HIS NAME IS ALIVE

Ghost Tape EXP

Genre: ELECTRONIC

MP3
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WAV

Boomkat Product Review:

4AD outliers His Name Is Alive shed more light on their swelling archive for Disciples. RIYL Grouper, Spacemen 3, Manuel Göttsching

“Latest installment in the half-disciple deep dive into the magnetic tape memories of Warren Defever aka His Name Is Alive. Alongside the two vinyl LP compilations All The Mirrors In The House and Return To Never, this archival project has also encompassed companion cassettes 6Teen OK (a sound collage dialogue between Defever and the wandering AM dial of 1980s Michigan radio), and the recent double drop Return Versions and Versions Returned, in which drones from Return To Never were dubbed out and set to drum loops by Walking Trails and Model Home.

Ghost Tape EXP serves as a kind of trailer for the forthcoming third and final LP in the home recordings trilogy, Hope Is A Candle, scheduled for release in the new year. It uses the same degraded 4-track tape sources, but manipulating and remixing the sounds to produce something subtly different and a deeply transcendent listen for those that take the time to immerse themselves in these grainy tone poems. It explores various tantalising possible paths that His Name Is Alive might have gone down (or may do in future): the beatless floatation tank space rock of “Angel Waves” (with shades of Pete Kember’s more ambient Spacemen 3 tracks); the rumbling dub rhythm of “Keep The Moon On Time”; grayscale Grouper-esque winter ambience on “Slept Thru”; soaring Göttsching/Rother style guitar kosmische on “Sun Reflection”; or the occult dread of “Witch Marks” recalling the clammy sound design of third series Twin Peaks. These digressions combine to form a remarkably cohesive soundworld.”

MP3 Release (8)