Moon & Back Music

A Glasgow based ambient folk band’s first foray into the mainstream gets your toes tapping and knees slapping.

The Invisible Republic’s debut EP is a barnstorming introduction from a group who prove that there is still time for a good old-fashioned country and folk album in the modern music era. With their softly spoken ambient folk-rock, with occasional foray into the psychedelic, this Glaswegian quintet offers their first full EP for consideration.

This band of young men based in Glasgow offer listeners their first, self-titled EP after a string of popular and successful gigs that have taken them all over the world. Describing themselves as a psychedelic/ambient/folk band, the debut EP demonstrates the group’s love for a style of music often overlooked by up and coming bands who’s only purpose is to penetrate the charts, often resulting in a hackneyed, overplayed pop sound. The Invisible Republic on the contrary demonstrate their adoration for folk and country styles of music, successfully blending their native Scottish roots with a more traditionally American oriented folk style creating a pleasantly listenable and enjoyable mix of laid back and toe tapping songs.

The EP’s opening two tracks, “A Fool’s Dance” and “Eiderdown” are wonderful examples of the band’s fine ability to create and produce traditional folk ballads with the slightest hint of contemporary sound and passion that oozes from a soft sounding ambiance. “She Named a Bullet After Me” is a more high tempo country number, the pedal steel guitar of Eamon Brady providing a rhythmic heartbeat to the song that simple makes listeners want to dance.

This track, along with “A Statute Reading” and “Tuesday’s Girl” perfectly demonstrates the band’s fantastic dynamic between members. This enjoyable attitude taken by the band when approaching this style of music is a must for any band playing songs like these. With such a potent emphasis on traditional values and topics like love and friendship, it is good to hear this group sounding so closely knit and familiar with each other’s playing styles. Their harmonic sound and gentle acoustics remind the listener more than a little of The Eagles and Crosby, Stills and Nash, the godfathers of course of the country and folk scenes, an honour many bands would enjoy but sadly fail to achieve.

The debut EP from The Invisible Republic delivers more than an apt and very approachable/listenable introduction from the Glasgow based band. With their regular shows and now international reputation as they continue to venture stateside, this group are a great example of how folk music is still very popular and healthy as a music scene. A testimony to the band’s success has been their recent air time on two major Scottish mainstream radio stations, “She Named a Bullet After Me” featuring on both Radio One and BBC Radio Scotland. Their infusion of traditional American and Scottish folk styles, along with others of course, creates an enjoyable set list of songs that deserve more than a casual listen.

Jonathan Whitelaw

Check out the band’s official website for music and upcoming tour/gig schedules: http://www.theinvisiblerepublic.com