"Sound on Sound 'the HDR-1 is an excellent microphone that can often reach the parts other mics can't."

"The HDV-1 has a useful combination of warmth and presence, it certainly offers good valueand it is capable of great results too."

"Invisible System: 5 stars Financial Times and Los Angeles Is The Place, 4 stars fRoots, iTunes allmusic.com, altsounds.com, Rock N Reel/R2 Mag, World Music Network, New York Times, BBC etc"

Writhlington Studios

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INVISIBLE SYSTEM NEWS

Invisible System have been nominated  for the third time for the Songlines World Music Awards 2012 under Best Cross Cultural Collaboration and Best Group. 

This is for the album Introducing Invisible System that was a bonus CD / album with the Rough Guide to Ethiopia that World Music Network released.  

Invisible System also had a track on that album. 

Voting is open until the 31st January here

http://www.songlines.co.uk/music-awards/index.php

New double live album released to 4 stars in the Financial Times and 8/10 in the USA (alongside another review for introducing invisible system)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/79f2a9b4-4f2f-11e2-856f-00144feab49a.html#axzz2InpOhc49

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/165332-why-2012-is-the-year-of-ethiopian-hybrid-music/

New album released by World Music Network and also to be a bonus album with the new Rough Guide to Ethiopia compilation album

BBC Review http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/rvm5

4 star reviews in Songlines (Tim Cummings) and the Independent on Sunday (Howard Male) - see CD reviews page

Also for anyone that can read Dutch http://www.writteninmusic.com/world/the-rough-guide-to-the-music-of-ethiopia/lang/nl/

And another review for New York's father of music reviews Robert christgau

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blogpost.aspx?post=264323d7-5b63-46e1-8ef0-c037e80f8fe1

 

The new Cauldron EP gets another 5 star review in Los Angeles

http://lastheplace.com/2012/02/19/dan-harper-and-invisible-system-release-new-ep-the-cauldron-e-p/

Youtube has plenty of videos of the albums being made in Dan's home studio in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and some tracks from the albums with visuals.

http://www.youtube.com/user/danieleonharper?feature=mhee

Invisible System again nominated for Songlines World Music Awards 2012 under Best Cross Cultural Collaboration and Best Group.  

 

 

Dan Harper's monthly radio programme World Vision is available on mixcloud for those who can't get it on FM, here the last week of January 2012's programme here

http://www.mixcloud.com/InvisibleSystem/world-vision-end-jan-2012-dan-harper-invisible-system-hosting/

 

Grab a listen to first public play of track off new Invisible System EP, all tracks very different, bbc6muisc with gid coe first up with the more dub reg one...http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0184rwt#segments

World Vision new monthly radio show hosted by Invisible System on Somer Valley FM Mon 10pm / Thurs 11pm

http://www.somervalleyfm.co.uk/index.php/component/content/article/2-presenters/153-Dan%20Harper

   

 

 

 News

 

The Couldron E.P. to be released soon.  Download only (lossless audio or mp3).  We have caught up with the modern age!  An EP of psy dub reggae, ethiopian post punk rock grunge, traditional fusion and jamiacan acid pop to be enjoyed in the New Year.

 

 

 

Dan is not the in-house studio producer and engineer and studio manager for the brand new Pro Tools HD based Writhlington Studios www.writhlingtonstudios.co.uk

 

 

The most affordable professional solution for mixing, mastering and recording long distance or with him in the studio at only £20 per hour due to education subsidy.  He also teaches a music tech diploma in there.

 

New USA Review and a one off Invisible System t-shirt for sale!

 

We are producing limited edition merch and also to come some short limited vinly pressings.  One t-shirt is pressed here at £10 - check out Invisible System on the facebook group and page for photos.  Payment to sales@harperdiabate.com

 

A new USA review is also in:

 

Invisible System--Street Clan--Not your Parent's Global-Au-Go-Go

You know, sometimes when I hear new hits pumping out on the airwaves, I wonder whether there has been some confluence between musical technology and torture. If you have read Naomi Klein's rather scary book The Shock Doctrine, I think you know what I'm getting at. The number of beats per minute, the effects of sound on the human constitution--sometimes it all seems a little bit formulaic. But the sonic force beats me down, vocals sampled and oversampled atop themselves, nuclear beats. It seems a lot of studio trickery more than musical performances. Maybe its just the new American Idol reality.

But you know, technology doesn't have to be used in the pursuit of evil. Sometimes technological advances can be used to create amazing things. I have albums where people paste together disparate music, using different genres, styles and musical instruments from all over the globe. A lot of times its been hit or miss. I don't know precisely what it is about Invisible Clan, the musical collective overseen by Dan Harper, whether it is just great talent or the next generation of studio innovations. I have to believe it is a potent combination of both factors. In any event, I have to say I am pretty bowled over by this ambitious recording, which I heard about in the NY Times, of all places. The album strikes me as visionary.

A very simplistic thumbnail description of Street Clan (their 2nd album after Punt) would be a collaborative synthesis of Ethiopian music, Jamaican music & fiery post punk. And the music is aggressive sounding. But there are even more things going on here than that, including psychedelia, funk, dance, electronic, Sub-Saharan African music and even some Sonny Sharrock styled fusion guitar. It's not easy to play in a variety of styles well. But when you mix these styles together, seamlessly weaving back and forth you are simply on a level of greatness. On top of this you have some great vocalists performing like Jamaican singer Dennis Wint and the unbelievable Zewditu Tadesse. Hearing him sing is simply revelatory. I think if Joe Strummer were alive today, he would be praising this music to the high heavens.

Anyone who loves interesting music will definitely find a lot to love here. For me it does not get any better than the amazing Bone Flaps. For that song alone the album is worth purchase. A remarkable vocal by Tadesse, and its like he's being backed by New Zealand noise monsters Bailter Space. You have to hear this to believe it.

The crazy thing about this album is that I almost find it too long. I can't sit and listen to all 1.3 hrs on this disc at one time. There is too much going on here. But too much interesting music is of course not any sort of valid criticism. Every time I listen, I hear new things, new instrumentations and subtleties. And righteous echoey dub. Songs like Bone Flaps and Mutant Miners are realizations of fusion music that were in my head. Fusion Music in the dynamic way I always wished it could be.

Highest praise here. Check this out and be amazed. And I just checked out the website for Harper Diabete records. They actually manufacture their own high quality microphones in addition to making recordings.

http://loupgaruda.blogspot.com/2011/06/invisible-system-street-clan-not-your.html

Harper Diabate Valve Mics on special offer this month

 

Competition to win two HRV-1 mics for the price of one, go to the mic page

 

World Vision - the new weekly music programme with Dan Harper aka Invisible System is aired on Mondays at 10pm on Somer Valley FM also online www.somervalleyfm.co.uk

 

If you missed the first programme here it is  http://www.harperdiabate.com/glue-uploads/Dan Harper World Vision Pilot .mp3

 

 

Nigel Williamson, Uncut Review : Ethiopiques Goes Global Chapter Two

Invisible System's acclaimed debut Punt - Made in Ethiopia was a thrilling contemporary re-imagination of the Ethiopiques sound, combining authentic African recordings with dub, drum'n'bass and electronic programming to create the sort of album Damon Albarn might make if he pitched up in Addis Ababa. 

Assisted by sympathetic fusionists from Portishead, Little Axe and Ozric Tentacles as well as a cast of African musicians - notably the brilliant voice of Zewditu Tadesse - the follow up is cut from similar cloth but shows even greater ambition, giving us such previously unknown genres as Ethiopian garage ("Zedanmer") and African motorik ("Bone Flaps").
 

Radio Interviews  

 

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00gf7df/Paul_Moss_08_05_2011/ 

 

USA

http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/19453

 

 

Competition : Buy a Pair of HDV-1 valve mics for the price of a single mic if you can answer this question by the end of the month

What does Diabate mean?  Answers to sales@harperdiabate.com ....  

 

the winner will be notified by Monday, the best answer and the one that makes us laugh/smile the most, wins..

  

 

 

More fantastic reviews for the album

 

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/arts/music/cds-from-alison-krauss-colin-stetson-and-dennis-coffey.html

 

As an aid worker in Ethiopia and Mali, Dan Harper started recording local singers and bands. Then, as a musical project he called Invisible System, he started tinkering — extensively and transformatively — with what he collected, playing guitar, bass and synthesizers and adding collaborators. On Invisible System’s second album, “Street Clan” (Harper Diabate), the African sounds are melded with mean metal riffs, funk bass lines, dance beats, psychedelic guitar jams, dub-style echoes, the righteous declamations of a Jamaican-British reggae singer (Dennis Wint) and more. It’s a latter-day, more chopped up, more aggressive follow-through on the ideas of “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.” The roiling results have some of the volatility of the Mars Volta and Jimi Hendrix and the implacability of Lee Scratch Perry. The reggae honors the Rastafarian tenet of a return to Ethiopia, although it sometimes tilts toward cliché. But the Ethiopian singers — Zewditu Tadesse, Tawebe and Mimi — are all grabbers: raspy and passionate, their voices leaping out of the tracks.

 

 

BBC Review - by Robin Denselow : Guardian world journalist

“More wild, frantic and unexpected than its well-received predecessor. ”
Robin Denselow 2011-04-21

It’s impossible not to admire Dan Harper. Until five years ago, he was an aid worker in Ethiopia, where he not only became fascinated by the country’s remarkable music scene but built his own studio in Addis Ababa and managed to persuade leading local artists to record with him. He also invited producer and bassist Nick Page, also known as Count Dubulah, out to Ethiopia and introduced him to his musical friends; as a result, Page formed his highly successful Ethiopian fusion band Dub Colossus.
Once he returned to England, where he now works as an unconventional music teacher in the West Country, Harper continued work on a fusion project of his own. He persuaded an impressive selection of British musicians to add their contributions to his Ethiopian recordings, and the result was the album Punt, credited to a band Harper called Invisible System. It included a remarkable cast, from the legendary Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed through to punk hero Captain Sensible, guitarist Justin Adams and Count Dubulah; the results veered from African styles to psychedelic rock, trip-hop and dub. Although this was originally something of an obscure DIY release, Harper managed to bring his work to national attention, and won impressive reviews.

Since then, the two Ethiopian fusion experiments have continued. Dub Colossus, now a rousing live band rather than merely a studio project, have a new album of Ethio-jazz and reggae fusions, Addis Through the Looking Glass, while Invisible System have a very different second set, Street Clan.

Once again, the album is based around recordings that Harper made in Africa – this time in Mali as well as Ethiopia – to which he adds his own guitar, bass, synth programming, percussion and production work. Then there are contributions from a new set of Western musicians, including the great American guitarist Skip McDonald, Adrian Utley from Portishead, Stuart Fisher (who has worked with Courtney Love), and members of psychedelic hippie heroes Ozric Tentacles. Then there’s Jamaican singer Dennis Wint, who Harper met in the Somerset town of Frome, where he lives and works.
Street Clan is even more wild, frantic and unexpected than Punt, with sections that work brilliantly and tracks where Ethiopian vocals are surrounded by a blitz of thrash guitar and percussion, results ranging from exhilarating to messy. The best tracks come towards the end, where the emphasis shifts from the clash of African vocals with full-tilt Western guitars, through to more conventional dub reggae. There’s still an African edge to Teenage Lion and Broken Heart, thanks to the vocal work from Zewditu Tadesse; but Wint dominates the songs with an energy and style that makes him sound like an unlikely male answer to early Patti Smith.
 

 

 

Los Angeles (LAs The Place) - 5 stars

Invisible System Takes World Fusion Music to a New Level with New CD Street Clan