Django Django - Django Django (17/04/2012)
Django Django are a band that sound like their name suggests they sound. Vaguely foreign, repetitive but aurally pleasing, catchy – an onomatopoeic band. Jangly keyboard, tribal drums, and percussive sounds echo throughout their self-titled debut.
Retro-sounding synths merge with guitar to underpin chanted and multi-layered vocals. Their album could be played as the ideal soundtrack to an Africana themed indie-hipster party where everyone is wearing feathers and face paint and potentially dropping acid. Indeed, the band are often dubbed as 'psychedelia', and their music sounds like tripped out art-pop. They are Jinja Safari with grittier beats.
Django Django are experimental and unique insofar as the LP is a concept album of sorts – unusual these days. A heavily synth-ed, spaced out 'Introduction' acts as the opener, complete with jungle sounds and eerie harmonies. The tribal beats kick in on this track, setting the tone for the rest of the album. 'Hail Bop' follows on seamlessly (this is why the album is best played in its entirety, not shuffled), with an electric guitar riff bringing the indie-rock flavour to the foreground. The aptly-named 'Skies Over Cairo' has a middle-eastern feel, somewhat like the score to Disney's Aladdin (but then again, maybe that's because I watched it recently).
The four-piece band met while studying art in Edinburgh, Scotland, and have made enormous waves in the relatively short space of time since their formation in 2009. Their debut album has received rave reviews from British music publications NME and The Guardian. They have frequently been compared to the disbanded Beta Band, and interestingly Django's drummer Dave McLean is the brother of John from the former 'folktronica' band.
The eclectic sounds of Django Django include, of all things, coconuts. Maclean explains that while it sounds like an odd instrument to carry on tour, the coconut halves create a sound similar to horses galloping. You can hear the coconuts on 'Love's Dart,' and the percussive sounds achieved throughout are pulsing and joyous. 'Default' is the second single off the LP, and very accessible in its avant-pop guitar riffage and clipped vocals. This catchy tune is illustrative of how Django Django may come to occupy that limited space between indie and mainstream.
Their sound hits the sweet spot between indie, pop and electro, like Yeasayer and MGMT before them. Django Django's music will undoubtedly satiate our dub-loving, beat-worshipping and often pretentious generation, who seek out progressively artistic sounding retro-esque tunes with ethnic influences and diverse instrumentation. And of course an occasional chanted, anthemic chorus so we feel involved.
Rebecca McCann
Retro-sounding synths merge with guitar to underpin chanted and multi-layered vocals. Their album could be played as the ideal soundtrack to an Africana themed indie-hipster party where everyone is wearing feathers and face paint and potentially dropping acid. Indeed, the band are often dubbed as 'psychedelia', and their music sounds like tripped out art-pop. They are Jinja Safari with grittier beats.
Django Django are experimental and unique insofar as the LP is a concept album of sorts – unusual these days. A heavily synth-ed, spaced out 'Introduction' acts as the opener, complete with jungle sounds and eerie harmonies. The tribal beats kick in on this track, setting the tone for the rest of the album. 'Hail Bop' follows on seamlessly (this is why the album is best played in its entirety, not shuffled), with an electric guitar riff bringing the indie-rock flavour to the foreground. The aptly-named 'Skies Over Cairo' has a middle-eastern feel, somewhat like the score to Disney's Aladdin (but then again, maybe that's because I watched it recently).
The four-piece band met while studying art in Edinburgh, Scotland, and have made enormous waves in the relatively short space of time since their formation in 2009. Their debut album has received rave reviews from British music publications NME and The Guardian. They have frequently been compared to the disbanded Beta Band, and interestingly Django's drummer Dave McLean is the brother of John from the former 'folktronica' band.
The eclectic sounds of Django Django include, of all things, coconuts. Maclean explains that while it sounds like an odd instrument to carry on tour, the coconut halves create a sound similar to horses galloping. You can hear the coconuts on 'Love's Dart,' and the percussive sounds achieved throughout are pulsing and joyous. 'Default' is the second single off the LP, and very accessible in its avant-pop guitar riffage and clipped vocals. This catchy tune is illustrative of how Django Django may come to occupy that limited space between indie and mainstream.
Their sound hits the sweet spot between indie, pop and electro, like Yeasayer and MGMT before them. Django Django's music will undoubtedly satiate our dub-loving, beat-worshipping and often pretentious generation, who seek out progressively artistic sounding retro-esque tunes with ethnic influences and diverse instrumentation. And of course an occasional chanted, anthemic chorus so we feel involved.
Rebecca McCann