Django Django shoot for the stars on psychedelic second album
Django Django earned five-star reviews and topped end-of-year lists with their self-titled 2012 debut album.
The North London-based indie-pop quartet even received a rave from Bridgetown granny Deb “Spoons” Perry, who gave breakthrough single Default “nine spoons out of 10”.
“The guitar reminds me of the beach, my teenage years,” she said, before going on to laud the “great colourful little number”.
While Perry was a good sport in the record company stunt, her hearty endorsement and enthusiastic spoons cover is a favourite in Derry, Northern Ireland, the home town of Django Django singer/guitarist Vincent Neff.
“It’s my mum and dad’s biggest claim to fame,” he laughs down the line from London. “They sent it to all their friends, who are totally amused by it, all these Irish people.”
Neff jokes that Django Django were tempted but didn’t record any spoons on the follow-up, Born Under Saturn, an album which pushes their space jams further into the cosmos.
The frontman wrote Default and most of the songs on the eponymous debut before reshaping them with drummer and in-band producer Dave Maclean.
This time around he worked with bassist Jim Dixon and keys player Tommy Grace before taking them into Maclean’s Tottenham studio.
“When you’re working on stuff, you can go a bit mad — a bit of cabin fever — so it was good to have fresh ears come in,” Neff explains.
“It was also good for me to have Jim and Tommy there to share the load,” he adds. “When you’ve got three writers, it makes things more diverse.”
Where the “frenzied” material on the debut was tailored to be performed at warehouse parties and clubs, Born Under Saturn orbits around tracks Neff describes as “head-nodders” and “more chuggy” taking inspiration from dancehall, hip-hop and trip-hop.
The surf guitar survives and features on 4000 Years and Shake and Tremble, both likely to be live favourites alongside 2010 single WOR.
Break the Glass was inspired by a real crack in the studio window, while Neff reckons Grace’s High Noon is “slightly medieval”.
Django Django’s idiosyncratic brand of psychedelia has made them a staple of festivals from Glastonbury to Fuji Rock and our own Splendour in the Grass.
The lads all quit day jobs before the release of the first album and simply didn’t want to “drop the ball” on their second outing.
They were poised to self-release their debut before Emmanuel de Buretel, who signed French legends Daft Punk, signed them to the Paris-based Because Music label.
“They were the only people who were interested in us,” Neff says, modestly. “Our French is still awful, it’s really embarrassing.”
Born Under Saturn is out May 1.
