CARAVAN

"Caravan" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by UK artist Caravan. The album was released through Verve Forecast in October 1968. Caravan was born out of the Canterbury based Wilde Flowers where all the founding members of Caravan had been active at one point or another (not all of them at the same time). Wilde Flowers had also featured future Soft Machine members Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper.

The album features 8 tracks of laid back and intricate psychadelic rock. Subdued male vocals, an organic sounding rhythm section, well performed rhythm guitar work, and an omnipresence of organ (and occasionally piano). The album opens strong with the catchy psychadelic tinged rock track "Place of My Own" and more or less continues down that road for the remainder of the playing time. Sometimes a bit more mellow (like the opening to "Ride") and sometimes a little more intense, but there is a musical read thread throughout the album, which as a result is a consistent quality affair.

The lead vocals are shared by guitarist Pye Hastings and bassist Richard Sinclair. The former performs lead vocals on little over half of the tracks, while the latter performs lead vocals on a couple of tracks. While both have a laid back and almost sedated vocal style, they have quite different voices, and it´s an asset to the album to have two different voices singing the songs.

"Caravan" is not the most well sounding release, and sometimes it sounds like some of the instruments were recorded in the room next door. There´s a "distant" sound to them, and the mix isn´t perfect by any means (the chorus effect on the vocals on some songs is a bit disturbing for the listening experience too). You can still hear every detail in the music and the sound production isn´t a catastrophy, but it certainly could have been better and maybe even have helped the material shine a bit more.

Upon conclusion "Caravan" is an interesting and promising debut release by Caravan. Some tracks are relatively simple in structure and execution, but still manage to impress, while others are sligthly more intricate. The 9:01 minutes long closer "Where but for Caravan Would I Be" is the most adventurous track on the album (some parts are even what I´d call a little futuristic in sound), and it´s quite the creative song. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.