The Vintage Caravan, a three-piece hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland, has blown my socks off. They have taken the essence of the late ’60s; early 70’s distorted, convulsive, riff-driven blues and rapped it up into a beautiful melting pot of love, flowers, illicit substances, and psychedelic madness. If you love the vibes of Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida_(album)) you are going to love this.
It doesn’t matter that there have been a number of bands that have taken this back to the future route many times over, probably the most famous being Black Keys and Wolfmother, each using those beautiful influences in their own fashion. The Vintage Caravan, not unlike those before them have used their first release to showcase their talents for taking the old and regenerating it with their own groove, influences, and body.
From the moment the album kicks off with “Craving” till it belts out to the last stanza with “The Kings Voyage”, this album cuts it own history of psychedelia. Setting the rock groove heaviness are crackers such as “Craving”, “Let Me Be”, Cocaine Sally, and Midnight Meditation (check out the YouTube clip for the latter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI58NsV056I). Before I get too carried away I will say Midnight Meditation has a riff with all the hallmark sounds of Black Sabbaths Paranoid, but if that’s the only thing I can pick out, then there really is no bad.
If I had my way I would have released M.A.R.S.W.A.T.T, which rocks n rolls like the old school classics.
I can’t speak more highly of this album, the band members are barely 19 years old and to deliver this as a debut makes me drool with anticipation of what they will have to offer in years to come. For the moment though, I am very content to have this album blasting out of my sound system.
The Vintage Caravan: Facebook
Release Year: 2013
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Category: Album
Country: Iceland
Reviewed by Eugene Crabtree
