list.co.uk/music INDIE/POP FRANZ FERDINAND Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 25 Mar
’It’s kind of like a holiday with your pals,’ muses Franz Ferdinand bassist Bob Hardy, on the Glasgow guitar pop artistes’ rationale for taking a good long break prior to making their latest album, following three records in quick succession up to 2009’s Tonight. ‘If you went for a three-week holiday together,’ he continues, ‘you’d probably have to avoid each other for a bit after you got back before you went for a drink again. It was kind of like that, but compounded.’ And so Franz reconvene again for their fourth set Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, and by goodness do they sound glad to see each other. It’s comfortably the most energised, exciting and plain enjoyable thing they’ve done since their Mercury Prize- winning self-titled 2004 debut. ‘When we did come back we felt fresh again,’ says Hardy, ‘and I think that translated into the music.’
As they enter a second round of touring for the record, it’s appropriately at the famous Barrowland that Franz will play their biggest hometown show in several years – a venue where the band will feel the
hand of history on their shoulders in all sorts of ways. ‘We actually used to rehearse there – there used to be rehearsal rooms underneath it,’ Hardy reminisces. ‘The loos you used were the actual Barrowlands toilets. You could go for a pee at 11 o’clock in the pitch black with no one there. It was fucking creepy. You could sense how much had gone on in that place.’ (Malcolm Jack) ■ See list.co.uk for a longer version of this interview.
ROCK-ELECTRONIC DUO DARKSIDE The Art School, Glasgow, Wed 26 Mar
’How did we meet?’ ponders New Yorker Nicolas Jaar on his relationship with his partner on the Darkside, Dave Harrington. ‘We were set up on a blind date,’ he decides with a laugh. The truth is, they kind of were. Jaar, more famous for dense and beautiful compositions based around detailed electronic atmospherics with more than a tip of the hat to jazz styles, was put onto Harrington by mutual friend Will Epstein, now a sometime member of Jaar’s band whose own High Water project opens Darkside’s shows more often than not. ‘You accumulate a basic set of tendencies as a musician,’ says Harrington. ‘Nico speaks of
improvisation, and for me I think that’s the fundamental tenet of playing music. I believe there are two kinds of musician – those who improvise and those who don’t. It’s maybe a romantic notion, but I think if you improvise you can make music with any other improviser. You can step into a room together and something will happen.’ That’s what happened with Harrington and Jaar, although they’re actually a blend of both types, releasing actual pre-written recordings (see last year’s debut album Psychic) and dragging their work into new realms on the live stage.
When they debuted their self-titled EP in 2011, the live gigs saw three tracks spun out to an hour’s set, and such is their creative force that they spent the week following the completion of Psychic reworking Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories in their own brooding analogue style. ‘Call it excess energy or post-album folly,’ laughs Jaar, ‘I guess we just lost our minds there.’ Yet he’s enjoying this band a lot, and it seems to have supplanted his own solo career for the moment. ‘Improvisation is one of the great joys of being a musician,’ he says. ‘It’s like having a conversation and trying to get to a strand of truth. Most nights you can’t find it, but when you get there it’s tremendously exciting.’ (David Pollock)
Previews | MUSIC
A N D Y K N O W L E S
EXPOSURE: MAGIC EYE
This haze-addled Edinburgh dream- pop trio are easy to love, and to (lose) focus on. Formed a couple of years ago, and currently under the jurisdic- tion of Los Angeles DIY paradise Not Not Fun, Magic Eye channel a day-glo fug of exotica, as attested by their wondrous EP Babylon. Hello, Magic Eye. To whom do we owe this mystical pleasure? AJ: Alex Johnston (guitar / programming), Bek Oliva (guitar / vocals) and Roma Galloway (vocals) – we got together as we all lived in the same house. Musically, we like a lot of things – when we were starting to write, we liked the Durutti Column’s LC album. More recently I’ve been into Aphex Twin, Evian Christ and Mika Vainio.
The heavenly tones of Bek Oliva also feature on a brilliant 2012 Errors collaboration. . . Yeah, Errors emailed us about singing on ‘Relics’ which we were totally into. You can hear it on their album New Relics. You’ve previously released music on Edinburgh’s ace Song, By Toad and Animal Image Search, but how did the LA / Not Not Fun association come about? We sent them some songs and they were into them! We couldn’t believe they would ever release something of ours.
What’s coming up for Magic Eye? We’re organising some European dates with Sapphire Slows, who’s also on Not Not Fun. We’re going to put up some songs that we didn’t think fitted Babylon. I’ve also just finished an album with my group NAKED – it’s sort of Japanese night music. (Nicola Meighan)
■ Babylon is out now via Not Not Fun. See review, page 76. Hear more at soundcloud.com/magic-eye-1 and facebook.com/magiceyemusic
20 Mar–17 Apr 2014 THE LIST 73 20 Mar–17 Apr 2014 THE LIST 73