His Name Is Alive - Xmmer

Genre rock Publisher Reincarnate Music External Links Official His Name Is Alive Website Silver Mountain Media

His Name Is Alive are not a Christian band, but rather a very diverse, ever evolving Avant-Indie tinged one. HNIA were formed in 1989 in Livonia, Michigan by a very unique and original guitarist, Warren Defever. I became both excited and intimidated when I found that my second review for Static wound up to be a band I discovered back in 1993! His Name Is Alive resided for over a decade on the incredibly diverse, ultra-artsy and very cool 4AD label. The list of worshiped bands goes on and on with this record label: Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Blonde Redhead, Bauhaus, Dead Can Dance, Throwing Muses, TV On The Radio, Nick Cave, and may more influential bands have called 4AD home.

HNIA’s first LP released in 1990, Livonia (named after their hometown), is drenched in echoed, ethereal acid, sounding very much like an odd My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, but existing a good year before that groundbreaking LP. The lead vocals, all female, have changed three times now and with this recording, the third being Andrea Francesca Morici. Andrea sounds so similar to the original lead, Karin Oliver. I lost interest in HNIA just after the Beach Boys-influenced Stars On E.S.P., which was released in 1996. I have managed to hear nothing by the group during the time Lovetta Pippen was the vocalist. There is pretty much no album by HNIA that is easy to digest, yet most of the time it is easy to listen due to the lush quality. On Xmmer, however, I found the recordings to be so similar to their highly imaginative Home Is In Your Head, that it felt as though some of the material were leftovers from that 1991 acoustic/dream-pop effort. However, many of the songs have a loop-based, 4/4 beat with instruments as diverse as the African thumb-activated Mbira to sheet metal percussion. Sounds a little avant-garde maybe, but the songs are pop-influenced and organic in nature.

There is little about Xmmer that has staying power. The texture is about all I can recall save the comparisons to the band's past works. Though not a boring album, it is not as innovative as their earlier work. If interested in hearing the band at their best, start with their third CD, Mouth By Mouth, which may appeal to fans of My Bloody Valentine and various other indie bands of their time.