Live
< Django Django at 93 Feet East, Shoreditch
words by Frankie Kane
Hundreds of bands play in London every week and for many of them it's their first gig. There they are, letting it all hang out. The culmination of all that practice, picking the right outfits,the right name and trying to sound like their heroes. Many seem to think that out-there art skool idioms are where it's at, others pay out rock'n'roll attitude like it really matters, whilst others go for the nerdish, revolt-against-the-revolution, twee and pure of heart factor. And I suppose this is all fair enough at the end of the day - licorice allsorts and all that. Some bands however, are just there doing their thing. No hype, no agenda, no costumes and no bullshit. Usually this is not the band you are there to see due to the fact that the day-glo, conceptual pseudo-avant gardists at the top of the bill have usually garnered more column inches.
Cue Django Django - a swift kick to the head for all the scenester try-hards and playing a first gig warm-up set at free-in, £3.80 a can, 90 Free Fridays at 93 Feet East. The room is John West-packed and the kids are clutching their cans of beer for dear life. Django Django take the stage and immediately get down to business. There is a definite attentive mood in the crowd. The songs are sparsely constructed and arranged in a clear and thoughtful manner with the vocal equal in place to the other instruments for most of the set. The band play in a modest almost ergonomically muted fashion belying the 'upbeat dancer' tempo of their set.
Django Django aren't trying to genre-create, (many pretenders seem to think that this is the key to making their mark) but their sound is definitely a composite one. Influences are honestly displayed and effectively worked. There is a strong roots element to Firewater's "Howlin' at the moonlight" chorus which evokes Canned Heat's Alan Wilson and the soul country of Tony Joe White. The Link Wray guitar on Hail Bop is pinned to a Rimini disco beat and on Default acid house-style editing on the vocal is sound-bedded with a dancing 4/4 beat homaging Motor City era Ian Levine. Their meandering sound recalls Can twisting the knobs for Steve Miller Band with Delia Derbyshire on the valve oscillators. These disparate parts although seemingly in conflict work together to create extremely well balanced and pop-informed tunes with subversive under tones. The sound is bereft of scene, it's more like a sculpting of carefully considered influences and ideas which are looking in their own direction instead of mimicing something which has already passed.
Django Django are as yet unsigned but there is talk of a single and two more gigs coming up in September. I'm not gonna go overboard here. The thing is these guys appear to be answering some of post rocks many questions by a reappropriation of post rock ideals for traditional rock pop means. They seem to have absorbed rock as a structual influence and post rock as a nuance to this. Whilst bands such as Isis and Pelican have forged a metal/post rock hybrid the same could be said of this lot's pop/rock/post rock unification. And this is not hype. It's advice. Go see for yourself.
All photography by Jane Stockdale
---- www.myspace.com/djangotime
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