Ribbon Music
Eight months after its U.K. release Edinburgh’s Django Django finally gets a domestic release in North America. It couldn’t arrive at a better time as the self-titled debut received a nomination for this year’s Mercury Prize and has been given 6-1 odds to win.
The Beta Band are the band Django Django will likely forever be held up to be it for the Edinburgh connection or because they sound an awful lot like the cult band famous for disowning their debut LP. Or is it because producer/drummer David Maclean is the younger brother of the Betas’ John Maclean? That could be it.
But similarly Django’s patchwork sound has an “everything but the kitchen sink” quality throwing everything from psychedelia Krautrock surf R&B folk electronic — you name it — to the wall and making it stick like Super Glue. There is no shortage of ideas or ambition which works to their strengths.
But for all of the near-perfect reviews the U.K. press gave the album there’s a surprising lack of staying power with these songs. “Default” is a standout bounding to a twitchy chorus and peculiar percussion but you wonder why more of Django Django’s songs can’t match it. “Zumm Zumm” and “Skies Over Cairo” zig and zag with cool pulsations like the best kind of Hot Chip track but the hooks just aren’t particularly sweet.
Hey using coconuts on “Love’s Dart” is a novel idea but no matter how many of those Django Django come up with it’s hard to agree with the Brits that these guys have made the best debut of 2012.
