Mouth by Mouth cover

Mouth by Mouth

Released

The first two His Name Is Alive albums, Livonia and Home Is In Your Head, were deeply hermetic things; isolated from the world, listening to them sounded like eavesdropping. Mouth By Mouth is just as intimate, but now HNIA’s Warren Defever has opened his music up – more vocalists, more instruments, more rhythm, more colour. Compared to what came before, it’s kaleidoscopic. The songs still hint at folk song and church music, in their reduced, repetitive structures, but now they’re vibrant with detail: “Lord, Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace” is cleaved in two by a sample of spiralling winds; the following “Drink, Dress & Ink” is song that’s fighting against its own boundaries, a tremolo’d rush of noise. The cover of Big Star’s “Blue Moon” stands out as Alex Chilton’s song is more traditionally formal, but HNIA fold even this into their imagined community of sound.

Jon Dale

Recommended by

Suggestions
Ladytron cover

Ladytron

Ladytron
Drift Code cover

Drift Code

Rustin Man
1967/68 cover

1967/68

The Art Ensemble
Haus Der Luege cover

Haus Der Luege

Einstürzende Neubauten
Private Energy cover

Private Energy

Helado Negro
So cover

So

Markus Popp, Eriko Toyoda
Voa cover

Voa

Oval
Tone Float cover

Tone Float

Organisation
Scrutiny cover

Scrutiny

Fashion Club
Last Splash cover

Last Splash

The Breeders