Around that time, there was much discussion in the inky music press and beyond of the supposedly characteristic 4AD sound, and while bands such as the Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil certainly brought a particular sonic aesthetic, the debate was narrow and simplistic as, for instance, early Pixies on that label clearly present a rather different soundscape.
Nevertheless, the mixing by 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell and This Mortal Coil’s John Fryer did give the first two records of HNIA something of a character that brought a degree of friction between Defever and the label, and on the third record, in 1993, Defever was rather more assertive in taking the music in a more distinctive direction, with less attention to atmospherics.
All three records here have been intelligently and sensitively re-mastered (though not re-mixed) by Defever at Third Man Mastering in Detroit, where he has been an in-house engineer for the past decade or so.
Livonia was, in a sense, re-constructed by Watts-Russell and Fryer in 1990 from a succession of incrementally-improved fragments sent from Michigan. The released version was subsequently criticised by the artist, but it remains quite an impressive work, with a unity provided less by production values than by the fine voice of Karin Oliver who has a purity of tone different from the soars and swoops of Elizabeth Fraser, in articulating a range of emotions recollected not so much in tranquillity as in a hypnagogic state: “I dreamed that when you died in a strange place / They had nailed a board over your face”.
Listening now and (perhaps heretically) hearing the tracks from the other side of the 4AD house style gauze, one can appreciate the songwriting in its most elemental form, and accordingly credit Defever’s compositional skill here, and also on Home Is In Your Head from the following year.
That record was a more expansive set, foregrounding Defever’s guitar to a greater degree than hitherto, and with a successfully ambitious range of song styles. Tracks are short, with few going beyond a couple of minutes, yet Oliver’s vocals, on compositions such as “Her Eyes Were Huge Things” and “The Charmer”, are just as effective as before: convincing and completely steady even in the highest registers.
The mix here seems more sympathetic to Defever’s writing style, and the patina overlaying much of Livonia is less in evidence. There is effective switching between the more acoustic pastoral tones of, for example, “The Well”, and the more jagged, insistent “Are We Still Married?”.
The variety of song structures across comparatively brief tracks impresses over the course of an album that is more adventurous than its predecessor. Not everything succeeds equally well, but the risk-taking creativity is commendable and, ultimately, represents an advance on Livonia.
Songs on Mouth By Mouth, two years later, are for the most part less fragmentary and more fully worked-through. The cover of Big Star’s “Blue Moon” is an imaginative up-tempo re-interpretation of the pleading, almost despairing, original on Sister Lovers, and while the individual tracks are coherent unities, the genres explored and represented are more diverse than on the two earlier releases, with Oliver’s vocal versatility outstanding here. In addition, driving percussion well complements Defever’s guitar work which is at its most forceful on this record. “Lip” is a fine illustration of all elements combining to excellent effect.
Occasionally, the greater sense of freedom leads to slight structural indulgence, as if the desire to explore the melodic, the abrasive and the radically experimental brings a lack of focus now and then. The more linear tracks, such as the aggressive “Drink, Dress and Ink”, allow for a greater appreciation of how tight the band is at its finest even when it is incorporating disparate musical influences.
Indeed, a good measure of Defever’s progress and confidence over the three years covered by these records is the successful integrating of Sabbath-style guitar with surreal lyrics (again, convincingly delivered by Oliver): “Numerous times I think I’ve wandered / Black and stony hills. / Are they really ours to decide?”. Some distance, stylistically, if not temporally, from Livonia, and -all points of reference considered- rather the better for it.
