[ Late Night Tales / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 9 May 2014
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Django Django is the latest band invited to curate a prestigious Late Night Tales collection, their oddball approach to music, which sounds like the rich harmonies of the Mamas & Papas beamed through a refracting prism pointing towards Bo Diddley, Chicago house and outer-space (it's no surprise to learn that Django producer/drummer Dave Maclean's brother John was in the Beta Band, who also shared the same cinemascopic view of the pop landscape).
Check out mixes that rock between two-step delights like Roy Davis Jr's 'Gabrielle' to Nilsson's lyrically winsome 'Coconut'. At one end of the Django spectrum there's James Last, the terminally unhip Teuton, whose 'Inner City Blues' shows you can never underestimate the Germans, while at the far reaches of the mix, they manage to sneak in Ramadanman ('Bass Drums') and Hudson Mohawke and Lunice collaboration TNGHT's 'Bugg'n'. You can hear the echoes of influences in some of the selections, like The Beach Boys whose peerless 'Surf's Up' makes a welcome appearance halfway through, while Seals & Crofts' 'Get Closer' show what sun-drenched pop can sound like when it's done well.
And because it's Late Night Tales there's a sparkling cover version of 'Porpoise Song', the theme from The Monkees daffily brilliant 'Head', an admirably lysergic termination to this waltz through pop's nooks and cranberries. "You should never be afraid to make a fool of yourself for art," Dave Maclean once said. Let's raise a dram to Scotland's favourite fools on the hill.
"We wanted to produce a mix that represented the band. It's what we're all into, so everyone put forward suggestions. It's what we are as a band; and we're kids that have grown up with an obsession about our mum and dad's record collections, like '50s and 60s stuff and then got into hip hop and dance music as we grew up. At the heart of it all is our parents' collections, with our tastes mixed in. Our Late Night Tales pays homage to that." Dave Maclean (Django Django)
1. "The Tennessee Toad" - Leo Kottke
2. "Game Love" - Gulp
3. "Nautilus" - Bob James
4. "Inner City Blues" - James Last
5. "Bone" - Map Of Africa
6. "Get Closer" - Seals & Crofts
7. "Floe" - Philip Glass
8. "To Claudia On Thursday" - The Millennium
9. "Surf's Up" - The Beach Boys
10. "Carry Me Home" - Primal Scream
11. "Man Next Door" - Massive Attack
12. "Bugg'n" - TNGHT
13. "Slum Beautiful" - Outkast
14. "Why Can't We Live Together" - Timmy Thomas
15. "Gabriel" - Roy Davis, Jnr.
16. "Coconut" - Harry Nilsson
17. "Poor Moon" - Canned Heat
18. "Bass Drums" - Ramadanman
19. "Future Directions" - Rick Miller
20. "Porpoise Song (Exclusive Monkees Cover Version)" - Django Django
21. "Flat of Angles Part 4" -Benedict Cumberbatch