HiM
Many In High Places Are Not Well

Victims of a curious homonymy that often makes them confused with the glitzy meatloaf of goth rock, Him is a small band born as a side project of the drummer-percussionist of Codeine, Doug Scharin.

The staff behind the album includes, in addition to Scharin, the singer Christian Dautresme, the trumpeter Rob Mazurek, and a couple of musicians I don’t know, but who are surely good people. Leaving aside the technicalities, I would move on to describe the actual music, which never fails to intrigue the listener. The musical genre that said band adopts is difficult to define, if one wants to avoid falling into mile-long hyphenated neologisms (like experimentalrock-avantdub-alternafusion), as obvious and varied influences make it a hybrid of several genres, precisely dub, fusion, jazz, but also krautrock. Just to be clear, it somewhat resembles Hood, the Can of Future Days, and Medeski Martin & Wood.

The most notable peculiarity is the attention and centrality enjoyed by the rhythm section, and from this point of view, "Elementals" is an enlightening piece, as it contains many of the stylistic characteristics that make Him's music interesting: an endless bass and drum pattern with imperceptible variations that supports Mazurek's long, polyrhythmic phrasings, a guitar solo, and various background vocalisms. Also notable is the time change that "fades" from 6/8 to 4/4, or something of the kind. At times, the cadences become even more explicitly African-esque, as in some moments of the title track, of "Coming of Age" and of "Elope and Secede", the latter track being sung in French. It’s a language for pansies, ah. Also worth mentioning is "Slow Slow Slow", which already on the first listen imposes itself as the most catchy and inviting song, and indeed the arrangement and executions are such as to make it a masterpiece in its genre.

From alluring sublunary pulsations and feminine vocalisms gradually arises a rhythmic structure that once again underscores the hypnotic and prenatal aspect of Him's music: "The Way the Trees Are" is one of the most interesting tracks on the album, with several cadences that interlock into one another in complex sonic arabesques, yet never insincere. Elaborate, cerebral, delicate, if not exactly overwhelming, this album by Him certainly deserves a quiet attention.

I know, I'm not good at conclusions.

The tracklist:

1 Elementals 9:21
2 Many in High Places Are Not Well 5:48
3 Slow Slow Slow 6:04
4 The Way the Trees Are 8:16
5 Perspective from a Slow Spin 4:53
6 Elope and Secede Dautresme 5:13
7 Coming of Age 8:27