Love Saves the Day
The recent February snow fall may have brought the UK to a pathetically predictable standstill (as if the Nordic countries didn’t exist for some helpful advice), but that wasn’t going to be able to stop a life affirming night of musical time travelling fuelled by pure euphoric joy in the aptly named Oslo club in Hackney.
There may have been frozen snow across the land, but there was genre boundaries melting away as North London outfit Franc Moody headlined a show that effectively transported the room back the birthplace of modern dance music, David Mancuso’s The Loft in 1970 New York City, where fittingly enough his first house party called ‘Love Saves the Day’ also happened in February.
Mancuso was known for audiophile-quality sound systems and playing anything and everything that just made you want shake your funky tail feather in a true celebration of the gods of groove, funk, disco and hands in the air good times.
All of these qualities are wonderfully imbued in the sound of Franc Moody in a live band outfit, as if Mancuso had decided to set up a live in-house band for his gatherings. Fusing the most joyous and contagious elements of early soul seeped funk, disco, house with nods to George Clinton, Nile Rodgers’ Chic and even in a gleeful way nods of Wham, particularly in their presentation of pastel clothing and neon sign that wouldn’t have gone a miss at Club Tropicana.
Despite the retro moves, it is a thoroughly modern composition and production that is second to none, with a ridiculously immense sound quality that had every single person in the sold out venue smiling from ear to throwing shapes ear they built a solid set of what is sure fire hit after hit (both old and forthcoming), and they don’t even have an album out yet (apparently one is hopefully coming soon).
Considering that, they have one of the most accomplished professional sounds I’ve ever heard from a young band, with many notes of well versed bands who have toured for decades. And they used that sound with ever increasing dance floor mastery as the intensity built up across the set with the destination clearly set for Rave Central.
And it was that ultimate objective that completely brought it all together. Very skilful musicians, with great taste and influences, invited guest singers with quality voices all in complete sync to have a bloody great time, turning up the groove, vibes and sound until they exploded like a volcanic rave disco in the final track ‘Yuri’.
Absolutely one of the best live acts I’ve seem in ages (think Friendly Fires doing a live set), 2018 is truly going to be their year, they might even be able to dance the UK back into collective sanity, where we celebrate the power of diversity, unity and Music Saves the Day.
For music and information, check out francmoody.fm and soundcloud.com/franc-moody