His Name Is Alive Sweetens The Sweet

What we can only hope is a first in a series of album re-releases from their diverse back catalogue, former 4AD supplicates His Name Is Alive have re-mastered and re-issued their long out of print "fake bootleg", King of Sweet.  

Originally available in a limited pressing of 2,000 on the esoteric Perdition Plastics label back in 1993, just shortly after the career-defining Mouth By Mouth album, King of Sweet never pretended, or intended, to be anything other than for HNIA diehards only.

The album was culled from clippings of the band's early cassette experiments, combined with their trademark use of aural and haunting found sounds.  Most of the tracklist contained rough drafts of songs (or in some cases, song elements) that earlier appeared on Livonia and Home Is In Your Head (especially the latter), and a few others never appeared on any of their official 4AD records at all, i.e. "Soul Resides In The Horse Barn" and "Driftin' Blues" ("Horse Barn" actually did appear in a very different telling on the band's Nice Day EP in 1997 - though it was hardly recognizable).  

The 2 record album boasts a fuller sound, a little different cover art than the original, and is marketed as being re-mastered by the hand and ear of His Name Is Alive's very own frontman Warren Defever.  Additionally, it "appears to be a few minutes longer than the original".  Yes... a few minutes longer.   And yes, this was accomplished only by re-mastering it.  Now, re-mixing could conceivably alter the running time of an album, sure, but re-mastering typically only improves the sonic resonance of the work.  This has always been my understanding anyway, but when questioned about this, Defever promptly cleared it up for me: "Re-mastering is actually where I get to do whatever I want," he stated, and adds, "just whose side are you on, anyway?"  Well... uh, yours Warren - of course.

As mentioned before, those of you unfamiliar with His Name Is Alive, might find King of Sweet a bit tedious an introduction.  While being an unquestionably well-done and creative stance on a retrospective of the band's work, it regardless requires some previous familiarity to accept and fully enjoy.  Defever's creativity can be intense and unconventional to the point that some might view it as a little much to take in all at once.  His Name Is Alive can be simultaneously beautiful, aggressive and gentle, soothing and haunting - all within the same song!  Some pieces are stripped down compositions that often times consist of nothing more than walls of guitar sound and spooky choral female vocalization.  Despite  being impossible to categorize (and undoubtedly a total nightmare to market), the band has a strong and dedicated following, nonetheless; because what they do, they do very well.  It's just that not everyone has the ear for what they do - and that's a pity, really, because they deserve much more attention than they get.  

HNIA was at one time a full fledged member of the 4AD label's "classic" roster, which lasted between about 1984 and 1996.  Among these elite were Dead Can Dance, The Pixies, The Breeders and Pale Saints - just to name a few.  In those days, Ivo Watts Russell owned the label, and more or less hand-picked, nurtured and fostered the growth of them all until they were capable of walking on their own.  When the label was sold to a larger, and totally artistically discouraging corporate conglomerate, these very same bands that essentially made the label what it was, either saw the Cretaceous period of their existence or broke off and continued on independently.  His Name Is Alive was one such example, as Defever founded and continues to operate the Silver Mountain Media Group, which handles overall management and distribution of all of HNIA's releases since 2005, as well as a few other artists he is associated with.  

All that being established, King of Sweet was the only album the band released during their tenure with 4AD that was not actually issued on the 4AD label.  Seeing it released under the Silver Mountain label seems logical and to their financial benefit, as it is likely (for right now, anyway) the only one they legally could re-release.  Hopefully some acquisitions are made, however - it would be fantastic to see the same re-issue treatment done to His Name Is Alive's proper albums.  Mouth By Mouth, in particular, would be a wise investment, many would agree.

In the meantime, Defever has taken the time and expense to add a little sweetener to an already phenomenal release - even in its original incarnation.  Fans will undoubtedly wet their pallets on this, but there's no question they'll be keeping their fingers crossed in anticipation of the others.

For a smooth introduction, conditioning, transitioning (it'll be all of those, trust me) to His Name Is Alive's music, I recommended you get their albums in this order:

  1. Mouth By Mouth (1993)
  2. Livonia (1990)
  3. Home Is In Your Head (1991)
  4. King of Sweet (1993)
  5. Stars on E.S.P (1996)
  6. Last Night (2002)
  7. Fort Lake (1998)
  8. Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth (2001)
  9. Xmmer (2007)
10. Detrola (2005)

And no matter what anybody tells you, don't touch The Eclipse - it's bad news.