HIS NAME IS ALIVE

Bio:

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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.

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Member Since:

April 19, 2005

Members:

ANDY FM - VOCALS
WAR - GUITAR
BRAZZLE - ELECTRIC BASS
STEVE SPARKS - DR
HAN - CELLO
TOKO - CHIMTA
ZAPP - DRONE
JEANS - VIOL
ELL - MBIRA

Influences:

THICH NHAT HAHN
HERMANN NITSCH
MIKE KELLEY
AKIO SUZUKI
FRANCIS BEBEY
FARUQ ZINJI BEY
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
MARION BROWN

NOISE CAMP
DREXCIYA
GRIOT GALAXY
CAROLE KING
PURPLE RAIN
TARTIT ABACABOK
TARTIT ICHICHILIA
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
PETE WHELAN
GAYLE DEAN WARDLOW
WWOOF

PLASTIC ONO
RAY A. YOUNG BEAR
BROTHERS QUAY
CLUSTER
SARAH OGAN GUNNING
NEPALESE YOUTH OPPORTUNITY FOUNDATION
YOHJI YAMAMOTO
SAMHAIN
MILFORD GRAVES
JULIUS HEMPHILL
78 QUARTERLY
SILVER SESSION
SONIC DEATH
IVO
MOONDOG
CHRISMA
MICHAEL ONDAATJE
ALI FARKA TOURE
HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
CHARLIE FEATHERS
PYSCHIC TV
THE BROTHERS QUAY
ISHMAEL REED
HAROLD BUDD
ROKIA TRAORE
ITURI
EXTREME VEGETARIANISM
STRATA EAST
TRIBE
THEODORE ROETHKE
DRONE OF USA (MY LIFE)
LE SUN 'RA

Sounds Like:

CLOUDS,
NOISE CAMP,
REAL FAIRIES,
A UNICORN,
FAKE 4AD,
OLD HIS NAME IS ALIVE,

DETROIT,
DANCE PARTY !!!
GERMAN NEW WAVE,
DON CHERRY / TERRY RILEY,
FIELD RECORDINGS FROM NEPAL,
A FIVE HUNDRED YEAR OLD BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN OSAKA,
SINGER SONGWRITERS FROM THE SEVENTIES,
HALF ELECTRIC,
SOMETIMES FAST,
SOMETIMES SLOW

Record Label:

SILVER MOUNTAIN MEDIA GROUP / HIGH TWO / ACUARELA