New Atlantis Records announces the May 12 release of Invisible Things’ second album, Time As One Axis.
Invisible Things is the Brooklyn/Chicago duo consisting of guitarist Mark Shippy, formerly of US Maple, and drummer Jim Sykes, formerly of Parts & Labor. The pair met originally as members of Marnie Stern’s touring band and formed Invisible Things as an improv project.
Debut album Home Is the Sun was released in 2012 on Porter Records. Sophomore album Time As One Axis was recorded by the legendary Martin Bisi at B.C. Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Bisi’s long list of credits includes Sonic Youth, Swans, Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and Herbie Hancock. Time As One Axis sees Shippy and Sykes careen from driving, exuberant noise-rock to wild bursts of chaos – somewhere between the noisy/melodic forcefield of Sonic Youth and the manic wanderings of US Maple. Shippy wields his guitar like no one else, milking a whole spectrum of textures out of it, and utters cryptic vocals that range from mumbles to howls. Sykes, a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Pennsylvania by day, finds inspiration in Sri Lankan drumming; he shifts gleefully between odd-time grooves and unhinged free-jazz sprees.
In the words of New Atlantis boss Ed Ricart, “Cathartic squalls of feedback coalesce with forceful, rapturous percussion, evoking both the searing intensity of NY no-wave and the skewed songcraft of the Skin Graft/Load Records stables… With Time As One Axis, the duo have enveloped an even broader swath of sonic territory without sacrificing off-kilter intensity, balancing their angular kineticism with melody and dynamics.”
Stream the track “Kniii…” from Time As One Axis, exclusively via BrooklynVegan, here.
Invisible Things will hit the road in May for a US tour. Stand by for dates.