Album Review: Invisible Eyes – Live At Glastonbury 2019

Dan Harper has always embraced the DIY approach to making music. He’s had to. As an aid worker in Ethiopia (where he built his own studio) and whilst living in Mali he’s recorded traditional local music using an old laptop, solar panels and car batteries as well as working with leading local artists in his studio and inviting people such as Nick Page (Count Dubulah) to Ethiopia to contribute. Adding his own guitars and drum beats later and following contributions from people as varied as The Damned’s Captain Sensible, Simon Hinkler (The Mission), Ozric Tentacles, Eat Static, Hilaire Chaby (Baba Maal), Mark Stewart (The Pop Group) and Zion Train the result has been a number of albums full of reggae-jazz fusions, trip-hop, dub, drum and bass overlaying a rich tapestry of traditional Ethiopian and Malian music released under the band name ‘Invisible System’. There’s even an album of acid house from 2000 simply titled ‘Acid Mali’. Albums such as ‘Punt’ and ‘Street Clan’ received rave reviews in the press and airplay from BBC 6Music and BBC3.

With Invisible Eyes, Harper, working with Paul Boswell on bass and Matthew Cross on drums has taken a completely new approach. 2019 album ‘Searching For Crows’ is pure industrial post punk full of rolling, rhythmic drums and driving bass lines and a guitar that chugs and screeches along whilst Harper’s vocals are not so much song but yelled over the top of it all. Elements of his background working with musicians in Africa creep in in subtle ways throughout. ‘Searching For Crows’ is powerful, pulsating, angry, passionate and sophisticated. 

So why this much background information? Well of the ten songs on ‘Live At Glastonbury’ eight can be found on ‘Searching For Crows’. ‘Live At Glastonbury’ was recorded without the band knowing, although said recording was then sent to Harper who mixed and produced it. This isn’t a rough live album with a load of chatter and crowd noises between tracks. This is an album that shows what an incredible force to be reckoned with Invisible Eyes are as a live act. Some tracks are lengthier and some shorter than they are on ‘Searching For Crows’. All are even more powerful, more forceful and angrier. Driving background rhythms that pin you down and pummel your head, guitars that poke and pick at your weakest points then slice right through you before disappearing and allowing the throbbing bass all the space it needs to rumble around your skull. 

Opener ‘Horreur’ lures you in with it’s trippy guitar intro and slow drum / bass rhythm. Hypnotic sounds designed to hook you in and keep you there. After this it’s a full on assault of striking, rhythmical noise as ‘Spit On Your Cat’ (‘Skin Your Cat’ on ‘Searching For Crows’) slams in followed by ‘Cult’, possibly the most powerful 21st Century ‘punk’ song you’ll hear for a while. Sounding like they’re possessed by some demonic force ‘Cult’ is full of rapid fire guitar work, freakish vocals and that pulsating monotone background beat. ‘Granny Knickers’ is faster and even more furious than it is in the studio whilst the dance grooves and sudden sharp guitar of ‘Goat Meat’ breath more freely in this extended live version.

Already own ‘Searching For Crows’? Then it’s worth buying ‘Live At Glastonbury’ just for the two new tracks, the psyched up, punk driven, surf rock of ‘Suck An Alligator’ and the exploding dance rock that comes with ‘The Fox’. Anyone who liked ‘Searching For Crows’ is going to love ‘Live At Glastonbury’. If you’re not yet aware of Invisible Eyes then just buy both albums. You won’t regret it.  It’s only January 4th and I’m already listening to an album that’s guaranteed to be in my top ten of 2021. ‘Live At Glastonbury’ is officially released globally via Psychic Ambulance Records on January 15th but can be bought and streamed via Bandcamp now.