(2021) His Name Is Alive – A Silver Thread: Home Recordings 1979 – 1990


Review:
Disciples’ series of archival His Name Is Alive releases reclaimed the project’s early ambient works in a beautiful and carefully considered way, and A Silver Thread: Home Recordings 1979-1990 is no exception. A set collecting all three volumes of the series plus bonus material, it spans the dreamy flow and slowly shifting textures of All the Mirrors in the House, which gathered some of Warren Defever’s earliest experiments with piano, guitar, a well-used echo pedal, and a four-track recorder; Return to Never (Home Recordings 1979-1986, Vol. 2), which incorporated more rough-edged sounds as well as transfixing ambiances; and Hope Is a Candle: Home Recordings 1985-1990, which foreshadowed the mercurial dream pop of officially released albums like 1990’s Livonia. Fans who didn’t keep up with the companion mixtapes of reimagined material from the series will be especially interested in the set’s selection of tracks from 6Teen OK, Return Versions, Versions Returned, and Ghost Tape EXP. The weightless beauty of “6teen Secrets” and the juxtaposition of cheerleaders and drones on “6Teen Cheers” make for some of the highlights from 6Teen OK’s blend of soundscapes and 1980s radio recordings, while “In the Great Night” and “My Heart Will Go Out” from Ghost Tape EXP give a satisfying sense of closure with their vast sweep. The most exciting tracks, however, might be from Return Versions, a mixtape of dubbed-out reworkings featuring beats by Walking Trails. On pieces such as “Vision Return” and “To Remember Vision,” the producer lets the wide-open spaces of the original tracks resonate in entirely new ways that still feel true to the heart of the music. Taken together with the booklet featuring essays about the album as well as early photos of His Name Is Alive, A Silver Thread is a fascinating artifact as well as a fine example of the ongoing creative dialogue Defever has always had with his music.





Tracklist:
1.Piano Rev 02:03
2.Lliadin 02:55
3.Something About Hope 02:35
4.All The Mirrors In The House 01:27
5.Because Piano 02:23
6.Rememory 04:43
7.Tape Sound 00:36
8.Guitar Rev 02:01
9.Fine As Feathers 02:20
10.Reflection Pool 04:01
11.Equally Divided 01:59
12.Tape Slow 03:17
13.Outside The Window 00:33
14.Echo Lake 03:43
15.F Choir 02:06
16.Return To Never 04:38
17.Lake Night 02:53
18.Morning Machine 02:06
19.Early Version 04:15
20.Piano V 02:11
21.To Remember 02:45
22.My Thoughts Are To Thee Drawn 04:09
23.Guitar Echo 03:05
24.Forever Getting Lost 01:09
25.Chords 00:36
26.From The Night Tape 00:38
27.Descending 01:47
28.Last Thing Thought Of 03:15
29.Whitesnake 01:23
30.Gone 01:53
31.Princess 02:16
32.Either 02:05
33.Coldless 03:30
34.Liadin 02:55
35.Disappear 01:56
36.Never 01:37
37.Pass 01:32
38.Nearby 02:59
39.Salendro 03:07
40.Porter 02:30
41.Still 02:21
42.Halo 03:40
43.Insiders 03:15
44.Sun Reflection 04:16
45.Dream Piano 02:29
46.Sleep 6teen 01:56
47.Something Blood 04:07
48.6teen Secrets 02:34
49.Entrance Protection 01:03
50.6teen Cheers 02:01
51.Heaven In The Sun 01:02
52.Return To Never Version 03:48
53.Vision Return 04:41
54.To Remember Version 04:41
55.Early 2 Version 04:47
56.Angel Waves 03:23
57.Piano V Version 03:20
58.Slept Thru 06:22
59.In The Great Night 03:23
60.My Heart Goes Out 05:40


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, dream-pop, experimental
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits