Nomadic Spirit

For two decades, and across five albums, La Caravane Passe (The Caravan Passes) has delivered a music steeped in Balkan Gypsy influences, rock and punk, and with a long train of wide-ranging musical guests in tow. Founded and led by singer, guitarist and trumpeter Tomas Feterman, they created their own imaginary land of Plechti, its borders delineated by music and rhythm, and after a hiatus with off-shoot Balkans-rap-punk group Soviet Suprem, and Feterman’s collaboration with the late Rachid Taha on his final album, the Caravan returns to the long and winding road of Euro-Balkans roots music expanded with punk and rap.

Guests here include Moroccan star Mehdi Nassouli, as well as Balkans-meets-Sergio Leone four-piece Aalma Dili and French singer Paloma Pradal. Nomadic Spirit is an energetic distillation of their philosophy in sound, its combination of hip-hop, Balkans beats, Orientalism, Gypsy jazz and French chanson intermingle in a way that would never pass the strictures of COVID-19’s social distancing laws. Nassouli’s turn on the title-track is a standout, with its borderless, celebratory mix of Maghrebi and pan-European rhythms and rap, and Pradal’s flamenco-infused mash-up of ‘Mala Reputacion’ is a brassy winner. Inventive, good-humoured and positively engaging, you’d be churlish not to allow this caravan access on your turf.