Shining On Invisible Things

 

Sometimes when wading through the inbox messages, dreading another day in the office, something will drop down like manna from heaven and brighten the day. This is what Invisible Things, the new project for Mark Shippy (US Maple) and Jim Sykes (Parts & Labor, Grooms) has been for me today.

Sykes has always been an incredible drummer, and Shippy well equipped with extended guitar rock jams, but here it is taken to another realm, the duo both extending and contracting the form at will. With studies of Sri Lankan percussion and the elasticity of guitar exploration the driving forces, the 17 tracks on their LP Home IS The Sun becomes at once an experiment, a composition, a sonic wigout and an exercise in control. Whilst in similar realms to the likes of Hella or Lightning Bolt, there is an innate accessibility and verve here that opens itself up to a wider audience, but this is not a detriment – experimental rock is allowed to be warm and fuzzy sometimes! Such a psychedelic, progressive adventure should work as well as this clearly does, nor should it be such fun – but it easily commits to both. This is the kind of aural alchemy that makes existence on this mortal coil worth every shitstorm and concern.

 

You can get Home IS The Sun via Porter Records here – and you really should. It’s incredible.

Invisible Things – BEFORE The Seventh
Invisible Things – INTO Engine