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In speaking with PopMatters, Delaporte reveals that the band spent “two years being in a studio”, so are primed and ready to take Chronologic out on the road. The group started with Vial, Delaporte, and violinist Hugues Payen (who, this past March, announced he was leaving the group to focus on his family), but has grown and expanded over the years to become the distinct entity they are today. The core band has been around for a while now, featuring Arnaud Vial (guitars and programming), Victor Raimondeau (saxophone), Charles Delaporte (upright bass and programming), Antoine Toustou (trombone and electronics), and Paul-Marie Barbier (percussion). The new one is a slightly more chill record that nonetheless features the band’s trademark mixture of big-band samples, electronic dance elements, and live instrumentation. The touring was constant, which explains the four-year gap between Robot Face and this year’s Chronologic. Caravan Palace, having put their first album out in 2008 and using MySpace as a way to get to listeners, were finally turning into international stars. The album started climbing the US and UK dance charts. “Lone Digger” become a genuine hit single, netting a quarter billion views on YouTube and even charting in their native France. Caravan Palace’s third album, 2015’s (often referred to simply as Robot Face), was a breakthrough for the band. They want their audience to dance and move right along with them.Īnd as time presses on, that audience grows. Caravan Palace don’t like playing venues where the chairs are built-in, no. And all of this happens while their fans show up in zoot suits, bowler hats, and any number of ephemera to capture the group’s contemporary reinvention of Roaring 1920s-style tropes.
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Lead vocalist Zoé Colotis breaks out into a choreographed dance break with her bandmates.
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Band members switch between at least two instruments throughout their show (and often more than two).
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Those live shows are a spectacle in and of itself. All are tied to Caravan Palace’s fun-loving aesthetic. While they are champions of the “electro-swing” sound, their sonic reach extends to a variety of pop styles and sounds. Having toured the world several times over, often hitting the same venues and cities multiple times because they sell out time and time again, their live shows have become something close to legend.
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