Late Night Tales: Franz Ferdinand (2LP)

Franz Ferdinand are welcomed into the Late Night Tales family with a diverse 20-track selection of musical influences, inspirations, diversions & discoveries. The quartet have released four studio albums, including their 2004 eponymous debut, which went gold pretty much everywhere there was a record store, as well as picking up the Mercury Music Prize & a couple of Brit Awards for Best British Group & Best British Rock Act. They have subsequently released You Could Have It So Much Better, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand & last year’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action.

Announcing themselves with Franz Ferdinand’s exclusive cover of the highly collectable ‘Leaving My Old Life Behind’, originally performed by Jonathan Halper (who appeared in Kenneth Anger’s cult film Puce Moment), their Late Night Tales mix flows between dark and light, introspection & affection, dancefloor & horizontal appreciation. Hear them connect the dots between Can, Serge Gainsbourg & The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Sandy Nelson’s percussive workout ‘Let There Be Drums’, the irrepressible Ian Dury, funky sensations Zapp & Disco Dub Band and sonic explorer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Record collectors will note the inclusion of Carrie Cleveland’s Northern Soul anthem ‘Love Will Set You Free’ – the LP attracts sales of over £300. Also included are a set of brilliantly eccentric covers: Justus Köhncke’s dizzying interpretation of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ and R. Stevie Moore’s ‘I’m Only Sleeping’. It wouldn’t be right for Franz Ferdinand to produce a mix such as this without a nod to the country that brought them together, so Glasgow’s Life Without Buildings’ ‘New Town’ appears alongside Boards Of Canada’s ‘Reach For The Dead’. As they leave us to wonder & wander with American Spring’s Brian Wilson produced ‘Sweet Mountain’ we wave goodbye to our senses & our suitcases on this mind tour bus. We’ve visited soul, funk, reggae, pop, krautrock and other genres but before we depart, Franz frontman Alex Kapranos treats us to a final send off with his self-penned story ‘Defibrillator’.

“When we first formed the band I made Alex a tape for his car, an old Merc estate in which we spent a lot of time, driving to and from rehearsal spaces and gigs. All our equipment and the four of us could (almost) comfortably fit inside. It was everything I was listening to at the time, Dr. Alimantado, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Plaid, Johnny Dangerous, amongst others. An eclectic or entirely random and disjointed mix depending on your perspective, it represented all our individual idiosyncrasies that coalesced to form the sound of the band, though I was unaware of it at the time. With this mix we’ve tried to do something similar, we all selected the songs, based on what we listen to together on tours and at home alone, any sustained mood or flow that happens is purely accidental. Oh yeah, the Merc estate got written off and towed away with the tape still in the player.”