His Name Is Alive Announce ‘How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993’ Boxset
HIS NAME IS ALIVE
Announce How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993 Boxset
Featuring Livonia, Home Is In Your Head and Mouth By Mouth
+ 3 Bonus Albums of Rare and Unreleased Material
Out 27 September
Exclusively on 4AD Webstore + Bandcamp
US Tour Dates
Warren Defever’s beloved, long-standing ethereal darkwave project His Name Is Alive has a long history with 4AD, and in celebration of the band’s early works, 4AD will be releasing the strictly limited, deluxe 6xLP, 77-track boxset entitled How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993, available on 27 September exclusively on the 4AD webstore and Bandcamp.
The essential collectible compiles the first three His Name Is Alive albums (Livonia, Home Is In Your Head, and Mouth By Mouth), sourced from the original analogue tapes and painstakingly remastered by Defever himself (at Third Man Mastering), with three additional LPs of rich bonus material and unreleased tracks (including 1992’s The Dirt Eaters EP). The collection is also accompanied by an extensive 36-page book authored by 4AD biographer Martin Aston, detailing the fascinating of His Name Is Alive’s early period with previously unseen imagery and ephemera, as well as written contributions from Ivo Watts-Russell, Johnny Jewel, and more.
The collection of only 1,000 limited edition foil-stamped numbered copies, delivered in a hard slipcase box, also features overall design by Chris Bigg (including unique-to-this-release reimagined sleeves), respectfully reimagined from original art direction and design by Vaughan Oliver/v23. Also in the box are a replica of each album’s original promotional poster and a signed print.
Check out the product video HERE. For more information, and to pre-order head HERE.
His Name Is Alive
How Ghosts Affect Relationships 1990-199327 September 2024
Deluxe 6xLP, 77-track Boxset
Livonia (2024 Remastered Edition)
1. As We Could Ever
2. E-Nicolle (Introduction)
3. If July
4. Some and I
5. Fossil (Verse)
6. E-Nicolle
7. Caroline’s Supposed Demon
8. Fossil
9. Reincarnation
10. You And I Have Seizures
11. How Ghosts Affect Relationships
12. Darkest Dreams
13. July (Strings)
14. Caroline (Strings)
15. Fossil (Strings)
16. Ghosts (Strings)
17. Livonia (Ryko Version)
Home Is In Your Head (2024 Remastered Edition)
1. Are You Comin’ Down This Weekend?
2. Her Eyes Were Huge Things
3. The Charmer
4. Hope Called In Sick
5. My Feathers Needed Cleaning
6. The Well
7. There’s Something Between Us and He’s Changing My World
8. The Phoenix, A Pool of Ice
9. Are We Still Married?
10. Put Your Finger in Your Eye
11. Home Is in Your Head
12. Why People Disappear
13. Here Eyes Are Huge
14. Save the Birds
15. Chances Are We Are Mad
16. Mescalina
17. Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Out
18. Very Bad A Bitter Hand
19. Beautiful And Pointless
20. Tempe
21. Spirit And Body
22. Love’s A Fish Eye
23. Dreams Are of the Body
24. Man on the Silver Mountain
25. Are We Still Married?
26. Is This the Way the Tigers Do?
27. We Hold the Land in Great Esteem
28. The Dirt Eaters (Original Version)
29. Tempe (Rehearsal)
30. Her Eyes Were Huge Things (Live)
31. Dreams Are of the Body (Live)
32. Man on the Silver Mountain (Demo)
33. Mass
34. Slow Train Crash
Mouth By Mouth (2024 Remastered Edition)
1. Baby Fish Mouth
2. Lip
3. Cornfield
4. In Every Ford
5. Lord, Make Me a Channel Of Your Peace
6. Drinks, Dress, and Ink
7. Where Knock Is Open Wide
8. Can’t Go Wrong Without You
9. Jack Rabbits
10. Sort Of
11. Sick
12. Blue Moon
13. Ear
14. Lemon Ocean
15. The Torso
16. The Dirt Eaters
17. The Homesick Waltz
18. Endless Things
19. My Moon’s in Your Yard (Demo)
20. Harmonic Song (Demo)
21. Roky – Demo
22. My Dad (Demo)
23. Gospel (Demo)
24. London Lost (Demo)
25. Drink, Dress, Ink (Demo)
26. Baby Fish Mouth (Demo)
Boxset product shot
In celebration of the upcoming boxset, His Name Is Alive will also embark on a brief US headline tour, set to begin in September. The full list of tour dates with ticket links is shown below.
Additionally, as of today, the 4AD YouTube channel is also hosting hi-res versions of His Name Is Alive’s two Quay Brothers-directed music videos, ‘Are We Still Married?’ and ‘Can’t Go Wrong Without You.’ Watch HERE.
22 September – OAKLAND, CA, New Parish
24 September – LOS ANGELES, CA, Zebulon
26 September – NEW YORK, NY, TV Eye
2 October – CHICAGO, IL, Empty Bottle
5 October – DETROIT, MI, El Club
From Livonia, Michigan, His Name Is Alive is known primarily as the creative outlet of Warren Defever who in the early-90s, along with vocalist Karin Oliver, became an integral part of 4AD’s storied history after label founder Ivo Watts-Russell fell deeply for their dark and fragmented sound; their self-released cassettes mysteriously landing in the post, consistently improving until he could ignore no more. Having recently reissued those early tracks as part of the lauded A Silver Thread trilogy, the light now turns to their first three albums proper.Signing to 4AD in 1989, as Throwing Muses, Pixies and The Breeders were beating a new transatlantic path for the label, they proved perfectly paired. While their sound was more in line with the gothic echoes of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance than the visceral college rock of the aforementioned, His Name Is Alive also had a different, nonpareil quality, something existing on the boundary of this earth and another realm further underground. It was this otherness that piqued interest and proved the fulcrum of an unpredictable sound that often changed tack before listeners could second guess.
Their debut album Livonia, in all its broken jigsaw-piece glory, appeared in the summer of 1990. Produced by Ivo and his This Mortal Coil collaborator John Fryer, working from recordings Warren had sent their way (he later commented that they ‘took it apart, and didn’t put it back together’), on the surface, their signing made sense among the label’s well-established ethereal lineage. It was only after listeners started to peel away its layers that they discovered not only had the 4AD sound been reinvented and refracted through a prism, the album was an extraordinary depiction of a disturbing and often exquisite vista. A study in shadows, the album examined the dual themes of love and loss, being woozily delivered as if dreamlike. When reissued a few years later in the US, the album’s title track was added – a non-linear study in guitar distortion – which completed the record and is a track that now stands out as one of the band’s finest moments.
1991 saw their second album, Home Is In Your Head, arrive. Again, recorded in Defever’s home studio then remixed by Ivo and John, its 23 songs quick-fire emotions, with moments of calm soon clashing with white noise and chaos. The listener is left enthralled by both its beauty and darkness, Warren’s inspired productions proving utterly unique. There is nothing else quite like this. Now in full flow, they followed the album in 1992 with The Dirt Eaters, an EP that leant on folk over avant-pop, even getting away with uncleared samples from Hollywood films like “I’d eat all the dirt in this yard for you. And all the weeds. And all the dog bones too, if you asked me.”
1993’s Mouth By Mouth saw a marked shift, as well as featuring more contributors, it was the first His Name Is Alive album where the band controlled all processes including its mixing. Growing with each release, order of play saw sparsity and intrigue being replaced by an extraordinary adventuring approach to sound and vision that left Warren free to indulge his love for all kinds of music, be it 1960s pop, dub, jazz or noise. Embracing the surreal, His Name Is Alive were out in their own lane and with Warren’s studio skills truly blossoming, many see this as a high point for the band.
Three decades on and His Name Is Alive’s mark on the scene is indelible, excitingly with a whole new audience now discovering them. In a celebration of their early works, 4AD are proud to be releasing the strictly limited How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993. This essential collectible compiles their first three albums with three additional LPs of rich, bonus material (including The Dirt Eaters EP) alongside an extensive book detailing their fascinating story during this burgeoning period of creative experimentation and innovation.
This whole process has been overseen by Warren who has carefully remastered all music from its original tapes, working alongside sleeve designer Chris Bigg (v23) to deliver this special release. 1,000 numbered copies are being manufactured of How Ghosts Affect Relationships: 1990-1993, which will come housed in a hard slipcase box with unique-to-this-release reimagined sleeves of each album, original promotional posters, a signed print and a beautiful book – authored by 4AD biographer Martin Aston, it tells the story of this exciting early period and also includes a trove of unseen imagery and ephemera.