Seriously Cool
His Name Is Alive - music that is seriously cool. The band that penned the song Tom Cruise would listen to to psych himself up for the nervous breakdown scene in Jerry Maguire, 'Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Outlooking', which was on the soundtrack to the movie. And here is their new record after a long hiatus, 'Detrola'.
And it's cool. It sneaks in with a haunting introduction, which ends in a round of applause and then it gets into the real deal. There's the sporadic 'After I Leave U', which just goes everywhere, the song would serve as a pretty infallible definition of 'electronica' in my dictionary. It's like Beck has taken a Stereolab song and pulled all their subtle madnesses to the surface and thinly veiled the catchy pop genius under a layer of tantalising trips and tricks.
It then takes a ride through sleaze-pop and sexy guitar with a pummelled Hammond and smooth sax in 'I Thought I Saw', which has a musical refrain that is so alike Blur's 'Any way whe wind blows' bit in 'Country House', but it's still grand. The music on this record is really quite gorgeous when you just stop and think upon it. It's like the future, informed by the past. We hear styles here ranging from early jazz right up to the guitar pop that's been populating the charts of late, and it's all combined in an electronic conglomerate that nods to its influences, but is so unique and new in itself. Yes, it's good, I like it.
There's voice manipulation on 'C*A*T*S', like to Sigur Ros' on 'Untitled 1' of ( ), there's a nice repetitive melody at the start of 'Your Bones', which is reminiscent of Stereolab from the 'Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night' era, and there are parts all over the place that make you think of something else, but it's like a great montage in film that fills you with such nostalgia at the same time as so much appreciation for this new way of presently beautiful things.
'Get Your Curse' is ace, banging in with horribly distorted end-of-gig guitar disaster, but it soon falls into a chirpy piano bash that's something indeed, The Beatles meet Ben Folds with a lady with a beautiful voice fronting it all. And then there's 'Seven Minutes' the highlight of the record, it's Michael Jackson with jazz and Kylie Minogue's later synthesized pop mastery, it's the ultimate His Name Is Alive and really defines this record.
Detrola is truly something good from the institution that is Warn Defever and his latest His Name Is Alive incarnation. A little known super-hero this man has hit something really superb with a record guaranteed to get every bit of you moving. Yes, it's good, I like it.