigns himself and grunts“AMEN!”.
RÖYKSOPP featuring ROBYN The Girl & The Robot (2009)
The centrepiece of RÖYKSOPP’s third album ‘The Girl & The Robot’ was perhaps the culmination of Robyn’s steady rise as a truly independent female artist. Despite having gained success in 1997 with the R’n’B tinged ‘Show Me Love’, her superiors at BMG reacted negatively to her new electropop aspirations inspired by THE KNIFE. Frustrated, she bought herself out of her contract and set up her own Konichiwa Records, giving her the freedom to work with whoever she wanted.
Available on the RÖYKSOPP album ‘Junior’ via Wall Of Sound / PIAS
BLANK & JONES featuring CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN Don’t Stop (2010)
The German dance duo had previously worked with Miss Brücken on ‘Unknown Treasure’, a most gorgeous electrobeat ballad from 2003. ‘Don’t Stop’ was a progression on that but with a wider texture pallet and more abstract electronic overtones. Despite being less song based and having been collaborated on seperately from Blank and Jones, vocally it is classic Claudia with its spoken verse and sexy ice maiden delivery in chorus.
CRYSTAL CASTLES featuring ROBERT SMITH Not In Love (2010)
Re-recorded for single release, Alice Beer took a breather to allow guest Robert Smith from THE CURE to take lead vocals on ‘Not In Love’, a dark but accessible number from CRYSTAL CASTLES’ second album. Smith more than fitted in with the Canadian duo’s aggressive and occasionally chaotic electronic template on this frantic uncovering of a song originally recorded by obscure Toronto new wave combo PLATINUM BLONDE.
Available on the CRYSTAL CASTLES featuring ROBERT SMITH single ‘Not In Love’ via Last Gang/Fiction Records
MOTOR featuring MARTIN L GORE Man Made Machine (2012)
MOTOR’s electro stomper ‘Man Made Machine’ featured vocals by DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore in a collaboration which came over a bit like a camp IGGY POP. Gore certainly sounded a touch nervous and uneasy, luring over the duo’s brand of harder edged schaffel techno which only enhanced its appeal. Incidentally, the same titled parent album also featured guests such as GARY NUMAN, BILLIE RAY MARTIN and NITZER EBB’s Douglas J McCarthy.
Not content with producing MARSHEAUX and collaborating with OMD on ‘Helen Of Troy’, Greek duo FOTONOVELA released a more song based second album featuring a number of prominent international vocalists entitled ‘A Ton Of Love’. One of the numbers ‘Our Sorrow’ featured James New from the much missed MIRRORS. In the vein of classic OMD, New’s majestic vocal touching the heartstrings, the wonderful melancholy was perfect, soulful electronic pop.
Available on the FOTONOVELA album ‘A Ton of Love’ via Undo Records
Foxx and Hulkkonen had worked together previously on various one-off songs like ‘Dislocated’ and ‘Never Been Here Before’ but had never before attempted a body of work with a conceptual theme. When the two found some collaborative time together, the result was ‘European Splendour’, an EP with a grainier downtempo template than before. The lead track ‘Evangeline’ was full of depth, coupled with an anthemic chorus.
Available on the JOHN FOXX & JORI HULKKONEN EP ‘European Splendour’ via Sugarcane Records
SIN COS TAN featuring CASEY SPOONER Avant Garde (2013)
SIN COS TAN’s Jori Hulkkonen first found fame as part of TIGA & ZYNTHERIUS back in 2001 at the height of the Electroclash movement. ‘Avant Garde’ saw Casey Spooner from scene flag bearers FISCHERSPOONER make a guest appearance on the duo’s second long player ‘Afterlife’. The track itself though was more like THE CURE produced by PET SHOP BOYS with Spooner providing a suitably cynical snarl to contrast Juho Paalosmaa’s impassioned lost boy cry.
Available on the SIN COS TAN album ‘Afterlife’ via Solina Records
iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR Activity Of Sound (2014)
Although Wolfgang Flür’s last full album project was as YAMO with ‘Time Pie’ back in 1997, there was this marvellous electronic number entitled ‘Activity Of Sound’, recorded in collaboration with iEUROPEAN. The project of Dublin based artist Sean Barron, the additional female monologue was provided by Barron’s wife, Izabella. The track sees Herr Flür quoting an archive interview with the late avant garde composer John Cage to a soundtrack of hypnotic synthetic bliss.
Available on the iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR download single ‘Activity Of Sound’ via Subculture Records
Some persist on their inflated self-assessment and demand recognition, despite their actual league standing. And these characters are the subject of ‘Johnny Delusional’, the lead single from the self-titled album by FFS, a new project comprising of Glasgow based art school quartet FRANZ FERDINAND and everyone’s favourite quirky pop siblings SPARKS.
While ‘Johnny Delusional’ starts like the intro of FRANZ FERDINAND’s ‘Walk Away’, it then launches into a stomping indie rocker with Russell Mael’s trademark falsetto and Ron Mael’s piano interplay augmented by stabs of octave bass synth. With the lyrical couplet of “I want you, I know I haven’t a chance”, ‘Johnny Delusional’ could be about a girl, fame or acknowledgement…
As a possible reply to ‘Johnny Delusional’, the ‘FFS’ album closer ‘P*ss Off’ has also been publically aired. With the vibrancy of ‘Kimono My House’ and ‘Propaganda’ era SPARKS, it is riddled with jaunty ivories and camp vocal theatrics in the vein of classics such as ‘Something For The Girl With Everything’ and ‘BC’.
Each combo’s own eccentric pop sensibilities have been successfully merged and mutated, with no one act dominating the other. “I think each band unconsciously relinquished a little of who they were in order to enter new territory” said Ron Mael.
“Most collaborations stink!” said FRANZ FERDINAND’s Alex Kapranos and observers would have every reason to be cynical following SPARKS’ less than successful adventures with FAITH NO MORE, ERASURE and JIMMY SOMMERVILLE on the 1997 project ‘Plagiarism’.
But FFS is different… whereas ‘Plagiarism’ was a well-intentioned, if ultimately flawed, revisiting of the Mael brothers’ past glories, the union between SPARKS and FRANZ FERDINAND is centred around working as a six piece band on fresh new material. And this is reflected on ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’, a seven minute journey that takes in acoustic balladry, synthesized orchestrations, layered operatics and classical piano!
Like the sorcerer working with the apprentice to double the magical power, over a period of just over two weeks in late 2014, ‘FFS’ was recorded “all together, in a room” according to Kapranos, “So no hanging around or fannying about”. Based on the evidence of the three songs premiered in full so far, FFS are presenting some fine idiosyncratic but accessible pop.
‘FFS’ is released by Domino Records on 8th June 2015
FFS play the following UK dates: Glasgow Art School (16th June), London Troxy (26th June), Manchester Albert Hall (29th August)
If there was ever a musical statement of intent, it has been made by Giorgio Moroder’s most recent offering ‘74 Is The New 24’, the calling card for his brand new album out in 2015.
It shows once again how electronic dance music should be done, and that there is no need to stoop down to guetta level or the retarded formulaic drops of harris and garrix… and no, their names do not merit the use of capital letters! Distinctly Giorgio, with hints of his own ‘Chase’ from ‘Midnight Express’ as well as his defining productions for Donna Summer and SPARKS, ‘74 Is The New 24’ could almost be a medley of all his pioneering work.
But he has given plenty to music so it is now time for him to grab it all back. The record will be Giorgio Moroder’s first solo album in 30 years and is set to feature Sia, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX and Foxes. Will ‘74 Is The New 24’ reach the heights of ‘From Here To Eternity’ or ‘E=MC2’? It really doesn’t matter because based on this single and its predecessor ‘Racer’, Moroder has shown those chancers on their laptops how it’s actually done!
As Da Maestro put it himself: “Dance music doesn’t care where you live. It doesn’t care who your friends are. It doesn’t care how much money you make. It doesn’t care if you’re 74 or if you are 24 because… 74 is the new 24!”
So if ‘74 Is The New 24’, then ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK must be the new teenagers!
’74 Is The New 24′ is available as a download single via Giorgio Moroder Music LCC under exclusive license to Sony
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
via Virgin Records
via Music Club Deluxe
via Cherry Pop
via Virgin France
via Warner Music
via ZTT Records
via SPV Records
via Sony Music
via EMI Music
via Virgin Records
via Tsunami Records
via EMI Music
via Mute Records
via 679 Recordings
via EMI Music
via Wall Of Sound / PIAS
via Kontor Records
via Last Gang/Fiction Records
via CLR
via Undo Records
via Sugarcane Records
via Solina Records
via Subculture Records
? It really doesn’t matter because based on this single and its predecessor ‘Racer’, Moroder has shown those chancers on their laptops how it’s actually done!
Follow Us!