HiM

[Guest akanalog]

hello. i just discovered a band that has been around for a little while called HiM.(not the scandanavian metal band of the same name) the HiM i am talking about is based out of chicago where much of the hipster american sort of jazzy post rock and hipster jazz comes from. personally i find tortoise and the chicago underground duo material sort of boring. but HiM has much more propulsive and straight sort of rhythms going on-i think the band was formed by the drummer and possibly the bassist (both from post-rock band june of 44 who were kinda interesting). anyway, this HiM incorporates sax, percussion-two drum kits actually i think, keys and guitar (not too much vibes, which i associate with the chicago scene) and some songs seem to have a fair amount of post-production (some dub influences)-there is the dub thing, some jazz-fusion, and some afro-beat rhythmic stuff going on too. nothing particularly original-but nice to hear all together.

i have listened to three albums-the best one is called "new features". this one is purely instrumental but i have also enjoyed the most recent album called "those in high places are not well". this had some vocals which bordered on cheesy and is more world-beat-ey than jazzy, but they meant well and it was no more cheesy than a typical bill laswell production. i listened to another album and found it boring-it was older and called "our point of departure". i think people might enjoy HiM if they are looking for somethig jazzy but with a subtle rock-influence outside of the usual circle of material they might listen to. i was happy to find something new and jazzy that was made in the last five years that i actually enjoyed listening to and could find at my local hipster record shop (i live in new york so this means other music and kim's).

[Brandon Burke]

I haven't heard any of their records since Our Point of Departure, which I liked quite a bit. The early stuff is rather unsuccessful dub material but they got better at the dub mixing as they went along. We opened for them around the time of OPoD and they played the entire record all the way though. (It's pretty much one song anyways.) At this point in time they were doing a Fela Kuti-meets-King Tubby-meets-free jazz thing. Carlo Cennamo, their alto sax player at the time, sounde a great deal like Jackie McLean. Very sharp tones. I busted him on it after the show. He was humble and laughed. They're all very nice people and quite a good live act. Doug Scharin, their drummer and only consistent member, is a treat to watch play. It's obvious that he's having a very good time.

Edited March 12, 2004 by Brandon Burke