Bleep

This is an LP which has spawned from His Name Is Alive's Return To Never collection, a compilation put out by Disciples Records consisting of archival ambient/industrial recordings made by His Name Is Alive mastermind Warren Defever between 1979 and 1986. However, while Return To Never was a largely weightless affair full of greyscale ambiences and haunted textures, Return Versions blows up the workshop. With the assistance of Michigan-based artist Walking Trails, Defever conjures a set of ultra-heat-treated loops here which teeter on the border between leftfield hip-hop and industrial looping.

The pensive, often rather shadowy textures of Return To Never are supercharged here, and the newly-monolithic sounds recall Prurient and bvdub. When these textures are then brought together with cavernous drum takes, as they are across much of Return Versions, the result nods to the likes of African Head Charge and This Heat. However, Return Versions also maintains Return To Never’s dreamstate qualities - particularly on ‘To Remember 2 Version’ and ‘Last Thing Thought Of Version’, where the rhythms are less pronounced and atmospherics take centre-stage.

Tracks from His Name Is Alive’s Return To Never compilation are remixed to create evocative versions on the new Disciples Records drop Return Versions.