Django Django
Born Under Saturn
RIBBON
5/10
Psychedelic surf-rock in outer space—sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? Clearly that’s what the guys in Django Django thought when recording Born Under Saturn, but their attempt at taking their sound to the next level is more of a failure to launch than a stratospheric success. The English group’s love of instrumental experimentation is alive and well, so dedicated fans have nothing to fear—there are enough far-out bongo beats (“The Life We Know”) and sax solos (“Reflections”) to keep one’s head spinning—but it’s hard not to finish the LP wanting more. Django Django is throwing whatever it can at the wall and praying that anything sticks, and that’s exactly their problem—everything sticks. Between the cloyingly perfect harmonies and the constantly pinging array of sound effects from old episodes of Star Trek, listening to Born Under Saturn quickly becomes more of an exhausting slog than a fun romp.
