UK art rockers Django Django brought their unique blending of electro-psych rock to the Mohawk on Wednesday night. Touring on their sophomore release Born Under Saturn, this was their first time back to Austin in three years, where they also played at Mohawk, and the crowd’s excitement was palpable. As the band took the stage and launched into “Introduction” from their self-titled debut album, it was easy to see why. The instrumental track combines samples and synthesizer sounds with early psychedelia and adds a touch of “spaghetti western” sounds to it to create something entirely unique. Segueing straight into “Hail Bob”, the experience ascended with continuous harmonizing by lead singer/guitarist Vincent Neff and bassist Jimmy Dixon that would remain a constant throughout most of the show.
Though they are touring on a new album, it wasn’t until the fourth song of the night that a new track was played. “Shake & Tremble” brought a pseudo-surf rock sound that got some members of the audience to start dancing in some of the open areas. Surprisingly, only two other tracks from the new album made it into the main set list and all three new tracks were played in row. “First Light” and “Reflections” both gave off a feel of early Pink Floyd and Beach Boys mixed with Massive Attack.
Almost every track from their self-titled debut album made an appearance throughout the night. Crowd favorites “Default” and “Life’s a Beach” showed off synthesizer operator Tommy Grace’s finesse at samples and had most of the crowd swaying and nodding if they weren’t already straight up dancing. The visuals projected onto the stage also added to the whole experience. During “Waveforms”, oscillating waves were projected onto the band which supplemented the heavy bass and synth sounds that permeated the song. The middle of the set saw a couple of songs played acoustically, “Love’s Dart” and “Slow West”, the latter being written for the soundtrack of a movie with the same name. Closing up the set was the frenzy filled “WOR” complete with samples of air raid sirens and saw drummer/producer David Maclean pounding away on the tom drums. Two more new tracks opened up the encore. “4000 Years” and “Pause Repeat” kept the vibe lively and the crowd dancing.
Django Django have a special ability to take all of their seemingly disparate influences and meld them together to make something all their own. Hopefully it won’t be another three years before they make their way back to Austin as they would fit in perfectly at the psych-heavy Levitation Festival.
