This article is the worst article in the world, ever.

I’m a big fan of Vice, and particularly enjoy the writing of people like Clive Martin and Joel Golby, whose takes on modern life are both refreshing and amusing. However, yesterday an article appeared on Thump, Vice’s music section, written by one Angus Harrison. The piece was called “Electro-swing is the worst genre of music in the world, ever”. As you might imagine, I didn’t see eye to eye with the premise of the post.

Angus’s article is flawed in many ways – the research was cursory at best. Here’s a tip, Gus: if you are going to ridicule an act for not having an imaginative name, it is probably best not to have invented the act in the first place. There is no act called ‘Electro Swing’ that I or anyone else in the scene has heard of. However, knowing what I do of Vice, I’m prepared to accept that this may well have been written with tongue  firmly in cheek.  In fact, the whole piece lacks the sort of coherent argument that I would expect of an op:ed, which makes me think the whole thing may just be an exercise in pisstaking. However, I don’t think we can let the piece stand unchallenged, joke or not. Perhaps I’ll come across as taking it all a bit too seriously… but then, that’s my job, really. In many ways I’d like to thank Angus: he has forced me to think about why I and so many others love electro-swing, despite its unremitting silliness.

As you may have gathered, Angus doesn’t like electro-swing. That’s fine. He doesn’t have to. We are all free to listen to Coldplay, we are all free to like Coldplay. We are even (though the circumstances under which this could happen escape me) free to think that Coldplay are the “greatest dance act of alltime”.  I may be reading it wrong (and after all, I like the worst genre in the world, so don’t trust me), but by my reading of the article can be summed up with the sentence – “I don’t like electro-swing because it’s all a bit vintagey and hipstery and I don’t like those things; and the fans all seem to actually enjoy themselves at gigs, whereas I like being moody and cool, and worse, my friends actually enjoy it too and now I feel left out, why can’t I join in?”

Well, buddy – I’ve got good news: you can. Just leave the attitude at home.

It takes Angus a little while to get going with his article. I suspect that he secretly knew he was thin on material and needed to pad things out a bit. Having expended 700 words explaining what electro-swing is, that he hates it, and that he didn’t like the night he went to while at University, he arrives at the main point of his article: “Why,” he asks, and you can almost hear the plaintive bleat in his voice, “Why in 2015 are these bands and DJs still getting booked? Why are offshoot nights like Itchy Feet still so popular? Why, despite it clearly being the worst genre of music in the world ever—and it is, this isn't an opinion piece alright?—does it sustain a following at all?”

Interestingly, many of the questions he rhetorically asks of his electro-swing loving friends (“"Why?" you asked them, tears welling in your eyes, "Why are you doing this? You don't wear brogues! You don't throw Alice in Wonderland themed tea parties! You don't own lace gloves! These aren't your people!") offer hints to answer the larger question as to how electro-swing continues to capture the imagination all these years on.

Here’s why Gus is wrong, and electro-swing is the best genre of music in the world ever:

It’s a ridiculously friendly, non-judgemental scene

You see, one misapprehension that Angus appears to be labouring under is that you can only like electro-swing if you like vintage clothes, vintage fairs and “vintage cockrings.” Nothing could be further from the truth

Speak to anyone involved electro-swing, and ask them what they like about it, and one of the first things you’ll hear is that it is an amazingly open and friendly scene. There’s no word of a lie when I say that electro-swing brings people together in a way that no other dance music does. It seems to transcend barriers of class, age and race, and brings people together in a positive atmosphere. There’s never any aggression at an electro-swing event, and more importantly, there’s no judgement. You don’t have to have a vintage trilby or lace gloves to go to an electro-swing event, and no one is going to look you up and down and sneer at your choice of outfit. No door-keeper is going to turn you away because he doesn’t like your trainers. Nor is anyone going to sneer at you for liking the wrong DJ, or get all beard-strokey about it. On the other hand, you may well pick up a compliment or two if you’ve made a bit of an effort, and the DJ may come and have a chat with you after her set.

Classic tunes are… classics

Angus seems to have a problem with the sort of people who like electro-swing, which is, as I have suggested above, a bit of a problematic position to take. To say that you don’t like the kind of people who like electro-swing is rather like declaring your distaste for everyone. The scene is not only universally accepting, but has universal appeal. The very definition of the sound – blending classic swing (and other) sounds with contemporary electronic music - means that it appeals to fans of those two broad styles. The source material, by artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Peggy Lee, is, nearly a century after it was first recorded, still instantly recognisable and evocative. Familiarity is a powerful thing in music, and to hear something that one knows well reworked and reimagined is always interesting.

A place in the history of popular music

This, of course, says nothing about how important to the history of western popular music that original swing sound was. Without swing there would be no rock n roll, no hip hop, no dubstep, no Coldplay (sorry Angus). It is also worth noting the social significance of the swing sound. Swing was the first true dance music in popular culture. You might think that boshing a few lines of marching powder on a Saturday night is a hyper-modern thing to do, but those jazz musicians were hoovering it up like Dysons nearly a hundred years ago. The fact that we are doing the same thing all this time later, to the same tunes, is very pleasing to me – there’s a lovely completeness to it.

The social factor

Electro-swing has been described as “the music of the first great depression mixed with the technology of the second”, and it is hard to overestimate the truth in this statement. It is no coincidence that the two movements – swing and electro-swing – took place against a background of financial upheaval and hardship. Just as in times of recession the hemlines of ladies’ clothes tends to creep upwards, in tough times people seek escapist experiences to deaden the pain of existence.  The glamour of electro-swing stands in stark contrast to everything else on offer in dance music. There’s no denying that deep house, with its moody minimalism, or dubstep’s industrial, urban grittiness offer much solace to those seeking respite from the grinding reality of everyday life.

The variety within the scene

So, with such great source material, the danger of utterly destroying it by dicking about with it is ever present. There is no denying that there is some truly shitty electro-swing out there, as with any genre. The success of acts like Parov Stellar and Caravan Palace has resulted in lots of formulaic, copycat producers appearing like a rash: token vintage sample with a 4x4 house track laid underneath – electro-swing by numbers. But this is the bad end of the spectrum. Forget Gramophondzie and “We no speak Americano”. Having interviewed a wide variety of electro-swing producers and artists in the last few years, one thing I know is that they are all extraordinarily talented, with a real appreciation for the skill of the original musicians. The best of them take the rhythms and melodies of the original swing style and weave them together with a variety of different styles to create something that reinvents while respecting the original.

Swing’s position at the root of all popular music means that it is remarkably versatile in terms of what it can be blended with. The formula house+vintage sample no longer holds true, and has spawned a variety of awkwardly named sub-genres: swingnbass; dubswing, swing-hop – there’s even some reggae-swing sets out there. Before I came across electro-swing I was into both swing and dance music, but I found that attending either sort of night could get dull, listening to the same types of rhythms all night. Drum n bass is all very well, but 6 hours of it is too much for me. An electro-swing night, on the other hand, can see the bpm moving right through the gears, taking is a massive variety of styles.  Artists are also experimenting with other source materials – blues is a fertile hunting-ground, as is funk, which has given birth to its own parallel genre “Ghetto Funk”. The musicality of swing comes though into the reworkings, so you get dancable music with meaningful (well, sometimes) lyrics and melody.

For me the contrasts, the juxtapositions, are what make electro-swing so much fun. Until you’ve heard a dubstep remix of the Pink Panther theme, you just haven’t lived.

It is sexy

It really, really is. All those stockings. And the wiggly bottoms.  

It is unremittingly silly

Angus is cynical about the ‘fun’ aspect of electro-swing, and rails against the idea that it can be seen as “an antidote to “boring” or “pretentious” club music.” To an extent, he is right – there is a sense in which electro-swing stands apart from ‘trendy’ music. He rightly worries about anything that sets itself up as ‘fun’. I personally hate this time of year for all the enforced festive jollity – sod off with your egg nog and hot wine, bugger off with your Christmas music and your Christmas markets – so I completely understand. I also understand his concern about electro-swing existing in opposition to mainstream club music.  

However, we have all been in club nights with some big-name DJ geeking about with deep house, only to be met with a sea of frowning, nodding heads, no one dancing, just instagramming each other photos of the DJ and making hand-hearts. You’re not going to see this at an electro-swing night. And that is because electro-swing is, with out question, one of the more ridiculous genres to have emerged in recent years. Electro-swing is silly. Really, really silly. There’s no sense in denying it. And I think that this is where Angus has missed the point, really. He thinks its all about posing, about being ‘different’ and proving oneself cool. But the reality is the opposite. It is basically impossible to be cool and be at an electro-swing event. The two are just mutually exclusive, like Britain First and the ability to spell, or Donald Trump and reasoned debate. If you want to go and enjoy yourself at an electro-swing gig you’re going to have to leave any hopes of looking cool at the door. The music, the clothes, the way it makes you dance: it’s not going to end well.

And it is this that I think is stopping Angus from having fun with his friends. Stop worrying about whether its cool or not, old chap. It doesn’t matter. Just let those muted trumpets wash over you. Don’t fight it. It’s ok. It’s ok. Yeah. That’s it. Daddy’s got you. Just let it go. Just. Let. It. Go. There you go. So much better now.

You’ll be so much happier, and you’ll get your friends back.

But seriously, Gus, if you want to come to an electro-swing night and leave the judgement at the door, I’d be happy to take you.

 *everyone has one.

It's all about George

For most readers of this blog Caravan Palace really don’t need any introduction, but in case there’s any newbies about here’s one anyway: The French seven-piece, more so than almost any other act apart from (maybe) Parov Stelar, can claim to have laid the foundations of the Vintage Remix scene. There’s little doubt in my mind that the energy of their live performances and the unrelenting pace and drive of their first two albums created an excitement around the sound without which things may never have taken off in the way that they have.



In those early years, before the scene started gathering momentum, tracks like “Jolie Coquine”, “Suzy”, “Dragons” and “Brotherswing” (Caravan Palace – Caravan Palace, 2008), “Rock it for me “ and “Clash” (Caravan Palace – Panic, 2012) popped up in just about every electro-swing set.  But since 2012 things have been a bit quiet on the new music front.

That’s all changed now, with the release of the band’s latest offering “<I°_°I>”. By the by, if you’re wondering how to say this, you’re not alone.

We love the idea that our album title is unpronounceable but it seems people desperately need a name for <I°_°I>More...
Posted by Caravan Palace on Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I'm not used to there being a more important George than me in the room, so I'm going to go with Robot.


Further down the page I'm going to give you my thoughts on the album but before that, here's a little Q&A with Antoine Toustou aka Mighty Mezz, the band's trombonist and knob-twiddler that I carried out over email. I would have liked to have some follow-up questions too, but sadly it was not to be.



1. You've been working on the album for a while... has it been hard work compared to previous releases?

Every Caravan Palace record is hard to make, but this is particularly true for this one. I think as time passes, our tastes and vision change, but when we all agree on a track, we know that we have something good.

2. I'm lucky enough to have heard the new album, but for those who haven't, can you say, in your own words, what they can expect from the new album?

It’s a much more current album; we refined the way that we produce tracks. At the same time, we put more ‘pop’ in it. We didn’t just systematically use Lo-fi effects on the voice to get that vintage feeling this time! And there are a lot of ‘glitched’ saxophone parts and drops.

3. This question comes from Sophie, aka DJ Tallulah Goodtimes. She asks: Were the songs on your new album written with a specific sound or concept in mind - a conscious choice - or did they come together as a result of a more organic process? Where did you draw inspiration from?

We listen to many different kinds of music, and we could not ignore some, like Future Bass and Trap. There is something incredibly powerful in these genres and that's something we look for in our music. So I think in this record you can feel this kind of inspiration.

4. The "electro-swing" sound has moved on a long way from when you first started and lots of people would cite you as pioneers of the sound. Did you ever expect it to take off in the way it has?

We didn’t expect that much, it's been 9 years since we launched Caravan Palace, and we never thought we could reach so many people in so many countries.

5. What do you think of some of the new kinds of electroswing that have emerged over the last few years - styles like swing n bass, Swing-hop and so on?

Mutations are a good thing, for it shows that the genre is alive. We don't listen that much to electro-swing, to be honest, we take our inspiration elsewhere, but it is very interesting to see how that genre has become a sort of ‘label’.

6. I saw an interview from a few years back in which you said a lot of the production in the wider electroswing world was sub-standard - do you still have that view?

Unfortunately yes, as a DJ, it’s hard for me to find some really good new Electro Swing tracks for a DJ set. I think this kind of music needs a lot of work, if you want to find something new every time. There is an easy way to make it, because swing is in essence groovy and stirring, but we know now that it almost never results in something good. That's my personal opinion though!

7. You played a few festivals in the UK this summer - I caught your set at Boomtown - did you get a chance to party at any of them, and which did you enjoy the most?

We were on tour, so it was difficult to have a real party and to enjoy festivals. But we really adored Boomtown, it’s totally crazy! There is nothing like it in France!

8. Do you prefer playing at festivals or at indoor venues - have you got a favourite gig ever?

We don’t have preferences, it depends on the crowd. If people are ready to switch on their ‘crazy spirit’ button, it’s always a pleasure to push it!

Personally, my favourite gig was in LA some years ago. We were playing in front of a pool outside (what an idea!), and they stopped the concert because people got totally crazy, and jumped into the water to dance!

9. You're touring soon: where and when can people see you?

We'll tour in the UK in December. This is our schedule:

10-11 Thônex - Genève (ch)

12-11 Le Bikini - Toulouse (fr)

13-11 Le Rocher - Bordeaux (fr)

14-11 Espace Julien - Marseille (fr)

18-11 Stereolux - Nantes (fr)

19-11 Aeronef - Lille (fr)

20-11 Olympia - Paris (fr)

24-11 Cooperative de Mai - Clermont-Ferrand (fr)

26-11 Le Radiant - Lyon (fr)

27-11 La Laiterie - Strasbourg (fr)

28-11 Le Cirque Royal - Bruxelles (be)

10-12 O2 Academy - Bristol (uk)

11-12 O2 ABC - Glasgow (uk)

12-12 The Ritz - Manchester (uk)

14-12 Concorde 2 - Brighton (uk)

15-12 The Forum - London (uk)

16-12 UEA - Norwich (uk)

29-01 Kosmonavt Club - St Petersburg (ru)

30-01 Red Club - Moscow (ru)

03-02 Gloria - Cologne (DE)

04-02 Mufftathalle - Munich (de)

06-02 Mojo - Hamburg (de)

07-02 Heimathafen - Berlin (de)

12-02 La Commmanderie - Dole (fr)

14-02 L’atelier - Luxembourg (lux)

10. This one from Syed: Are you playing in Toronto soon?

It’s not planned yet, but we could possibly come in 2016.

There's some interesting stuff in there too, some of which I'll pick up on in this review.

SO... is George gorgeous? Or is the Robot more of a tin-man?

Let's start by saying that things start with great promise. The opening track, Lone Digger opens with a clarinet sound (at least, that's what I think it is) that is almost a trademark for the band. A short time later and you're in no doubt at all that its Caravan Palace you're hearing - Zoe's whispery verses and shouty choruses, a pounding beat... all the ingredients from their previous dance floor thumpers are there.

But come track two, the first single from the album and you quickly realise that they have continued the experiments that they began with Panic all those years ago. Comics, for this is the name of the track" is simultaneously light in feel yet dark in tone. Its driven along by a pulsing, almost droning bass sound, while over the top all sorts of scribbles and squeaks and ragtimey piano create a very weird feel. It is probably my favourite track on the album. As I listen to it right now it makes me rock back and forth in my chair like a heroin addict craving a fix, it has a mesmeric quality that is hard to describe. It is also worth noting that although Comics is far slower in tempo than lots of Vintage Remix it none-the-less rocked the Boomtown crowd earlier this year.

If you're a traditionalist (if such a thing is possible or desirable in electro-swing), fear not. Hot on the heels of Comics comes Mighty a track which snaps us back to the house-led vibes we associate with Caravan Palace. Its not quite as full-on as some of the early stuff, which could be overwhelming - this is more like a track for the middle of a set, rather than a climactic explosion. Interestingly. it sounds almost more like Parov than it does Caravan Palace.

Unfortunately, after this things start to go a little... I'm not sure... maybe flat is the word? Aftermath, while undeniably gorgeous, is more suited to the... well... aftermath of a party than to the party itself.

Wonderland nearly rescues things with some farty baritone sax, insistent vocals and glitchy, lasery synths, and its dark tones could see it feature in a few Halloween sets in the next couple of weeks. Midnight, is up there too, and has a similarly spooky feel, something exacerbated by trappy beats and meandering horns. However, both of these, plus Tattoos and  Russian feel very much as though there's something missing - they just don't quite reach the peak that one hopes they will.

The next two tracks, Wonda and Human Leather Shoes For Crocodile Dandies are hard to fathom. Maybe I'm just not musical enough to appreciate them, but to my untrained ears they sound ever-so-slightly fillery.

The final track, Lay Down is actually a great track - it samples what sounds like the Golden Gate Quartet, but rather than taking that spiritual, bluesy sound , they've used guitar and vocals to create a very Spanish sound - almost like flamenco.

All in all, this album has some very fine tracks - I literally can't get Comics out of my head, but it is at times slightly disappointing. Perhaps, in this era of digital downloads, I'm expecting too much - wanting every track to be a certified banger. My suspicion, however, is that in searching for a sound that will bring them commercial success in the French charts, they have left behind something that gave the music life.

I'd also like to pick up on the comments from the interview above regarding the quality of the production on other electro-swing records. It has taken Caravan Palace 18 months to produce this album, and while I am not really knowledgeable enough  comment one way or the other on the production of this record or any other, I do wonder whether the focus on production has taken some of the life out of their music. Jazz, swing and blues were not exactly heavy on the production the first time around, and I rather like the dirtiness and home-spun nature of electroswing.

I'm also interested by the comment about not really listening to much electro-swing. I am always converned when I hear acts say this - The Correspondents said something similar a couple of years ago, around the time that they started to distance themselves from the wider Vintage Remix scene. It just makes me feel that maybe they think being an electro-swing act is not enough - that they want to throw off the tag - it backfired (in my opinion) for The Correspondents, and if that's what happened with this album, its backfired for Caravan Palace too.

Don't get me wrong - this is not a terrible album - its better than a great deal of the rest of the scene, but I do think it is somewhat thinner in sound than previous offerings. One or two tracks surpass previous releases, and Comics is interesting enough to appeal to a broad range of listeners. But its not a great album either. Its a good album. And that's not bad.

I must also say that like a lot of Vintage Remix, Caravan Palace really are best experienced live. I saw them at Boomtown with one electro-swing fan and one sceptic. When the sceptic started shouting "Fuck Yeah" every couple of minutes, I saw that we had a convert. Their performance was one of the best of the weekend, and I had a proper  boogie. I've seen them play in London before too, and they blew me away then. They rocked the open air stage at Boomtown just as hard they did whichever converted theatre it was I saw them in before. They are unmissable live, so get your tickets now, before its too late.

And finally, if I had could give the band one piece of feedback it would be this: don't be tempted to stand outside the Vintage Remix scene and just take part when you have an album to promote. We're a super-friendly bunch and we won't bite. Come and party with us, get involved with the debates on social media (and here), and above all, find out what new directions the scene is taking - you started it - come and check out the monster you birthed!