This is serious; So messed up… are the first words you’ll hear on this sophomore album from Mercury Prize nominees, London trio, The Invisible.
Rispah is named after frontman Dave Okumu’s mother who passed away during it’s recording and inspired the finished work. Hearing mourners singing traditional Kenyan spirituals during his mothers wake re-ignotied Okumu’s desire to connect with music. “They transformed the atmosphere with sound and the spirit they brought to it”, he said. “They were celebrating life and death, grief and hope, all things.” and it’s the full emotional range and spectrum that propels this album. He’s described the record as a “lbve letter to grief”
I’ll only mention Radiohead and Tv on the Radio as general signposts. Guitar lines drip with melancholy as bass and percussion intricately intertwine with them and the half-hushed breath-y vocals of Okumu.
Track picks
The Great Wound – bass interjections over a percussive propulsion. This song practically throbs with heart-ache.
Generational – skittle-scattering rhythms eat Okumu’s vocals.
Lifeline – the sound of sleeplessness
Utopia – a synthy-bass line that begs to eat you with volume
Wings – truly quite beautiful
RATING 7.5/10
