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HIM | New Features

Doug Scharin for president!
CD, Bubble Core/Fat Cat

Tekst: Bas Ickenroth

Publicatiedatum: 03 december 2001

The import channels aren't the fastest, so it happens that I didn't receive this album until last week. And it originally came out in the late summer. Fucking annoying if you ask me. But hey, now I do got the new HiM album, and it makes me forget the long wait. Yes people, this a more than worthy follow-up to 'Sworn Eyes' from 1999 and 'Our Point of Departure' from last year. HiM is Doug Scharin's project (known from his fantastic drumming skills in June of 44, Rex, Out in Worship, Codeine and more), and together with a constantly altering line-up, he produces records that meander between jazz, rock, afrofunk and dub. Especially the first and the last are the main influences here. The album starts of rather conventionally with 'Magnified Features', a smoothly grooving jazz track with great solos by the individual bandmembers, and a fantastic tribal afrofunk compartiment in the middle. It sounds huge, which probably comes due to the expanded line-up: three of the six songs have two drummers and percussion, there are sometimes three guitars at the same time present, not to mention the brass instruments and electronic dub manipulations. Describing HiM's music isn't possible without mentioning Miles Davis' electric 70s works, because much of the music here is in the same vein. But it never reaches that wildness, that ferociousness: most of the time the music is rather smooth, smoother than on the previous HiM records. That's the reason I first thought 'New Features' doesn't reach the same heights as the previous releases, but after repeated listeningsessions this record captivates your undivided attention as well. 'In Transition', the second track, is a stunning 18 minutes display of funky spacejazz, with a tremendous hallucinative outro. It is in moments like these that the true qualities from the entire ensemble show themselves the best. After 'Out Here', again a rather clean and smooth (but great all the same) track, 'Clouds' comes floating by, the most dubby outburst from the album. From here on the tone gets darker and trippier, because next track 'Were Once' is a trippy and spacy drone with fabulously complementing slideguitars and trumpets. Finally it all comes together in the sixth and last track 'Sea Level': jazz, dub-echoes, improvisations, rock-attitude, and a layer of funk. A wonderful conclusion to a beautiful record.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/him/new-features/1065/
Meer HIM op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/him