Checkmate Savage was recorded in the band’s adopted home city of Glasgow, beginning at Chemikal Underground’s Chem 19 and finishing at Franz Ferdinand’s own facility at an old Town Hall in Govan. Paul Savage of cult Glasgow band The Delgados served as producer, engineer and guiding force. The recording sessions were like their early jams: long, sinuous and radical; the band thumping out rhythms on broken wood blocks and organist Andy’s ’shelvaphones’, a home-made instrument created from metal shelf brackets.

Gerry (bassist) on their prolonged sessions:

“When you have been playing together for a good while you’d be amazed at the breadth of music you come up with. We ended up playing stuff that was folk, pop, techno with guitars, classic rock, metal, noise terrorism, gospel, soundscapes and parodied every band that we hated as well – it was great fun,”

The Phantom Band is a dionysiac of six people trying with all their might to pull in six very different directions; studio arguments were heated and personal.

If it sounds like they’re hard to pin down in words, then that’s the idea. They took to calling themselves The Phantom Band after a period of switching their identity with each successive gig, performing as Wooden Trees, Robert Redford and more. Early photos of the band pictured them with bags over their heads. It’s all part of their mystery and sense of the bizarre: some shows have seen them play with a giant, smoke breathing wolf head, others, with a Stairmaster onstage so audience members can work-out during their set.

In addition to The Phantom Band, the individual members each make music in other projects and guises, some better known than others. A few of them have an offshoot band called Omnivore Demon, a costumed improv group that play mostly at exhibitions and art events while Rick does solo folk stuff under the name of Rick Redbeard. Each Phantom brings a strong sense of identity to the project, counting artists, social workers, librarians and lawyers in their ranks. Never short of ideas and opinions, the entire band take a key interest in the album artwork, posters and onstage visuals that all add to this extraordinary band’s immersing world.

“Left Hand Wave” | download

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UK Tour in February:

16 Newcastle The End
17 York Venue TBA
18 Bristol Louisiana
19 Derby The Royal
20 Guildford Boileroom
21 London Macbeth – Twisted Licks night
22 Exeter Cavern
23 Brighton Freebutt
24 Winchester Railway
26 Glasgow King Tuts
27 Inverness Madhatters
28 Stirling Tollbooth

March:

01 Aberdeen Tunnels
13 Manchester The Deaf Institute- Akoustik Anarkhy night

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