His Name Is Alive - Mouth By Mouth [LP]

His Name Is Alive's final record on 4AD, the first where the band controlled all processes including mixing, saw a marked shift; their most diverse, yet accessible catalog entry. The project's soaring growth over time allowed Defever to employ an extraordinarily adventuring approach to the record's sound and vision, indulging his love for all kinds of music, be it tastes of looped dub ("Lord, Make Me A Channel of Your Peace", "The Homesick Waltz"), sugar-sweet 1960s pop ("Baby Fish Mouth", "Lip"), distortion-laden dream-gaze ("Can't Go Wrong Without You"), evocative alt-noise ("Sick"), or strummy folk ("Where Knock Is Open Wide"). Embracing the surreal and turning their experimentalism up a notch and with Defever's studio skills truly blossoming, many see this as a high point for the band. "Like a DIY cocktail of My Bloody Valentine's dreamy noise and the wee-hours arthouse sigh of fellow 4AD'ers This Mortal Coil, [Mouth By Mouth] generates a tremolo- and fuzz-laden frenzy underscoring Defever's debt to '60s garage psych." - Bandcamp Daily