The Invisible

The Invisible’s most promising debut

The London trio The Invisible headed by the vocalist Dave Okumu is certainly a new word in the music world. The band claims of itself with the eponymous debut album released this spring and practically guaranteeing its enormous success. Produced by Matthew Herbert this collection represents an inimitable mixture of various styles, genres, moods and colors refined with a small portion of experimentation. Naturally the creators of such a unique music can be proud of themselves and the fact that there are only three of them in the band – the others being drummer Leo Taylor and multi instrumentalist Tom Herbert – sometimes seems just incredible for the greater part of the songs on The Invisible sounds so rich and powerful. The electronic effects interlace harmoniously with real instruments here, unusual tunes please the ear and Okumu’s vocals add a special charm to the songs. Besides the record’s themes are also quite varied: there are unserious songs about flirting here as well as deeply thoughtful numbers of love and life and frankly philosophic compositions. The Invisible’s debut is definitely one of the loudest this year and surely the most promising one.

The Invisible is a surprisingly varied album

The Invisible musicians themselves state to present the minimal variant of TV On The Radio but there is no doubt that this is far from an exhausting description of their music. In fact as it often happens on debut records this album is so varied that it makes it difficult to predict in which of the presented directions the trio is going to continue its creative work. The album opens with In Retrograde, not the most powerful point on the album and yet quite suitable to serve as a springboard for some brighter moments. The composition Constant is an example of a great matched team’s playing pleasing also with the producer’s splendid work while the single London Girl undoubtedly occupies the central place on the album. This song offers a memorable tune, the musicians’ faultless playing, but especially interesting is the chorus on which Dave’s vocals sound as impressively high as ever. Track Baby Doll at first seems to be remarkable with nothing in particular as it reveals all of its good points only after several times of listening whereas an epic piece Monster's Waltz is another highlight on the album. It is probably the most interesting song on the record as it surprises with an unexpected mixture of funk and electronica wonderfully harmonizing with a practically pop chorus. The composition OK pleases with female vocals and an acoustic guitar and the song Climate Revelation surprises with a complicated melody hard to remember at once. Contrasting with it Tally Of Souls is another moment close pop style, a very radio friendly and the album closer is Time Waits no less interesting track with a monumental rock arrangement.

The changeability of moods and tempos

The producer of the album The Invisible is known to always have worked with the electronic genre and this trio is the first indie rock team with which Herbert agreed to record an album. It was initially thought as Dave Okumu’s solo album but it got clear very quickly that the other two musicians’ efforts had been too significant to leave without attention. As a result we have a record combining simultaneously all the best elements of different styles which makes all the songs on it be on the one hand strangely familiar and already sound like classics and on the other hand amaze imagination due to their freshness and contemporariness. Yet The Invisible’s debut album’s main peculiarity is the changeability of moods and tempos so you are sure not to feel bored listening to this record. Perhaps some may think that when some songs make one want to dance and the others make one reflect then the road to the commercial success for such a band is going to be quite too long. Nevertheless it is rather obvious that The Invisible has make exactly a collection it wanted to make and has enjoyed it greatly so the listeners are only left to try that, too.