Late Night Tales: Django Django (Vinyl)
Django Django is the latest band invited to curate a prestigious Late Night Tales collection, Like many of the best British groups, the Djangos met at art school, specifically Edinburgh College Of Art, before reconnecting in London.
Django Django released their self-titled debut album on quirky French indie Because in early 2012 to some acclaim, winding up in many critics’ end of year lists (Top Ten in the NME and Top 30 in Rolling Stone, among them).
Check out mixes that rock between two-step delights like Roy Davis Jr’s ‘Gabrielle’ to Nilsson’s lyrically winsome ‘Coconut’. At one end of the Django spectrum there’s James Last, the terminally unhip Teuton, whose ‘Inner City Blues’ shows you can never underestimate the Germans, while at the far reaches of the mix, they manage to sneak in Ramadanman (‘Bass Drums’) and Hudson Mohawke and Lunice collaboration TNGHT’s ‘Bugg’n’. You can hear the echoes of influences in some of the selections, like The Beach Boys whose peerless ‘Surf’s Up’ makes a welcome appearance halfway through, while Seals & Crofts’ “Sweet Green Fields” show what sun-drenched pop can sound like when it’s done well.
And because it’s Late Night Tales there’s a sparkling cover version of ‘Porpoise Song’, the theme from The Monkees daffily brilliant ‘Head’, an admirably lysergic termination to this waltz through pop’s nooks and cranberries.
