Label: Because Music
Released: 12th February 2021
Starting with a mammoth build of ‘Spirals’, Django Django’s fourth LP’ Glowing In The Dark’ is a tripped-out extravaganza that feels a mash-up of a live show, subversive experience and mind-melding bangers tailor-made for switching reality off and dropping right out.
It’s the opening salvo that lingers longest in the memory, but there’s no shortage of differing sonic vignettes that make up the band’s most expansive album to date. Acoustic-centric ‘The World Will Turn’ is a surprising break from cosmic fantasies without sounding out of place, whereas Waking Up (a collaboration with Charlotte Gainsbourg) makes for pleasant listening best enjoyed when smelling the roses and snacking on Hobnobs. The line ‘we’re only passing through’ strikes with a significant resonance as it never fails to give the appearance of this being a fleeting adventure to be consumed as a suitably unique journey.
The title-track has this strange quality the band manage to roll out time after time, in that it gives a feeling the original is already somehow an intense remix of something else. With each listen, a new layer or instrument can be found somewhere in the mix and there’s clearly been intensive work behind making such thoroughly intricate textures that blend beautifully into one another.
Listeners are rarely given the chance to switch off as the energy constantly flits between relaxation and floor-filler. The bounding sounds of Headrush coming hot on the heels of the blissful ‘Free From Gravity’ just one example of this lazy susan-esque approach. What will come next? Nobody knows.
A real exhibition of a record, ‘Glowing In The Dark’ is all about escaping from daily life. It’s an undeniably forward-thinking release that pays homage to musical greats like Serge Gainsbourg as it leaps out into the unknown, always finding a way to end up on top.
