Spacing Out is an instrumental masterpiece only ever issued in Bermuda
at the turn of 1970. A mix of the band's out-there original compositions
and extravagant covers of The Meters, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin
and The Isley Brothers, it established this band as one of the greatest
instrumental bands of any genre, and helped kickstart the
retro-soul/funk scenes that birthed the likes of Daptone and Big Crown
Records. It's certainly a lodestar for Now-Again Records.
This reissue was done with the license and participation of the entire
Invaders band, with their story told in great detail in an oversized
booklet penned by Jefferson "Chairman" Mao, complete with rare photos of
this rarely seen ensemble.
From the proverbial stank face-inducing opening bars of reverb-drenched
drums and congas that announce Spacing Out, you're thrust into something
visceral and fleeting: a pocket universe in which technical excess,
chemistry between players, and the uninhibited energy of youth align in a
kind of glorious imperfection. Spacing Out is one of the greatest
instrumental albums of its or any period in that unmistakably raw - as
in honest - way only a crew of largely self-taught young uns could catch
a groove.
Mysteriously dub-like in its audio and visual
presentation, it's exemplary of what George Clinton cited when he
explained funk as, "Anything it needs to be to save your life at that
time." James Brown had already aged well into adulthood when he
alchemized the essential elements of funk. But the Godfather's late '60s
rhythm revolution inspired countless kids barely out of their teens to
pick up instruments, form bands and attack the R&B songbook with a
ferocity that prioritized proper allegiance to the One. Funk's youth
movement reverberated across the globe. And in the curious case of The
Invaders, ascended across an imagined echo-imbued cosmos from a tropical
island blast-off in Bermuda, where those sounds ricocheted off and
reanimated every lick as an otherworldly transmission, infusing a vibe
both earthy and interstellar.
Tracklist:
1. It's Your Thing
2. Lost Times
3. Can't Get Next To You
4. The House That Jack Built
5. Look A Py Py
6. Bossa Blue
7. Spacing Out
8. Where Are We
9. Latin Lips
10. It's Your Thing Part 2