We are a nation that loves DIY (bear with me on this analogy)- but not everyone is capable of doing a 'Changing Rooms' and whilst the price drops in technology have seen a massive boom in the home-recording market not everyone is a Trevor Horn in waiting.
So that brings us to THE DJANGO BLACK ENSEMBLE - who are the equivalent of the slightly lop-sided shelf that your Dad put up in the garage. You can see what the idea was, but they just haven't quite got it right. There are inherent problems with going it alone- and The Django Black Ensemble have fallen into a number of different traps with this outing and most obviously a lack of objectivity.
Using two repetitive bubble-gum pop choruses concerned with "the Disco" in two consecutive songs is a prime example- especially when one (Concert Coastal) is repeated seemingly ad-nauseam, and the other (Glimmer Cross) features operatic-evil-villain vocals. And whilst we're on the subject top tip for bands who do their own PR- your press release is not a Rock Family tree (Especially not if your last band was called Yenpox and was compared to Hanson)!
The crucial question though- is there a vast sea of untapped talent hiding in this muddy mix of songs? Well there is a definite energy on Coastal Concert and despite my reservations about the bubble-gum pop choruses you cannot deny they are insanely catchy, sounding not dissimilar to indie also-rans Bis. Whilst it may be an inadvisable use of irony to reference Ian Curtis in your lyrics whilst ripping off Joy Division- it is a passible rip-off they achieve in Glimmer Cross. Ghosts of Rock and Roll meanwhile is standard indie-fare- it could have been an anthem. But it isn't.
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There are ideas contained in this CD that could well have been developed into something far more interesting- They have a way with hooks to suggest that they could produce far better. Perhaps pointed in the right direction they could stretch beyond the mediocre. Perhaps they will prove me wrong and, like your Dad's shelf, remain inexplicably in place for many years to come.
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