Over the course of their extraordinarily accomplished discography to date, Django Django have constantly headed left where others have gone right.
Described by The Guardian as “capable of making music that sounds close to perfection”, they are known for their genre defying eclectic sound and their new album “Glowing in the Dark” heralds, once again, the beginning of a thrilling new era for the band.
Glowing in the Dark has a running theme of escape: from despair, from constraints, from small town life, and even, in dreams, from the Earth. The brilliant title track and new single, for instance, soars gloriously towards the stratosphere.
A track built around a sample from one of Dave Maclean’s spoken word records then plushly upholstered with Moog synths and drum loops, it is accompanied by some eye strobing visuals from rapidly ascending NYC artist and illustrator Braulio Amado.
Amado, who has done incredible work for Roisin Murphy, The New York Times and many more made the video at the height of lockdown, directing lead singer Vincent Neff remotely. It is an incredible example of amazing art that could only have been made under such constraints.
Elsewhere on the album, previous single ‘Spirals’ begins on elegant circling synths that grow into a never-more-relevant anthem to hope, using the image of DNA to muse on “the connections we have as humans being stronger than the divisions.”
The miniature road movie “Waking Up”, meanwhile, with its hints of T Rex and Serge Gainsbourg’s “Bonnie and Clyde” might be mainly acoustic and softly sung but it rockets along with breathless anticipation, the addition of Gainsbourg’s daughter Charlotte on vocals adding extra glamour.
While “Free From Gravity” might be the most complete expression of the bands influences coming together, with beautiful cascading bleep melodies and strings wrapping around the funkiest stop-start drum machine and a relentlessly infectious bassline to perfectly embody the bittersweet theme of yearning to “escape everything that’s weighing you down”.
It’s a glorious move forward, infused with the kind of freshness and confidence that comes hand in hand with a newfound optimism.