Last week’s post was kind of out of line with the level of nepotism I’d told you to expect from this column so here I am back on track again with a new song made by one of my best friends.

Django Django was started quite recently by David Maclean and a few other like minded fellows. Their sound is kind of difficult to pinpoint but I’d say it nods towards rockabilly, psych, disco and surf in equal-ish measure. That sounds like an odd mix but they pull it off with ease as is well demonstrated in the single “Storm”, which is due out soon. So far they have self-produced a bunch of impressive songs and, after a few pretty difficult to watch early live shows, they seem to be nailing the whole performance thing really well now too.

This track is inspired by ‘Hale-Bop’, the most widely observed comet of the twentieth century and also, if I remember correctly, by the Heaven’s Gate cult who, apart from having the greatest logo of all time, are also famous for the mass suicide which coincided with the appearance of said comet in 1997. 

Anyway, it starts off with a huge slo-mo disco beat before a Jack Nitzsche-style baritone line and crystalline echoed chords take us up high into the stratosphere. It’s pretty genre-less stuff but the eclecticism of the whole arrangement hints at a light Beta Band influence, which is hardly surprising given David’s longtime ties with those guys. 

Influences noted, I think they are going somewhere all their own with this stuff and I’m seriously looking forward to making them cry in the studio soon.

Listen:

Django Django - “Hail Bop”

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RODAIDH MCDONALD