Django Django Draw From Diss Rap, Spaghetti Westerns on Debut LP
Recorded in the East London bedroom occupied by drummer, producer and de facto leader David Maclean, Django Django‘s self-titled debut gets a stateside release September 25th on Ribbon Music. Until then you can stream the entire record here, and get a track-by-track walk-through of the LP with Maclean and guitarist Vincent Neff as guides. The two talk about the record’s wide-ranging influences and inspirations from spaghetti westerns and campfire boozing all the way to diss raps: “We just thought it’d be funny to have a lot of put-down clichés, one after another, for no real reason, aimed at nobody,” says Maclean of single “Default.” “But just a kind of nod to that kind of hip-hop we grew up listening to that was sort of just attitude.”
Flecked with glitchy synths and peculiar percussion, Django Django is pure avant pop, from the simple harmonies of “Loves Dart” to the ragged guitar riff of single “Default” to the rubber-band synth line of “Skies Over Cairo” that settles nicely among click-clack rhythms. Of that last track, which he says synth operator Tommy Grace came up with, Maclean says: “I like the idea of having these modern synthesizers, analog synthesizes, and this ancient tune over the top that everybody recognizes as the Egyptian tune. But it’s become a sort of weird song that never existed in Egypt. Just a weird little ditty people associate with Egypt.”