Released: 12th October 2018
Rating: ★★★
Recorded shortly before the release of their latest album, ‘Marble Skies’, this six-track EP is very much a continuation of the sound carved out by its predecessor.
Drummer Dave Maclean has said the band existed in an “inner turmoil” of whether to make pop or “weird” music. ‘Winter’s Beach’ sounds like they’ve settled for somewhere between the two, but it’s a conflict they make work.
The familiar harmonies, pop sensibilities and synths, which have come to replace the surf guitars of the band’s early days, are all there on the strong stand-out single ‘Swimming At Night’ – a tight, melodic track with surrealist lyrics about “swimming in your own world, in your own thoughts”.
‘Sand Dunes’’ sci-fi synths and brooding bassline, which sounds pretty much like the opening titles to an episode of Stranger Things, paints a post-apocalyptic world where “everyone’s walking through the sand dunes, trying to get back home”.
‘Blue Hazy Highs’ is probably the closest Django Django have come to writing something Liam Gallagher could happily belt out to a field of 50,000 (there’s even some tambourine chucked in for good measure), while ‘Flash Forward’ is less ‘Winter’s Beach’ and more Sunny Beach at 5am; its manic, wide-eyed EDM beat is the band’s most overtly dance-inspired track to date.
‘Winter’s Beach’ is the sound of Django Django very much in the throes of that “inner turmoil”, constantly thrashing between the shores of pop and downright weirdness. Which beach they choose to swim to next is simply anyone’s guess.
Alex Thorp
