Los Amigos Invisibles

A Venezuelan outfit steeped in funk, disco, and traces of acid jazz, Los Amigos Invisibles burst onto the local scene in 1995 when their debut album, A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band, arrived with its peculiar Japanese animé-inspired cover art. The lineup of Julio Briceño on vocals, José Luis Pardo handling guitar and songwriting duties, Armando Figueredo on keyboards, Mauricio Arcas delivering raps, José Rafael Torres on bass, and Juan Manuel Roura behind the drums built momentum by throwing a string of clandestine dance nights inside half-empty Caracas venues. Money troubles soon prompted a relocation to New York in 1997.

There the group aligned with David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and issued its U.S. introduction, The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera, in 1998. Subsequent releases followed in quick succession: Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey Into Space in 2000, The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1 in 2004, and Superpop Venezuela in 2006. A digital-only set, En Una Noche Tan Linda Como Esta, surfaced on Mercury in 2008 before the band moved to the fledgling Latin imprint Nacional. Their first project for the label was the 2009 album Commercial, whose funky edge was soon complemented by the concert recording Live in Soho. The even more adventurous Not So Commercial appeared in 2011 and, against expectations, became a commercial success. After years of near-constant road work and festival dates worldwide, the musicians returned to the studio in 2012 and completed Repeat After Me, which reached listeners in the spring of 2013.