Caravan Palace – ‘Panic’ [Review]
Opinion
When you come across an album whose cover depicts a robot clinging to the Eiffel Tower like a French King Kong and swatting at flying saucers as they lay waste to Paris, you can be sure of one of two things. Either the music behind the art is going to be incredible, or it’s going to suck harder than anything you’ve heard before.
Happily, Panic falls into the former camp. A Parisian electro-swing collective bonded together by their mutual appreciation for electronic music and gypsy jazz, Caravan Palace have already proven their genre-mutating talents with their eponymous 2008 debut – and Panic is no sophomore slouch. Lighter on the beats and heavier on Portishead-style atmospherics than Caravan Palace, Panic evokes nostalgic sixties-spy-movie memories while returning occasionally to Caravan Palace’s trademark electronic-dance-meets-Django-Reinhardt-flamboyance with songs such as Dramophone and title track Panic.
A must-hear album for fans of Lunatrix and Falsense, Panic is, on the whole, far more laid-back than its name suggests. More than that, it’s a brilliantly honest and authentic offering delivered straight from gypsy jazz’s ground zero.
Links
Caravan Palace on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaravanPalace
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