producer, composer, music lover

17, that difficult age of wanting to go out and party, but having nowhere to go. Me, Robbie and Lewis were out and drunk in Camden; we turned down a street and walked into big David Okumu, the awesome guitarist from the Tomorrow’s Warriors, the house band for the Jazz Cafe Sunday jam sessions. Being young regulars at the jam, we showered him with praise, before stumbling off into the night.

A couple of hours later we attempted to walk into the Jazz Cafe, but the bouncer was having none of it. We had a kind of minor beef with the guy too which made it all the worse. But who was that standing in the doorway? Who else but big David Okumu, who strode forward, turned to the bouncer and said: “These are my boys, they’re coming in”. I’m still grateful for that moment…

These days, Dave is fronting Mercury-nominated trio The Invisible. It’s like a live-band version of all the wonky/post-dubstep ish that’s going on, and it’s seriously addictive. Check out the video to London Girl below, and the Joe Hot Chip remix after that… also, the album’s a snip on Amazon at £3.99. Just sayin’…

The Invisible – London Girl (Joe Hot Chip Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Anyone who’s followed this blog even a bit will probably know that I’m pretty into the idea of visuals bringing out the way music sounds and works – see this Renaud Hallee video for an idea. The money going into live shows at the moment means that a lot of the bigger artists are doing some interesting stuff. I loved UVA’s Manhattan-esque screen backdrop for Jay Z’s Blueprint 3 tour, and The Who’s stage for their Superbowl set this year absolutely wowed me too.

Some of the more epic DJs have been getting in on the act for a while, with Daft Punk’s world famous pyramid being the obvious example. A mate of mine put me onto Etienne de Crecy’s cube the other day which I think is equally awesome.

For the artist performing on a smaller stage, it’s a much more difficult task, but I think Nosaj Thing’s experiments with live visuals prove that it’s definitely possible to do something impressive. OK, it’s not like he doesn’t have some backing, but it shows what we performers should be thinking about doing. Thanks to AudioAndroid for the link.

Nosaj Thing Visual Show Compilation Test Shoot from Adam Guzman on Vimeo.