Django Django traces their origins back several years before the band was formed in 2008 to when most of the band members met one another at the Edinburgh School of Art. Playing their first shows in East London, the band quickly drew comparisons to folktronica pioneers The Beta band. Prior to their first full length record in 2012, the band released several singles that fused electronica with a seemingly random mix of sounds including sirens, bells and clapping.
When the first self titled album appeared in 2012 it captured a Mercury Prize nomination and reached the top 40 on the UK album charts. Both New Music Express and Rolling Stone included the record on their best of the year lists. Multiple songs found their way into video games, leading to a much more successful record than the band expected. Drummer and producer David MacLean says they really only thought they would sell a few hundred copies.
Django Django’s fourth album came last year with Glowing in the Dark. Recorded entirely pre-pandemic, the record’s sci-fi escapism theme turned out to be totally appropriate, offering listeners who were cooped up at home a chance to be somewhere else for 45 minutes.
This year the group announced a re-issue of their debut album on its tenth anniversary. Guitarist Vincent Neff says that “it will always be a special one to us. It reminds us of recording in Dave’s bedroom, playing at small club nights up and down the UK and taking in all the new music that was being made in East London at that time. When we released it, we had no idea what would happen, but it ended up being the start of a crazy journey for us.”
The new version will release on May 27th.
