Sounds on the Ground #2: The Invisible
By: Dan Monsell
What's The Deal?: Initially a solo/side project of Dave Okumu (Jade Fox, Matthew Herbert), The Invisible quickly became a full-scale project completed by Tom Herbert (Jade Fox, Polar Bear) and Leo Taylor (Gramme, Zongamin, Matthew Herbert). The fruits of the band's get-togethers over the last couple of years has now been completed in a - surprise surprise - Matthew Herbert produced debut album, and superb debut single 'Monster's Waltz' has created in recent times what we'll just lazily call a "helluva buzz". Zane Lowe and John Kennedy have made the band picks of the week/hottest record in the world respectively, Hot Chip have declared themselves fans and Foals even recently asked them to support them at a recent homecoming show in Oxford.
Upon first listen, the widespread comparisons that have been drawn with TV on the Radio are pretty clear (the line "the UK's answer to TV on the Radio" has been used in some form in almost every review that's so far appeared). It's easy to see why - like their Brooklyn counterparts there's heavily textured chunks of sounds working over a dense dance groove, and similarities are especially apparent between the smooth vocal of Dave Okumu and TVOTR's powerfully-soft voiced Tunde Adebimpe. However, whereas Brooklyn's finest fitted in nicely when New York guitar bands got all kinds of cool again back at the turn of the millennium, The Invisible are perhaps slightly less indie-rock superstars and more sonic sound adventurers, even underground jazz-toting cats (though the type still loved by guitar-slinging types and hipsters alike).
This of course makes them all kinds of relevant in '09 - supposedly the year of electronic pop and the downfall of guitar bands. (Although whatever - you ain't taking away our Pavement records.) Grand sweeping generalizations on '09 aside, in short, The Invisible are particularly great because they manage to call to mind some laidback funk or more instrumentally driven hip-hop like Amp Fidder or Common, while at the same time seem relevant in a similar way as some of the new American experimental popsters like Yeasayer or Passion Pit. Because of this they're a remarkably fresh and exciting prospect, and we love 'em for it.
Whilst a great deal of very sound-focused and alternative rock and dance music referencing bands - still content to speak in the language of pop - are producing exciting new music in America, it seems back in 'ol Blighty, bar the wave of "edgy" synth girl popsters and considerable influences of the likes of Animal Collective and the like on some of the British Underground, there's less of that sort of thing going on that's particularly visible. The Invisible (can we make a pun here?) seem to suggest a similar type of attitude to some their American new counterparts in a way that seems new and interesting. So there you have it - it's clearly just the beginning for what the band are doing, but hell, look at us getting all carried away with what it all means ...
What can I listen to?: Great new single 'London Girl' is out 26th Jan, and the debut LP is unleashed 9th Feb, both on acclaimed electronic pioneer Matthew Herbert's rather excellent Accidental Records (Micachu, Mugison, The Soft Pink Truth). Get yourself previous single 'Monster's Waltz' direct from the band's MySpace right here: www.myspace.com/theinvisiblethree, and while you're there have a listen to three songs and a couple of remixes from Micachu and Kwes.
When can I see them?: No dates are currently announced for the New Year after the band did a little stretch of some buzzy tastemakers shows seeing out '08 in style. That'll change though, and we'll let you know when it does.
We all know music peaked in 1994, so give me a sound-bite about how they could be compared to some kind of Britpop band - Think Ocean Colour Scene if they'd been to jazz school, went a little crazier on some of their bongo bits, turned the bass and keyboards way up and definitely never hung around with Paul Weller.