Django Django – Off Planet Review

You could almost feel the eye roll whoever wrote the press release which accompanied copies of Off Planet landing people’s inboxes gave. Part of it read “The term Off Planet comes from Dave’s (Maclean, one half of the band’s creative axis) obsession with ufology: it’s a term for hyper-advanced technologies kept secret from the populace.”

This between-the-lines reticence was because they knew that even though we all like sitting on the couch on a Sunday watching the odd episode of Ancient Aliens, unlike John Lennon and Robbie Williams, you never go full UFO.

There are myriad reasons for this, not least of which because these ideas risk drawing attention away from Off Planet itself, easily the most ambitious project the quartet have undertaken, a concept made up of four “Planets”, each of which contained a separate batch of songs and each released separately.

Finally it can be assessed as a whole. Amongst the 21 tracks a number of guest singers including Jack Peñate and Japanese rapper Yukko Sings contribute and Maclean and co. Lean more heavily on a club orientated approach. This in mind, it’s still a little hit and miss, with Galaxy Melt, Slipstream and Wishbone all catching the ear, but predictably it’s Rebecca Taylor who steals the show with the rave banger Complete Me. Off Planet sets it’s phasers for stun, but it’s not quite good enough to beam you up to a different world.

You can read a full review here.