Play The New Django Django Video Here (And Make Sure You Grab Born Under Saturn While You're At It!)

Even though the band-mates met at school in Edinburgh, the music of Django Django throbs with the energy of London. The pulsing, cosmopolitan beats of the cuts on Born Under Saturn, out now via Ribbon Music, bristle with the spirit of a large city while retaining some sort of organic musical interplay. That sounds pretentious but the music straddles a line between rock and funk in a way that few have attempted since the glory days of A Certain Ratio. If there's an almost jazz-like musical spirit at work in the tunes on Born Under Saturn, Django Django have managed to keep things modern and interesting and largely song-structured. Where others would have turned this kind of thing into experimental music, Django Django made pop songs out of it, like new single "Shot Down", the video of which you can play below.

Like a lot of the songs on Born Under Saturn, the band seems to find a way to channel the sleek new wave of a modern act like MGMT with an almost playful pop tone worthy of early O.M.D. On something like "Shake and Tremble" Django Django work an almost Beach Boys-worthy sense of harmony into the mix to produce something at once catchy and a bit out there. Elsewhere, on "First Light", the band hits on a mix of late period Depeche Mode and Eno-produced U2 at their most spacious. The cut is, like most of the tracks here, supple and insinuating and decidedly warm despite the electronic textures.

If the music of Django Django is deceptively simple, it's also complex where it needs to be. There's nothing wasted here and the guys in this London-based collective all seem masters of making a sort of modern take on early Eighties new wave that, oddly, owes as much to stuff like Peter Gabriel albums as it does to, say, Remain in Light.

Born Under Saturn by Django Django is out now via Ribbon Music. Follow the band via their official website or via their official Facebook page.