Django Django Play Up A Storm
[This article was originally published in MNPR Magazine]
Django Django aren’t your usual quartet out of London. Many of their tracks feature soft and urgent vocals built up over a synth layer that pulls together around a sultry tones from a base guitar, and sparkling drums. Beyond that, every track is different – you could find yourself immersed in vintage type synth and electro pop, or floating away in an abstract pschedelic number. It’s this genre defying tendency that has always made their music so intriguing, and why their debut self-titled album was nominated for the 2012 Mercury Prize.
Their unique style has continued to move in fascinating directions ever since, and they are currently touring with their third album “Marble Skies” which was released this January. MNPR caught them in Aberdeen, and while it was a blizzard outside, Django Django made sure they played a storm inside. The venue was buzzing, and not just because of the impressive pedal boards on display in front of the guitars, or the inevitable cameo from the theremin – you could hear that the guys had definitely came to play.
They started out with the title track from the new album which comes off a lot more pop than post-apocalyptic punk, but still with Django Django’s tell-tale mix of disco bass line with extra synth please, and it set the tone for an imaginative romp of a show narrated by vocoders and colourful choruses. There were some great moments: Vincent Neff’s rendition on “Surface to Air” in place of Rebecca Taylor’s contralto definitely made some people smile, and leaping over the bodies in the photo pit straight on to the barrier to be next to the crowd made everybody smile. Part of the magic of their performance is the ease with which the band can flick between doing their thing, seemingly zoned out and oblivious of everything other than their music, and whipping the crowd into a bouncing frenzy. Their live style is as varied as their music, and that’s why we love them.
