The new His Name is Alive release is a set of reworkings of earlier material and a set meant for reworking. Paired with a simultaneous release of remixes by Model Home, Return Versions stands on its own as a tight set of trippy excursions into the lands of dub and dream-pop. In that sense, this Disciples release sees Warren Defever venture into territory explored earlier by African Head Charge and Adrian Sherwood.
Taking tracks from Return To Never (Home Recordings 1979 - 1986 Volume 2) and adding beats to them sounds like a straightforward approach. But what's here on Return Versions is as different from that earlier release as possible. Things here are still spacious, like the airy "Early Version", but the heavy drum track underneath this one and others renders the music dub of a sort. "To Remember" sounds a bit like what we'd expect to hear underneath an old number from A.R. Kane, 4AD label-mates with His Name is Alive, while "Lake Night" here is space-y and subtly organic. So much of this sounds like the sort of rhythmic interplay that one would find on a Krautrock record, or an African Head Charge side, but Defever elegantly marries these forms in such a way that these versions sound fine on their own, regardless of a listener's awareness of any other version of these versions. Heck, you can almost dance to this stuff too!
The companion piece, Versions Returned finds D.C.'s own Model Home rendering the same tracks simultaneously more obtuse and more direct in spots. Tinted with shadings of modern rap, and dance, the release sits nicely next to this one, but is best heard after this one is played. It does, however, work on its own in some odd way, serving up bracing remixes of these remixes, a very meta proposition.
Versions Returned by Model Home and Return Versions are both out as of now via Disciples.
More details on His Name Is Alive via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Disciples / His Name Is Alive]