Django Django - Django Django Album Review

The two minute opening track to Django Django's debut self-titled album sets the Django Django scene without hesitation through a blend of layered synths and electronic loops, one of which, beneath the lot, sounds strangely like the ambience of a rainforest with its' tweeting and glitching. Above this multi-layered tapestry of electronics is a vocal melody doubled by whistling which offers a flavour of the Wild West; from the Rainforest to the Wild West via music technology in a matter of seconds, blimey. Accompanied by rumbling drums, the blend then crescendos to segue into 'Hail Bop' at which point a pounding stomp kicks into the groove. Amongst the synths, drums and bass, there's now a guitar over which the sung melodies echo with their close vocal harmonies sounding almost like The Beach Boys being projected forward into the 21st Century. Django Django definitely have that element of stateside-created surf pop laced into their electro groove though they're entirely home-grown from this side of the Atlantic; in fact, the band formed in London in 2008 having previously met at Edinburgh College Of Art.

Django Django's fashionable indie electro strut oozes into single 'Default' as something of a revitalised electro-tinged Franz Ferdinand. The tracks' verses sound clear sandwiched between an undeniably infectious instrumental hook before the track grinds to a halt. Rough and bare sounding, 'Firewater' opens with pattering drums beneath a swaggering octave bass line that, when Vinny Neff's vocals enter, sounds like the result of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's 'Spread Your Love' meeting The Beach Boys. Acoustic guitar is also clearly audible in this, one of Django Django's more folk blues sounding tracks, which seems to take a step back from the dependency on electronics which has been so evident in the opening three tracks all but for the synth-fuelled, Beatles-esque psychedelic instrumental. The band are then straight back to the electronics with the whirring and squelching introduction and accompaniment to the similarly psychedelic 'Waveforms'. Django Django kind of have a free, experimental blend that resists easy classification almost like that of cool contemporaries Hot Chip, Metronomy and Cut Copy for example.

'Zumm Zumm's layers of synths really give the track a strong flavour of computer game music which is fuelled by experimentalism when the tambourine dominated percussion crashes in. As the vocals enter and the track pushes forwards it emerges as another infectious, pumping electro art pop tune made for the live environment. With 'Hand Of Man' Django Django again step back into a sweet, dreamy, folk pop blend even stepping back to a sensitive vocal passage with only percussion (clap) accompaniment; a calm contrast to much of the rest of the album which is characterised by a synth heavy electro dance pulse. Vocal harmony and sensitive accompaniment also make an appearance in 'Love's Dart' which, perhaps minus it's' percussion, could have easily come from Bombay Bicycle Club's recent acoustic album Flaws. From a foreboding air raid siren entrance, 'Wor' kicks in with a low pitched charging guitar riff and a real foot stomping Wild West type pace. Later, 'Silver Rays' then concludes the album with a foot stomping charge ridden with the now familiar pops, squeaks and squelches of electronic.

A solid debut sure to get the indie kids dancing.

Hannah Spencer