Django Django is one of the less recognisable British bands. They can be classified as art pop, progressive rock or even neo-psychedelia. Nevertheless, their sound is quite varied and interesting.
The band had released a full album this year: Marble Skies, which was well received. Before its release, they returned to the studio once again and recorded Winter’s Beach, which has been released on 12th October.
This new EP is a follow up to the album and it sure feels like it. It features only 6 songs, each drastically different from each other. I absolutely love the opening track: ‘Winter’s Beach’. It’s a fusion of synthesized sounds with a classical instrument, which sounds to me like a clarinet. It reminded me of something Bon Iver could produce nowadays.
After this instrumental track there is a smooth transition to ‘Sand Dunes’ which uses sea noises. Innovative, fun and on topic! It develops into synth-pop, which is very trendy right now.
The next song ‘Swimming at Night’ was praised in some reviews but I think it’s simply a little cheesy. The instrumentation is all over the place, trying too hard to be innovative, so it feels forced. It doesn’t match with the simple vocal. It’s the one song on this EP I don’t like at all.
‘Flash Forward’ on the other hand is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. It starts out almost like a house banger, but with a Django Django twist. There are many layers to it, for example before the chorus we hear sirens in the background. This experiment turned out much better than ‘Swimming at Night’. The sound is so much deeper and cohesive. ‘Ghost Rider’ also manages very well to combine synth-pop melody with traditional guitar and strong base lines.
‘Blue Hazy Highs’ is a classic indie rock song. Compared to the rest, it has the best chorus out of them all, but overall it’s a bit boring. Those two last tracks are the only ones with catchy lyrics. The rest didn’t manage to stick with me at all. This would be my main criticism of this EP.
My main impression of this EP is that the vocal lines are pretty standard for Django Django, but they went crazy with instrumentation. It was a definitely good creative approach. Even though I didn’t like the EP all the way through, I enjoyed it much more than the last album.
Rating: 3.5/5