Darkly danceable post-punk from the north of Sweden
Quintet reinvents itself again, brings ‘pretentious resistance’ to the lost ones and dreamers
What’s the deal? Although the name INVSN has only been kicking around for a relatively short four years, the Swedish agitpunk outfit has existed as a band under various monikers for more than a decade. It actually has its roots in a solo project released by onagain/off-again Refused front man Dennis Lyxsen way, way back in1999 under the alias the Lost Patrol.
It’s not, strictly speaking, one of the newest New Favourite Things ever to feature in this space, then. Co-vocalist Sara Almgren played in the allfemale hardcore combo the Doughnuts and Masshysteri as well as in the (International) Noise Conspiracy, while Christina Karlsson has done time in Tiger Forest Cat, Anders Stenberg in the Deportees and Andre Sandstrom in DS-13. So think of INVSN as a Newish Favourite Thing, a “supergroup” assembled from seasoned and durable “old” parts.
In any case, one needn’t be acquainted with any of its history to appreciate what INVSN is doing. The band has reinvented itself over the years, these days rocking an electrowired post-punk sound that’s neither as stridently and scorchingly aggressive and hardcore as what Lyxsen gets up to with Refused, nor as modishly rabble-rousing as (I)NC.
On this year’s The Beautiful Stories LP, the quintet draws upon the twitchy machine rhythms and clang- ing industrial atmospherics of Killing Joke and Gang of Four and the urgent, miserablist melodicism of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen in roughly equal measure for inspiration to express its distaste with the state of capitalism and complacent contemporary politics.
“We constructed everything / Let’s deconstruct it all,” chant Lyxsen and Almgren on “Deconstruct Hits,” demonstrating that their shared penchant for anarchist sloganeering hasn’t waned over the years, but also offering a succinct summation of how INVSN itself diligently operates as a band. Indeed, further evidence of that spirit can be found in the group’s latest release: a bleakly booming cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Love” released a week ago because, as the band told Consequence of Sound, it considers the American pop singer “the Hegelian contradiction that is one of the most fascinating aspects of America.” Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “INVSN is provincial noise from the north of Sweden,” declares Lyxsen. “Dark, danceable manifestations of pretentious resistance. Art for the lost ones, music for the dreamers and politics for the romantics.” What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Immer Zu.” Strikes a pulse-quickening balance between their most caustic and most inviting extremes. Where can I see them play? At the Velvet Underground on Wednesday.