Django Django -‘Django Django’ (Because)

Are Django Django an indie band? Well, up to a point. It’s a great relief to be able to start of by proclaiming that this very much NOT indie by numbers (which I think I reached saturation with several years ago -and I think is why guitar bands aren’t selling in the way they sometimes do at the moment). There’s a family link with the much missed Beta Band (drummer David Maclean is the younger brother of Beta Band’s John Maclean), and while there might be something in common with The Betas, there’s a krautrock (or German Prog-Rock, if you prefer) vein going through the album. They might be playing drums, guitar and bass, but these guys know there’s a world beyond the meat and two veg guitar world. Positive comparisons might be made to the way that both Vampire Weekend and Bwani Junction have influences that they have built upon that aren’t standard NME/Evening Session fodder.

Are Django Django a Scottish band? This much is clear: they met at Edinburgh College of Art (merely a block or two away from 17 Seconds Towers) and formed in 2009. The Beta Band were Scottish. There are people now popping up out of the woodwork to say that they saw the band at small venues in Edinburgh (these are rapidly disappearing) in the previous few years. NME says they’re Scottish; The Guardian refers to them as being from East London.

Are Django Django worth listening to? Oh God, yes! These young men have produced a psychedelic wonder of an album that makes you want to dance and charge around. It’s not everything but the kitchen sink eclecticism, but it is music made by people who understand the beauty of the pop song, the art of experimentation and share a common vision and spirit of adventure. Tracks like ‘Firewater’ and ‘Hail Bop’ will doubtless be blaring from far more than just a handful of Hoxton Hipsters’ headphones before long.

Have they chosen a silly name, especially as you end up saying the same word four times? Yes, but on the strength of this (debut) album, I think we’ll forgive them. And let’s face it, The Beatles might be a silly name, but it would be stupid to change it now…

Django Django is out now on Because.