Django Django

Electro-Funk Desert Storm Debut from Django Django

It’s appropriate that the first track is called ‘Introduction’ because what an introduction this eponymous debut has been for Django Django.

The band are a London based group of Edinburgh art college friends.  They have more than a whiff of experimental Beatles or Beach Boys to them but this is allayed and mixed with new electro-synth beats similar to Hot Chip: a potent mix.  Since they released the album, comparisons to Hot Chip starting out have constantly cropped up and that’s for good reason because they seem to display that same experimental abandon in the studio that so endeared us to their fellow Londoners.   The tunes navigate their way across an eclectic and exciting pop-dance landscape infused with their own distinctive and hypnotic vocals.

The compressed chant-like choruses, that are the main theme throughout the album, are heard first on “Default” and the electro-suspense created here has an addictive quality to it, “We just lit the fire and now you want to put it out/ Take one for the team/ You’re a cog in the machine/ It’s like a default.”  These vocals are immediate, jarring and force the listener to follow the rhythm driving the tune.  This is a ploy employed on most of the album to get into the listeners mind – and it works!

A layered synth sound pervades the record as it is furnished with looped electro beats and grooves, plucked guitar strings, crickets and much more that mesh together to match the chorus lines in their captivating intensity.  It’s an exciting and imaginative first outing for Django Django that has seen them on the festival circuit every since its release in January 2012 and whenever the revelry subsides slightly we’ll be hoping that they head back to their experimental abandon in the studio to further push the indie pop envelope.  One thing is clear from their meteoric rise and that’s that this band are restless, they don’t like standing still and they probably never will.

The song Zumm Zumm has a relentless chorus line, “Got to get to know, Got to get to know” and it’s fitting because that’s exactly what people need to do with this album.