LP | DISC9 | 5060384619323 |
- Limited Edition Clear Vinyl
- Colour Reverse Board Outer
- Printed Inner Sleeve With Liner Notes by Mike McGonigal
- Includes Download Card
For the past couple of years the Disciples label has been exploring the early tape archives of Warren Defever aka His Name Is Alive, a wealth of home recordings that he amassed whilst growing up in suburban Michigan, prior to signing to 4AD in the late 1980s.
These records have charted the development of their sound over 3 roughly chronological volumes - All The Mirrors In The House in 2019, Return To Never in 2020, and we're now bringing the trilogy to a close early in the new year with third and final volume, Hope Is A Candle.
Pressed once again as a limited edition clear vinyl LP with no banding and a printed inner sleeve with sleevenotes by Mike McGonigal (author of books on My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500 and noted for his publications Chemical Imbalance, Yeti and Maggot Brain), alongside beautiful photos from the Defever family album, the whole package designed by Studio Tape Echo. Please note the first two LPs are now sold out and we don't expect this latest volume to be in stock for very long.
Alongside the LP there is also a 4CD boxset that anthologises the whole series. A disc for each album in the trilogy, plus a bonus disc which collects together the best tracks from a series of mail order cassette companion volumes that Defever compiled to go alongside each LP - 6Teen OK, Return Versions and Ghost Tape EXP, and a 36 page book. This is also limited to 1000 copies worldwide and won't be re-pressed.
The third and final volume in a trilogy exploring the early tape archives of Warren Defever (who is now one of the head engineers at Third Man’s mastering studio in Detroit) aka His Name Is Alive, a wealth of home recordings that he amassed whilst growing up in suburban Michigan, prior to signing to 4AD in the late 1980s. The beautiful ambient sketches and backwards loops of the first two volumes are still in evidence, but this collection sees the artist moving slowly towards more recognisable song forms.
Much of the material contained here was duplicated on the infamous demo tape that caught the ear of Ivo Watts-Russell and led to elements being re-worked into Livonia, the first His Name Is Alive album on 4AD. Some of the sounds here touch on the kind of dream pop which 4AD was known for at the time – the gauzy textures of the Cocteau Twins or This Mortal Coil, and predicts the saturated textures of the incoming shoegaze sound. But there’s also echoes of older, more esoteric sources: 80s industrial records, early minimalist works, even the blues and folk sounds documented by Folkways. As the artist recounts in the liner notes: “I wanted to do my own Music for 18 Musicians. But I didn't know 18 musicians; I barely had two friends, and even they couldn't stand me.”
The first two LPs are now sold out and we don't expect this latest volume to be in stock for very long.
There is also a 4CD boxset that rounds up all the music in the series alongside additional material and a 36 page book. This is also limited to 1,000 copies worldwide and won't be re-pressed.
There is a sense of the fractured bliss of Flying Saucer Attack seeping through the music, but hushed, as though Defever’s strive to create kosmische epics was muffled by a fear of waking up whoever was in the room next door. A blanket of luminous compositions creeping through the ether.”
The Quietus
Tracklist
A1 Princess
A2 Either
A3 Coldless
A4 Liadin
A5 Disappear
A6 Never
A7 Pass
B1 Nearby
B2 Salendro
B3 Porter
B4 Still
B5 Halo
B6 Insiders
