Search - Richard Sinclair :: Caravan of Dreams

A great find for Caravan fans!

A. C. H. Bergh | 08/08/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Internet changed a lot of things for me. A few years ago, I was sure one of my favorite bands of all time - Caravan - had disappeared for good ages ago. (If you want to know why I like Caravan so much, you might want to have a look at the reviews posted here at Amazon of their best album, In The Land Of Grey And Pink).Not so: through the Net I found that Caravan still comes together now and then - and even releases an album once on a blue Monday.I immediately bought one of those albums ("The Battle of Hastings", released in 1995). And everything looked very promising indeed, from the album cover (depicting a part of the famous Bayoux tapestry) to the title and the line-up, which included keyboard player Dave Sinclair (whom I always considered to be the pivotal member of the band).My God, what a disappointment! The CD has none of the magic of the old Caravan. It's a collection of dull, more or less "poppy" and very much middle-of-the-road songs, none of which are memorable in the least.And then, through the Net, I discovered this album. And yes, I bought it, in spite of the earlier bad experience (after all, you either like a band a lot - and take chances - or you simply don't bother. I tend to bother.)My God, what a nice surprise! This is wonderful stuff! Not really Caravan revisited, as such - which is a good thing, really - but very much a representation of what made Caravan a weird, whimsical and quirky band in the first place. The sleeve notes (liner notes, if you prefer) mention that this is an "extension to the music from the Canterbury Scene". And yes, it has that flavour. With contributions from people like Hugh Hopper, Jimmy Hastings and (here he comes again) David Sinclair, this CD has all the things a release such as "Hastings" lacks.Bottom line: if you like Caravan - more accurately: if you like "The Canterbury Scene", which also included bands such as Soft Machine, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North, and others - try to get this album. Again, it's not a rehash of the old Caravan (although it does contain new versions of some older songs, such as a live version of "It Didn't Matter Anyway"). But - and this is what matters - it's a CD filled with the same peculiar magic that made Caravan a great band. I never realised how important Richard Sinclair was to Caravan. Now I know."