Babylon Circus – La Belle Etoile
“Mix Django Reihardt with Jacques Brel, add a little Gogol Bordello and you’ll come close to what Babylon Circus sounds like” (Detroit News, USA)
Berlin 9/9/1989
I was 20 years old and studying in Paris at the time. It was a Thursday night and my friends and I were out drinking. We heard on TV that the border between East and West Berlin had just opened. Read more
Babylon Circus
We know the world has plenty of rock stars, pop stars and wanna be stars – they’re everywhere! But the world doesn’t have enough troubadours; those unique artists who make music because it’s in their DNA and embrace variety like an intrepid foreign traveller.
Welcome to the musically quirky and eclectic world that is Babylon Circus. True troubadours in every sense of the word and the world, this nine-piece French band from Lyon have taken the road as their home and to date have played more than 900 concerts in 30 countries.
The Detroit News suggests this recipe: “mix Django Reinhardt with Jacques Brel, add a little Gogol Bordello and you’ll come close to what Babylon Circus sounds like”. For the rest of us, imagine a punky anti-establishment take on ska, pop, chanson, gypsy and dancehall all shoved into a magical suitcase.
Don’t take our word for it, find out for yourself with the delightfully fresh up-coming release of La Belle Etoile. Sung in French and sometimes English, this musical menagerie is a wild and unique CD: choose from the hints of chanson in Marions Nous Au Soleil to the odd chugging of La Cigarette, jaunty hip-hop meets toasting of L’Envol and the odd off-kilter rock of Perdu.
Even wilder are the band’s off-stage antics, which include escapades like police chases, beatings and imprisonment in Irish jails, a bathtub of ‘Absolut’, double concussions and hospitalisation in Russia and joining Muslim carnival processions in Syria.
Known for their insanely fun and unpredictable shows, Babylon Circus are back in Australia in March to launch La Belle Etoile. You’ll be in for a big treat when you join the chaos!
So Frenchy So Chic 2010
34 eclectic sounds fresh from the French airwaves, sample them now.The Unofficial soundtrack to the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival.
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la playlist
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