FAO Scandinavia: stop putting out so much amazing music. (Not really, y’know, but we’re struggling to keep up at this stage.) The latest in a long, long line of fantastic bands to hail from the region is Norwegian sextet Team Me, who create the kind of music that is (regrettably) going to get them lots of lazy comparisons to bands like Arcade Fire. The Canadian group have set the standard for widescreen, euphoric songs, but Show Me is no pale imitation of the group’s influences. It’s a free download, and the first taste of their debut album To the Treetops!, which arrives on March 5th and is going to be something remarkable if its first cut, driven by massive drums and wonderful, soaring vocals, is anything to go by. It’s an orchestral pop song that masks dark lyrical content, and the two opposites complement each other perfectly. Add to all this a life-affirming chorus and an absolute ton of exuberance, and the result is an infectious, sweeping track that works on any number of different levels.
Florence and the Machine have seen worldwide success over the last year or so, and Spector have been making waves ever since their dramatic debut single Never Fade Away first graced our ears. They are both signed to the ever delightful Luv Luv Luv, so cross collaboration was always going to be on the cards with two acts whose sounds compliment each other so well – and here we have the fruits of just that.
Spector have taken Florence and the Machine’s sweeping, epic and alluring No Light, No Light (video below) and wrapped it in their grandiose synth-pop. What was once a soothing piece of beauty, has been transformed into something all the more urgent, more aggressive, and more industrial. I would say the Ryan Gosling reference has something to do with the aggressive urgency of Drive, but to be honest I have no idea on that front…
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and this maxim would seem to be the reason for the existence of a band like Django Django, boldly going where few of their contemporaries would dare, making the kind of joyful music that fully deserves all the acclaim it gets. It’s taken them two-and-a-half years for them to get to where they are now: on the cusp of releasing what is, hands-down, the most inventive British debut in quite some time. The music the quartet makes is not the kind that defies description, not ‘weird’ for its own sake, yet it is suitably eccentric for a band who can put themselves behind a record whose cover art can succinctly be described as bizarre.
However, it’s also rather colourful, and as such does a good job of describing the album’s contents. The twelve songs that make up the London-based band’s debut all strive to make an impression, one way or another. Their debut contains such a mixture of sounds that, on the whole, it shouldn’t work as an album. Instead, a record like this should be all over the place, and in the hands of a less talented group of individuals, this would no doubt be the case. In the hands of Django Django, though, their diverse approach to music is what makes their debut so cohesive, not to mention addictive.
It’s pretty ambitious, too, a testament to their songwriting skills. Not many bands would choose a song like the two-part, six-minute Hail Bop to open their debut album, but Django Django laugh in the face of convention, producing one of the finest album openers I’ve heard in quite some time. From there, the album goes straight into breathtaking recent single Default without so much as a pause. By the time the album gets to its third track, a distinct impression is created that nothing is beyond the band. This is an album that takes a whole lot of risks (as songs like Waveforms and Zumm Zumm attest to), and I’m delighted to report that every single one of them pays off.
The band’s earlier material makes up the bulk of the middle section of the album, and works very well indeed in context. There are few who would argue that a song as good as WOR would struggle to be a highlight on an album like this. It’s still up there as one of the band’s finest moments, flanked by Love’s Dart and Storm either side but losing absolutely none of its power. The sole new song around this point of the album is the acoustic-guitar led Hand of Man, which faces stiff competition but rises to the challenge admirably.
The appropriately summery Life’s a Beach opens the album’s final third, before the intense penultimate track Skies Over Cairo makes way for Silver Rays, one of the many songs on the album on which their inventive approach to rhythm shines through, and the staggering potential of the band to develop is made clear. They’ve produced an astonishing debut album, one that is nakedly accessible yet not afraid to push boundaries. Some will call it a ‘pop’ album, but Django Django’s debut defies easy classification. It’s a lot to take in, but there isn’t a single missed opportunity on it – they’re clearly making the most of what they’ve got.
Django Django’s self-titled debut is released on January 30th through Because Music. [PRE-ORDER] Django Django – S/T @Amazon| iTunes
