Artists

There are worse things to be called than the UK’s answer to TV On The Radio but you fear it’s one comparison that will stick to The Invisible for a long time. Not that they’re aping the Brooklyn critically-can-do-no-wrongers at all. No, it’s because the London three-piece’s experimental genre-spanning spacepop (a description they’ve looked for but failed to find in MySpace’s rigid genre categorisation) has very few direct contemporaries. Well that and Dave Okumu could probably fill in for the baritone of Tunde Adebimpe if he sped his deliver up a bit.

The Invisible began life in late 2006 as the intended side project of the Jade Fox and Matthew Herbert collaborating Okumu but alongside Tom Herbert (Jade Fox, Polar Bear) and Leo Taylor (Gramme, Zongamin, Matthew Herbert), it soon turned into a fully-fledged three-piece. The resulting album – produced by Matthew Herbert who doubles up as label boss – contains all of Herbert’s originality but none of his obvious fingerprints. Instead The Invisible offer something organic, primaly sumptuous but overall unique and ambitious – a comment you’d struggle to make about a lot of current UK bands. Try the commanding ‘Passion’ and funky-as-fuck ‘London Girl’ for starters, both on a March 2009 album that could turn out to be one of the most important domestic releases this year.