Babylon Circus are the ultimate party band. The energy is pushed up to fever pitch, they’re so frenzied they can’t remain in one genre for long. Instead they feverishly sample ska and reggae before delving into punk, rock, Balkan, Chanson, jazz, dub, you name it. They’re a party mix-tape, with genres happily colliding – often within the same song. They sing in French and English often with political overtones. In fact the opening piece is a field recording from an anti Iraq war demonstration recorded in Spain. Yet no one wants to be preached at, so the French ten piece cloud their conscience in an infectious joy, in skankin beats, in swinging horns and scatter-gun multilingual vocals. World fusions can be dangerously self conscious, yet Babylon Circus just sweep you up in their energy and it’s impossible to swim against the current. You can actually hear in their music the fact that they are a live band, relentlessly touring, as you don’t get this tight from just hanging out in the studio occasionally. Dances of Resistance is an incredibly diverse album, whilst utilising ska/ reggae as a departure point Babylon Circus love to morph and can be anything from country ska to Eastern European folk depending upon when you check in.
Bob Baker Fish
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Comments (1)
Liesbeth April 15, 2008
this is what music is, what fun is, what IT is.
I just saw a clip on nyc.gov/tv this past week from when they played live summer 07 at summerstage in ny. I remain mesmerized by each and every member, and tried to listen intently, despite 11 years of school french can’t always ‘hear’ lyrics. I couldn’t get enough and was disappointed when it was over. Wow I wish we could clone them and that they played here ALL the time. However, in the band’s eyes I could see disappointment registering at the crowd being so non-world-like. (Americans don’t move, don’t swing, and are so sans un joie de vivre I feel we are practically born dead, if not soulless. We have no cohesive culture, except bs and commercialism, and this mask shows.