Caravana starts ominously with “Reconocer”, a thundering, sludgy piece of dark pop in the vein of The National and The Walkmen. As the album continues though light begins to slip through, revealing a highly inventive, textured pop album.

This is the first album from Chile’s Caravana, the new project of Rodrigo Santis (of Congelador and Paranormal fame). During the month of April it was made available to download for free from the website of its record label Quemasucabeza.

By the time Caravana gets to it’s third track “La Entrega” the light has definitely slipped through. This is a perfect piece of hushed pop, along the lines of the Venezuelans Jovenes y Sexys. Drowsy harmonies and peaking guitar plucks augment the main vocal’s calm yet driving delivery. The calm almost takes complete control on “Sigue Sus Ojos”, whose picked guitars, simple pounded drums and melody evoke the great folk/pop of Little Wings. This element of folk crops up again on “Garantia” through its twisted melody and soothing violin strokes, as on “Suma Y Sigue” and “Sistema Solar” too, both songs that become hugely anthemic with their creeping harmonies and sparse drumming.

Calm does not over-run the record as the second half features “Naval”, a song whose rampant drums and ominous bass tones recall the savage new-wave punk of Killing Joke, as well as “Cada Vez” which starts off simple but builds up into an epic bluster of treated vocals, thrashing guitars and thumping drums. It’s one of the most epic tracks on an album which often tries for the epic, but also knows that sometimes a great melody is enough to stick in the mind and keeps things simple. This is an extremely mature record from a project which hopefully will be around for some time.

Artist: Caravana
Album: Caravana
Record Label: Quemasucabeza

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