HIM Many In High Places Are Not Well

• Words: Dave Segal
• Label: Bubblecore
• XLR8R Rating: /10

HiM's last album, New Features (2001), valiantly attempted to weld Miles Davis's early-'70s funkadelia to Fela Kuti's Mantric Afrobeat. On HIM's sixth album, Many In High Places Are Not Well, leader/master percussionist Doug Scharin continues to plow Africa's fecund polyrhythmic fields, but this time he mutes the pace and intensity. But more mature-sounding doesn't equal dullness, not with ringers like Senegalese kora player Abdou M'boup, slide guitarist Joe Goldring and cornetist Rob Mazurek lavishing divine textures onto this disc's seven tracks. While some may miss HiM's skewed dub roots, High Places finds the band occupying lofty ground between Talking Heads' Remain In Lightand Antibalas.