Music from Scotland for girls to dance to.

Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand were born of happy coincidence – the band just sort of happened. “There are loads of ways of expressing yourself and making an impact on the world,” says Alex Kapranos, the genre-hopping quartet’s frontman. “It doesn’t matter what the medium is. You can learn the tools if you have the will to express yourself.”

Those tools were literally handed to him when, at the tail end of 2001, Alex inherited a bass. After persuading his artist mate, Bob Hardy, to don that instrument, Franz Ferdinand were conceived. But it was only after Alex met guitarist Nick McCarthy in a schoolboy scuffle over some vodka, and Paul Thomson took over the drums, that the line-up was complete. Despite their somewhat ramshackle beginnings, Franz Ferdinand had a very clear intention: to make music for girls to dance to. “As opposed to music for hairy men to mosh to,” explains Alex.

Franz Ferdinand want to inject rock with a touch of dance culture glamour: “Why should people only go to clubs to dance,” he says. And by fusing pulsing electro with the thundering power of The Stooges, the decadence of angular 80s synth-pop with indie’s swollen heart, Franz Ferdinand have concocted an irresistible musical mash that even the fairest of the fairest sex couldn’t resist. Hail be to Franz Ferdinand. Clearly, some things are just meant to be. Alexia Loundras 05 December 03

Franz Ferdinand – The Darts Of Pleasure, out now on Domino Records.

useful link: www.franzferdinand.co.uk