There are ghosts in the stereo, and it won’t be long until they are rattling around inside your skull, carting your mind off to vast grey, Latin-tinged dimensions—at least that’s the case if you are listening to Invisible Life, the third album by experimental artist Helado Negro. His unorthodox music weaves through a thriving sense of place and purpose to reach at something more mysterious and mind-altering in this intriguing collection of ambient electronica and glistening, nocturnal nourishment.
The son of Ecuadorian immigrants, Helado Negro (real name Roberto Carlos Lange) has lived in Florida, Savannah, and now Brooklyn. The eclectic background might account for sexy Latin crooning and the rich infusion of exotic and urban textures found in the opening “Llumina Vos,” but there is haunting beauty to this music that can only come from a mind of madness. Likewise, there is a wonderful seaside romanticism to “Lentamente,” but with its inexhaustible grooves and downpour of crushed percussion it becomes practically fatiguing, though no less fascinating, to listen to for over six minutes.
The story of madness might be the motif of the whole album. The appropriately titled, pop-skewed “Dance Ghost” starts up a groovy dance spell, but heavily reverbed percussion haunts the mix. This invokes a sense of vast empty space, but this emptiness also houses the conjured spirits of strange, happy sounds and synths. “U Heard” dips the listener underwater with aqueous textures and a high icy voice, but proves there is no less life down there than up above. And there’s certainly no escaping the cascading synths or ghostly echoes of “Catastrophe”.
Some of the magic doesn’t quite last on the second half of the album. With similar bouncing beats, heavy bass lines, and the same husky, exhaling vocals, the latter tracks move with enervated strides that are still ghostly and haunted but don’t always invoke the vibrancy of their predecessors. Invisible Life does end on a strong note with “Catch That Pain.” Though more simplistic and straightforward melodically, the song is compelling and touches on all the earlier motifs. Somehow it’s sadly conclusive, providing a sense of closure to this strange and lovely journey into an otherworld.
