The Dijon Five make people smile, and it is BM’s immense pleasure to review their latest single, the double A side which comprises two songs which are almost always in their breaming and masterful live set.
First track is a pimped up, or pumped up, version of crowd-moving epic ‘Cross The Road’, which has a heavy ska/reggae beat and plangent drum and bass, fronted by the strident vocals of The Colonel himself. The so-called middle eight involve some Nutini-esque rapping, while always remembering the health and safety message, even when goin to “the promised land”, whether that is Babylon, or possibly Cumbernauld… A real rip-snorter of a track that anyone and their granny could move along to, and yer local Lolly can be proud of.
Second track ‘Freedom for the Children’ embraces the Dijons’ inclusive message with a groovy beat, harking back to some Sixties classics while telling us that them wains have rights too, in the bestest possible way. There are undercurrents of social politics here but let’s leave that aside for now and concentrate on the groove, the filled-out brass, the amazing backbeats and the infectious “choo choo” that could make a corpse move. At times it sounds like this groove could descend into chaos but these guys have been witnessed up close by BM and they are crumbs-hot on their playing, so much respect due to every single one of them.
This double A is an instant classic and these tracks will make people move the length and breadth of the land over the next few months as The Mustards get their mojos up and dandered for some big dates over the summer – Yellow Movement in the area… Betty wholly applauds this lot, party music for tuned in party people!