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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:
Side A –
It’s Your Thing
Lost Times
Can’t Get Next To You
The House That Jack Built
Look A Py Py
Bossa Blue
Side B –
Spacing Out
Where We Are
Latin Lips
It’s Your Thing – Part 2
Personnel:
Sturgis Griffin Jr. – Congas
Ralph Richardson -Trumpet
Lloyd Williams – Sax. Flute
Stan Gilbert-Bass
John Burch – Guitar
Mike Stowe – Drums
Produced by Jean Paul Salvatori.
Executive produced by Eddy DeMello.
Produced for Reissue by Eothen Alapatt.
Special thanks to Herman Eve, Angelo Angione, Gerald “Jazzman” Short, Josh “DJ Shadow” Davis.
Licensed courtesy Ralph Richardson, Stan Gilbert, John Burch, Mike Stowe, Sturgis Griffin Jr., and Lloyd Williams.
Liner notes by Jefferson “Chairman” Mao.
Restoration and remastering by Jason Bitner.
Art Direction by Errol F. Richardson.
Reissue coordination by Tanner McCrary.
LP, Digital. 2025. NA5262.