PRESS QUOTES
VITAL WEEKLY (2009) Mountain Ocean Sun - this is most definitely the most hippy release of the week. Meditation music, or music for healing sessions? Get candles and incense out for this one.
XLR8R (2008) Xmmer is a rewarding trip. And I mean trip: Defever's lo-fi freak-outs mind-meld with the disc's mellower acoustic moments with stunning ease.
BOSTON PHOENIX (2008) Using a modest arts grant to hold a “peace conference” in New York City, the event’s mixture of pretense, play, and utopian hope sheds light on the wellsprings of Defever’s surprising recent music.
BRAINWASHED (2008) HNIA have proven themselves consummate at distilling the essence of intangible emotion, and creating from that essence works which both illuminate, and that are capable of deeply wounding the listener.
TINY MIX TAPES (2008) His Name Is Alive is as haunted as ever.rewards are revealed only to the patient who engage in the hypnotic exchange with the secrets invested in the static presentation.
KFJC (2008) The album (Firefly Dragonfly) ends with a piano vibrating like a single blade of grass atop a hill in the spring.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE (2007) His Name Is Alive is probably the only group around who could write a song about foreign soldiers invading a house and killing its occupants and have it come out all shimmering strings, delicately plucked and strummed acoustic guitars, and deceptively angelic vocals.
TIME OUT NYC (2007) If he seemed like a free spirit back when. you ain’t heard nothing yet. Just try to keep up.
PITCHFORK MEDIA (2008) A gorgeous accomplishment, pulling threads of American music-- folk, blues, r&b, gospel-- together with synthesizers and obsessive attention to sound and space, and coming up with a sound that was entirely unique, remarkably natural, and thoroughly pop. we wait to see if another great one is on the way
FILTER (2007) Mysterious and idyllic, organic vocals and spellbinding instrumentation.
CMJ (2007) Something beautiful but devilish, radio pop turned upside-down and inverted with subversive, lo-fi anti-flourishes.
DAVID BOWIE (2006) An early 70s singer/songwriter vibe plus it comes on like Karen Carpenter.
PLAN B (2006) Pure tones ache like winter sunbeams - haunted, wholly out of time or context.
VICE (2006) This latest apparition of noisy folk works pretty well, but it's all over far too quickly.
LOST AT SEA (2006) Spellbinding and eclectic with the ability to be both eerie and gentle.
PITCHFORK (2006) It's probably the best thing Defever's ever done.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE (2006) It's a reminder of how much their beautiful, strange, oddly moving music has been missed.
URB (2006) Pure pop strangeness, thankfully, getting even stranger.
UNDER THE RADAR (2006) Introduces new and interesting sounds to tantalize your brain.
DUSTED (2006) Defever can still write great, melancholic pop songs.
GUARDIAN (2002) This could be the best late night record ever made, a timeless, soulful classic.
PITCHFORK MEDIA (2002) Last Night is at once melancholy, serene and assured.
MILK FACTORY (2002) The epic and haunting title track, possibly one of the best songs heard this year.
DUSTED MAGAZINE (2002) His Name Is Alive is one of the most remarkable creations of the pop underground.it will stand the test of time.Like great movie directors, Defever is making a legacy more than anything.
NME (2002) A silver thread out of the labyrinth.
ALTERNATIVE PRESS (2001) Some of the sexiest most varied makeout music.
BILLBOARD (2001) Someday.may very well be the years best R&B album.
TIME OUT NEW YORK (2001) Far-away sad funk that we've never heard before.
MOJO (2001) Stunning intimate electronica.
NME (2001) Go. Buy. Now.
CMJ (1998) HNIA's genius is in juxtaposing pieces: the songs are crafty constructions, but the album becomes the major attraction.
NME (1998) Defever, deranged svengali, skulks behind the twin singers underpinning the lunacy around him with a stream of motown melodies.
MELODY MAKER Single of the week (1996) HNIA were post rock before they had a name for it.
SPIN (1996) HNIA, whose trademark has been mixing paradise with purgatory, have made an odd little Eden, thats both peaceful and disorienting.
CMJ (1993) Absolutely beautiful, positively stunning, most original and uncategorical.music so good, one could only stand back and let the maelstrom destroy you.
