Invisible System is the pseudonym for the UK & Africa producer Dan Harper whose music involves a fusion of Ethiopian, dub, reggae, techno, trance, drum and bass, jungle, acid, psychedelic, folk, post-punk, goth and rock. They have played at the Addis Ababa Music Festival, Ethiopia. Endorset Festival, UK. Thimbleberry Festival, supported the UK bands Dreadzone, The Beat, The Dub Pistols, Jah Wobble and also played Music Port Festival, Waveform Festival and Glastonbury Festival.
Albums
Punt was released in 2009. Guest musicians included Mahmoud Ahmed, Captain Sensible, Aklilu Bedane, Justin Adams, Dubulah, Juldeh Camara, Desta Fikra, Ozric Tentacles, Tsedenia Gebre Markos, Bahta Gebre Hiwot, Simon Hinkler, Zion Train, Eat Static, Loop Guru, Baka Beyond, Hilaire Chabby and others. The album has been played on BBC's World Service, Late Junction and Asian Network, on Radio New Zealand, RRR Australia, BBC6 Music and many European and US based stations, It reached the final of the Songlines World Music Awards 2010 and included on the CD to celebrate the finalists in the Best Newcomer category. In April 2011 a new album entitled Street Clan was released. Not only was this another Ethiopian fusion album as Punt, but it introduced Jamaican vocals and post-punk into the mix. It was released to international critical acclaim again scoring five and four star reviews in for example, The New York Times, fRoots Magazine, the BBC, Uncut, World Music Network, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, Los Angeles, and in AllMusic. Guest musicians included Skip McDonald, Adrian Utley, Stuart Fisher, The Ozric Tentacles, Eat Static and others. Radio airplay was very prominent on BBC Radio 6 Music with Gideon Coe and was also on BBC3 Late Junction with Max Reinhardt, RRR Australia, Radio New Zealand with interviews, and many national radio stations in Europe and the US including Italy, France, Spain and Germany. It reached no.25 in the World Music European Charts. In January 2012, a download only EP entitled The Cauldron was released with again much BBC Radio 6 Music airplay with Gideon Coe and European and US coverage. Reviews included five stars in Los Angeles and a review with David Honigmann in The Financial Times. Invisible System is the featured artist on Disc Two of The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia. This featured album is also available as a download only stand alone and had some reviews e.g. four stars in Songlines magazine by Tim Cummings, a copy of which is pasted on the Invisible System website; World Music Central; and in the Independent on Sunday alongside the rough guide. Robin Denselow who writes for The Guardian and the BBC also reviewed it. Introducing Invisible System was also reviewed in Pop Matters alongside the subsequently released double live album Live and Raw. Live and Raw also was reviewed by David Honnigman in The Financial Times In 2013, Invisible System released their final Ethiopian fusion album alongside their UK and Jamaican strands. Guests included Zion Train, Baka Beyond, the members of IS who went on to perform with Dub Colossus and Juldeh Camara again better known for his work with Justin Adams as JuJu on Realworld Records; and more recently as a member of Robert Plant's band again alongside Justin Adams, The Space Shifters. It was entitled Tiga Tej Tibs and was favourably reviewed again. Again it was reviewed in The Financial Times with David Honigmann in Songlines by Nige Tassell and given four stars by David Haslam in Rock N Reel / R2 Magazine. Scans of the reviews were found online. Invisible System have since released two double digital/download albums. Azmariz versus Acid Mali that delivered a mix of their work with Ethiopian Azmaris alongside a more stripped down acid sound from when Dan Harper was working out in Mali in 1999 with a very basic solar powered setup. And Roots N Dub versus Beats N Trances delivering as told. A dub album was subsequently planned although cut short and delivered as the digital/download only Dub Triplets EP featuring Mahmoud Ahmed, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara it was cut short due to Harper spending the summer in Mali through an international arts grant. Harper is now working on new Malian fusion albums having returned to the country that he aid worked, married and had a child in, before he moved to Ethiopia. Some samples of what is to come can be found online. It is to be released in 2017. He is also working on a sequel to the stripped down acid 303 album he made in 2000 called Acid Mali to be called Acid Frome 2017. He has a new UK-based offshoot Post Punk, Pay, Kraut style band called Invisible Eyes with Boswell who is a known Mutartis graffiti artist as well as the artist for Eat Static and Ozric Tentacles released. Having just got off the ground some rough recordings of jams/rehearsals.
