MadTracks: 'Oort Cloud' by The Earthling Invasion

December 3, 2009

7:22 PM

Madison quintet

By 2004, Johnson had picked up the bass to go along with his keyboard, and The Stools had transformed into The Earthling Invasion. The lineup has been constant since drummer Mike Edquist joined in 2006. Since then, they've played several shows a year while developing their sound and gradually putting together their first disc, mostly at Wendy Schneider's now-shuttered Coney Island studio.

"It's been a three-year odyssey," says Warren, who writes the group's songs and played various instruments besides guitar during the tracking of A Star is Born. "We started recording this album in June 2006, with 'Year of the Monkey,' 'Back to the Sea,' 'Negative G' and 'Bachelors.' We're quite slow, and would go in on a weekend to get all the drums recorded and then come back over the next few months to re-track everything else."

Recording continued in 2007 at Coney Island and 2008 at DNA Studios. "Mastering took a number of attempts to get everything right, and we finally had the finished master in January 2009" notes Warren.

The Earthling Invasion calls their music "spacey glam pop and rock and roll," but I'd almost call it glam jam rock, with a couple tracks of psychedelic disco. That being said, trying to put a genre label on their sound doesn't really work very well. And for those now hearing warning bells in his or her head due to negative personal connotations of "jam rock" or "disco", consider those descriptors with reservations while I try and describe the album beyond labels.

Of the album's 11 tracks, only three are shorter than five minutes, while six run six minutes or longer. These extended songs take their time in building a groove, more as a method of creating tension and dynamics in the music than as a showcase for tons of crazy soloing. Keyboards and guitar alternate in creating the sonic backdrop for the other -- and the trumpet -- to carry the melody, along with Warren's often quite mannered and intense vocal style. Due to the prominent, and sometimes very loud, presence of the guitar, the overall sound is quite a bit tougher than usual for a synth-based band.

One of the mellower tracks on A Star is Born, "Oort Cloud" begins with a strummed guitar setting the background for a trumpet line and Warren's most relaxed-sounding vocal on the album. A keyboard following the vocal melody gradually sneaks its way into the mix, along with some spacier synth overlays.

An MP3 of "Oort Cloud" is available in the related downloads section at right. More music by The Earthling Invasion is available on its MySpace page. The group is playing a CD release party, which also features Lorenzo's Music and the Chicago soul of The Right Now, at the Frequency on Saturday, Dec. 5; showtime is 10 p.m.

MadTracks highlights and provides MP3s of songs performed by local musicians. All tracks here are provided with permission of the artist. If you are a musician based in the Madison metro area and are interested in sharing your work as a MadTrack, please send a message.