The Invisible Men

If Irish dance music ever does take off and is elevated to an international level, Invisible Armies will be an integral part of the first wave of talent to cross the demilitarised zone. Stepping deftly over the prone, bloated corpse of Irish rock music and dodging the imminent and quite frightening prospect of a crusty-folk-dance crossover, the band, consisting of Leo Pearson, Joe McHugh and Dumnak Dummy Goulet have already launched a three-pronged attack with A Neutral Space, their highly accomplished maiden voyage to the darkside on Influx.
Combining weird FX, otherworldly vocal samples, orchestral flourishes and old-skool aesthetics, wrapped around organic basslines and off-centre beat structures, Space is a polished, mature release from a trio who haven t yet made it to their mid-twenties. Despite their youth, Leo Pearson explains that we might be young but we re no novices. We ve all been either DJing or making tunes for about five or six years.
Fresh-faced they may be, but on an individual level, the Armies CVs are impressive: Joe McHugh had tracks featured on both Nu Diocese EPs and, together with Gavin Little released the Disarmony long player on Pearson s Peak label. Leo Pearson has recorded as Romin for Peak and Influx, has mixed U2 s Mofo as Romin, with Johnny Moy, and has remixed British band Bush, together with acid house survivor and Bush manager Dave Dorrell. Although Leo says the Peak label is currently on hold , he still runs Peak studios, where the Armies have already put together enough material for two more EPs, using their own unique technique.
Joe comes from a hardcore background but is also into stuff like Black Dog, Dummy is a big electro and reggae fan, and I like anything really, explains Leo. We re all equally involved in Invisible Armies, but we work together in twos, and then the third person comes in to add to the music. We ve been doing this for about a year, and we plan to have the second and third EPs out in mid-summer and September on Influx.
Pearson is adamant that these releases on the Dublin label are part of a well-thought-out narrative, and advises the listener to check the vocal samples on Neutral Space and observe the cryptic phrase other worlds yet to be explored , written backwards on the record sleeve.
There is a link in the vocal samples we ve used for the first three EPs, which we hope people will notice. Last year we went to London and spent three days in a record store in Notting Hill. We bought about 500 records, none of which were dance-related, varying from orchestral stuff to soundtracks to dodgy B-movies. Our music isn t heavily sample-based but we ve nicked our vocals from these records. Some of the FX we ve used are also from dodgy sci-fi movies. We re not going to mention any names for fear of getting screwed: sorry, I can t tell you which ones they are!
With elements of electro, hardcore, techno, jazz and funk meeting cinematic and soundtrack influences, the Armies musical masterplan is a complex one, and although Space isn t exactly avin it at 3 a.m. material, Leo says it fits into their grand scheme of things, on vinyl and on stage.
We ve built up a set that s 60% dark and fast, but every Armies track, be it hard or mellow, has music in it: everything we do has to be epic. I think live music has become stale, so we throw different types of music into what we do, and unlike most dance acts we use real sounds and put whatever we feel works into our music.
The band played live for the first time in the PoD, Dublin, on St. Patrick s Day alongside David Holmes, Howie B and Johnny Moy, but had spent a month at a secret hideaway prior to the gig preparing. Anyone who witnessed their performance that night will testify that the Armies have put in the hours.
We spent six weeks planning it out, confirms Leo. We looked at other established bands and the way they work. Myself, Joe and Dummy play keyboards and run the beats off an eight-track, and we have a bass player and a guitarist. Our session musicians are into dance music, but they re not dying to take centre stage live, they know how to hold back and complement what we do. The guitarist has a V-shaped guitar, but we re aiming high!
With plans to promote their work at festivals across Ireland and the UK this Summer, including T in the Park in Glasgow, Green Energy in Dublin, the Bud Thud event in Galway and possibly at Essential in Brighton, Pearson believes live dance music has overtaken DJing and clubbing in the entertainment stakes.
Clubs don t really explode like they used to in the past, he says, with a tinge of nostalgia in his voice. It seems like people are refusing to have a good time nowadays, and the idea of seeing a DJ play doesn t appeal to me anymore. I rate Joe, Stem, Johnny Moy and Jon Carter, because he doesn t give a fuck. I also recently saw Liam Howlett DJing and he was great, sticking to his 1992/1993 guns. There used to be a certain standard for DJs, and they d get stick if they couldn t mix, whereas nowadays everyone s at it and no-one seems to care. People think they can stick on any records and get away with it. There is eclectic, which some DJs can do well, and then there s bullshit.
A Neutral Space is out now on Influx Records. Invisible Armies play Heineken Green Energy, Dublin and Bud Thud, Galway, over the May Bank Holiday Weekend .