Couple the fact that The Vintage Caravan recorded Arrival in an old ballroom beside an isolated fjord with their age (barely out of their teens) and it makes for a trio so achingly hip that it makes you wonder what’s in Icelandic waters.
While the scene is brimming with 70s blues-rock, something about TVC’s old-man approach to unravelling jams suggests they’ve got something special. As soon as Arrival kicks off with its Western-flavoured intro, it sets the scene for a dusty landscape of fuzzed-up guitars and inflamed guitar solos.
Babylon and Eclipsed aren’t shy about waving to Sabbath and teeter on the side of average, but the swagger of Crazy Horses and Sandwalker hark back to the uptempo character of 2014’s Voyage. Carousel is a stand-out moment that hints at songwriting maturity.
Frontman Oskar Logi Ágústsson’s larynx is going to take ripening before it makes him a star, but this van is heading in the right direction./o:p
