![]() It may be the most exciting thing to happen to British rock Britpop's heyday, the source of 2004's best single - the omnipresent "Take Me Out" - and an eponymous debut album that shifted a faintly staggering 200,00 copies in one month, and the reason the Glasgow quartet have won the coveted title of GQ's Band Of The year. Franz Ferdinind's music may be many things. "This is going to be so awesome!" gushes one magazine rep.Īs it turns out, the experience is awesome only in the way that a sinus wash is awesome. They are to perform a mid-morning acoustic set for the staff of a US rock magazine. It's as if it starts with a cool funky riff - feels just right at that tempo - but once it starts to groove they feel they need to push it a little the final 112 is then the comfortable tempo they can carry on with - it doesn't need to go faster than that.Washington Times improbably compared them to the Bay City Rollers), Franz Ferdinand's US record company has devised an entirely new form of humiliation, presumably concealed within the small print of their recently signed contract, rumoured to be worth more than £800,000. It begins at 94, is up to 106 after 3 minutes or so, and then 111-112 at around the 7-8 minute mark - which is where it then stays pretty solid for the remaining 8 minutes. It's common in live performances - even sometimes in one-take studio ones (pre-click age) - for tempos to steadily increase, but that's usually the result of nerves, or just starting the tune at a too-slow tempo to begin with.īut one that's always intrigued me - because it's such a careful recording - is Herbie Hancock's ( ), which gradually increases in tempo throughout - at least through the first half. ![]() ![]() Dexy's acceleration managed to create an irresistible excitement (among their fans anyway), but Franz Ferdinand were always hopelessly uncool (IMHO). Where they're really obvious and planned (as in ( ) and ( )), I just think they sound cheesy. Personally I don't like tempo changes unless they're just subtle organic fluctuations. It actually sounds pretty bad on the studio version but they work it in so well with the groove on the live track. ![]() There’s a part of the song where a sample of a saxophone is played as a kind of sax solo, and I don’t know if it’s just because it was recorded that way of because the tempo doesn’t quite match up but it fluctuates in and out of time, constantly speeding up and slowing down in short repeating phrases, and it might sound kind of strange but I just absolutely love the pure chaotic nature of that sax, the way it rushes and then seems to compensate by slowing down then over-rushes again and so on. His fingers just glide over the piano and it feels urgent and energising.Ī different song is the live version of ‘Smilin’ Days, Summer Holiday’ from Fishmans last live album. Ryo Fukui has a great track on his first jazz album called ‘Early Summer’ where it launches into double time about 3 minutes in and man it just zips along like a train, it’s great. I’ve found that I really love the kind of tense urgent rushing melodies when played quickly, something about not being a robot on the beat makes the song feel so much more human and enjoyable to me.
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