THE HUM OF THE ELECTRIC AIR! cd/lp

:: Punk Planet
:: CMJ
:: All Music Guide
:: Rockpile
:: HeartattaCk
:: Yolk Magazine
:: Punk News
:: KSPC
:: Manatee Bound
:: Sharpshooter
:: Calamity Project

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— Punk Planet:
Bear with me for a moment and put on your imagination cap. Imagine that you're leaving the home of a person who makes your heart go pitter-pat. It's a brisk moonless night, and your footsteps go crunch crunch on a bed of fresh fallen snow. The orange glow of the streetlights cast a warm tone on the falling snowflakes, and for a moment it seems as thought there are tiny stars coming to kiss you on the nose. The One AM Radio is the sound of this scene. It's important to give you this visual image, because it's too easy otherwise to write this off as a dime-a-dozen "boy with acoustic guitar" project. These songs are far more beautiful and emotive than that. The soft guitar melodies and the singer's gentle tenor, violin harmonies -- they all blend together to create a gentle-yet-not-snoozy sound. Even though these are simple songs with only a few instruments, they use each sound to its fullest. The album is generally slow or mid-tempo, but it remains liliting, lively and lovely. Passivity is barely an option in listening to this record; its every groove puts a hold on the heart.

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— CMJ:
After a number of EPs, compilations and 7-inch releases, the One AM Radio has finally released a proper full-length, The Hum Of The Electric Air! Bandleader Hrishikesh Hirway has strayed from his punk and hardcore roots by constructing 12 delicate tracks of mope-core at its best. Recorded in the intimacy of the duo's own homes, that sodality translates through all of the nearly 40 minutes of music on this disc. The opening track, "Flicker," gives a good impression of what's to come; finger-plucked acoustic guitar strings, organ layers, muted drum sequences and bandmate Jane Yakowitz's somber violin provide the perfect backdrop for Hirway's nostalgic lyrics, which are sung in a breathy hush. "The House We Will Make" finds Hirway longing for the day he'll "sleep in on Sunday/ The sheets and the sun's rays will close all around/ Wash over like ocean sounds." And so goes this record; the seemingly perfect soundtrack for waking out of a dream, only to find yourself surrounded by warmth and beauty.

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— All Music Guide:
On The Hum of the Electric Air!, the One AM Radio deliver a delicate, intrinsically beautiful set of songs. Jane Yakowitz and Hrishikesh Hirway are a sharp pair in carefully constructing an indie/dream-pop style. There's an intimacy similar to the likes of Parker & Lily, Galaxie 500 and Sparklehorse and that highlights the duo's perfectionism as well. "I Think This Is My Exit" and "The House We Will Make" are romantic, charming songs where orchestral arrangements float around basic acoustics. "Lonesome Moon" prances with more of an upbeat sound, but Hirway's lush, plaintive lyrics are smart in luring a listener in. You want to hear something more, learn something more from the inquisitive world of the One AM Radio. Their debut album is a perfect fit for those gray-like, quiet singular moments where your mind pauses. The Hum of the Electric Air allows one to find a clarity among the musical haze.

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— Rockpile:
This 12" record could almost be described as futuristic folk music, a combination of programmed beats in parts and organic acoustic and other string instrument flourishes. It's essentially the one man army of Hrishikesh Hirway with help from Jane Yakowitz on violin and cello by Ravenna Michalsen on two tracks. The music is very mellow and slow, made all the more so by the use of the aforementioned violin. Hirway's singing is very quiet and subdued. He doesn't show much range, but the overall affair has a soothing feel about it.

"The Hum Of The Electric Air!" opens with "Flicker", complete with hazy guitar textures and echoey drum sequencing. "The House We Will Make" features uncomplicated strumming and an unmasked desire for a happy future: "We'll want for naught. All that we'll need will be all that we've got. And we'll never speak of days when we'd desperately seek shelter from terrible storms, trying just to keep safe and warm."

The middle portion of the record pays more attention to the beats, particularly on the instrumental "Heat Lightning", complete with shimmering keyboards. The keys take on a siren sounding effect in "The Landmine", while wispy percussion creates an airy bed. "Gravity" contains both crunchy drum programming and live percussion in an otherwise stripped down composition. "Away, Into The Light" is a fitting end to the effort with a foundation of mournful orgran and lyrics dealing with loss. Hirway has successfully blended elements of folk and electronic music into a unique and equal parts pulsating and mollifying sound, complete with raw and eloquent language--a work of understated beauty.

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— HeartattaCk:
The One AM Radio is a two piece who make really pretty songs.  Really very pretty songs. They use subtleties to an extreme, with each minimal piece laid onto another to create a semi-complex structure and overall buzz of sound.  The sound is translucent and eerie, sweet and engrossing.  Fills the background without moving into your space.  It is pretty much make out music.  I sometimes find this band to be too minimal and somewhat boring, but the material on this LP is the best i have heard so far.  If I listen to it in my car I might just fall asleep and run off the road, but it is a nice way to go.

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— Yolk Magazine:
Hrishikesh Hirway and Jane Yakowitz offer sublime gorgeous sounds and lyrics backed by a soothing combination of classical strings and electronic riffs. Haunting and unforgettable. [4 stars]

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— punknews.org:
What do you say about music that is amazing? What do you say about music that moves you, that touches you, that opens your eyes? What do you say about the One AM Radio? The brainchild of Hrishikesh Hirway, the One AM Radio has been kicking arond the east coast for a few years, and has put out a few records here and there [most notably a split 7" with ex-Chisel frontman Ted Leo], but this is the band's first proper full length.

Musically, I'm stymied as to what to compare this album to. Vocally, Hirway tends to sound like a more somber Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian at times, and at others he sounds like a less eerie version of Brian McMahon [of Slint/The For Carnation]. The music slides along over twelve distinct tracks, some as stripped down as just vocals and guitar, some containing swirling keyboards and samples. A few songs ["Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" and "Gravity"] have a bit of a trip-hop breakbeat feel to them as Hirway croons lines like "You lost the language right out of your mouth / An instinct to scream, but no sound would come out." Virtually every song on the album seems to deal with loss in some form, whether it be a lover, friend, or possibly family member. Hirway's lyrics are obtuse without being confusing, and heartfelt without being cliche. I could see sloppy comparisons being made to Jonah of Far/OneLineDrawing/New End Original, but this is way better. This is as good as it gets, folks.

Violinist Jane Yakowitz rounds out the duo, adding a much desired female presence. Even though she doesn't sing on the recordings [well, the liner notes say she does, but I have yet to pick out her voice anywhere], her violin lines just burst with feminine emotion on tracks such as "I Think This Is My Exit." It's hard to write a review for a really, really good CD. The One AM Radio's "The Hum Of The Electric Air!" is just that - a really, really good CD. It's nearly flawless. Open your mind and buy this, you can thank me later.

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— KSPC (Claremont, CA):
Hrishikesh Hirway is The One AM Radio and has existed as such through multiple singles and splits, The Hum of the Electric Air being his first full-length. Hirway demonstrates the rare ability to craft songs in such a manner that they could be experienced with the same amount of pleasure no matter your mood. Perfect for the love sensation of a spring day and also apt for the harsh loneliness of a cold winter night. Hirway‚s tales of magical weather and anxiety are wrapped in the rainy day assistance of organ, violin, cello, acoustic treatment, and of course Hirway‚s yielding and comforting voice. Hirway has taken residence in Los Angeles and thus his label Translucence, from which The Hum of Electric Air was released (alongside Alone and The Electric Human Project depending on the format) has begun to thrive with releases from friends such as The Wind-Up Bird and Ted Leo. Highly recommended for studying, dreaming, kissing, crying, smiling, and blankets.

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— manateebound.com:
The One AM Radio contains two individuals: Hrishikesh Hirway, who plays a major role in the make-up of The One AM Radio’s sound by supplying his talents in vocals, guitar, keyboard, drum sequencing, and organ; and Jane Yakowitz, Hirway’s tag-team partner, plays violin and lends some vocal support along the way. Together they help produce tranquil music that lingers and haunts like no other band that you’ve ever heard of.

Hirway’s gentle, soft-spoken voice possesses a hypnotic quality that will soothe the most restless of listeners. His composed baritone delivery is the main focus of The One AM Radio’s sound. Sooyoung Park (Seam), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), and Hirway all share the same characteristic: their voices contain a rare, smooth magnetic appeal.

“Don’t Panic,” “Measured Mile Begins,” and “Away, Into the Light” are especially enriched with Jane’s poignant violin work coming to the fore at just the right times. The Hum of the Electric Air! contains slight strums of an acoustic guitar, a humming organ, and faint pulses of a drum sequencer that are always present, but never the focal point. The One AM Radio’s sound is clean and minimal, proving that less is always more.
The Hum of the Electric Air! is an amiable record with twelve emotional tracks. As much as the songs are beautiful, they also generate a sense of sadness and melancholy similar to such moody bands as Best Boy Electric, Yo La Tengo, and Low. The One AM Radio is for the pensive soul.

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— sharpshooter.cc:
I don't know much about The One AM Radio, but I do know enough to enjoy them. I know that they have records out on Troubleman Unltd., Alone, and Electric Human Project. All those labels seem to have pretty crazy releases, yet The One AM Radio is remarkably subdued (at least on this album).

Musically I would compare them to a more produced and fuller sounding Rocky Votolato, or a much more complex/sad Kings Of Convenience, but more along the lines of Mogwai. They seem really familiar but it's hard to tag them. Every song has the same sort of dreamy feel, yet it also sort of makes me think of being under water. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's definitely the feeling I get from them.

"Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" has to be my favorite track on this album. The end seems really chaotic, however it still maintains a pretty overall sound. The One AM Radio is doing something great, that's for sure. This was something that took me a long time to get into. I've been listening to it off and on for a long time but today it just hit me... like a bag of snow globes full of sand. Weird but true, believe me.

For those with short attention spans... don't bother. For those who are hoping this is some crazy release from Alone/Electric Human Project... forget about it. But for those who can appreciate something new and unexpected, this is certainly for you. Although The One AM Radio is on the quieter side of the spectrum, I could see them being really good live. Uplifting music is always nice to see performed on stage, and this certainly is uplifting in my (mind) ears.

Instruments on this album range from acoustic guitar, keyboards, horns, wood-winds, a drum machine, and much more, or at least that's what I seem to be making out. Vocals hang right over all these beautiful instruments and come together in a barrage of sound that can lull a person to sleep, or create the soundtrack for the perfect day. This one is highly recommended if you can sit through the whole thing.

the one am radio plays beautiful, soft songs using various electronics, drums, and stringed instruments. using soft harmonies, and a soft voice, the one am radio sets a nice, calm mood that can chill out the most intense person within range. [ Rating: 9/10 ]

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— calamityproject.com:
i've been a big fan of pretty much everything this band has put out, and this full length is no exception to that. as much as i love brutal music, i love mellow and pretty music just as much. the one am radio are one of my favorite bands that fall into this category, and will continue to be that way until their ride is over. do yourselves a favor, buy this cd.

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[ NOTE: the following is from a french website, matamore.net, where we were reviewed as album of the week. the almost incomprehensible translation is courtesy of google; it's only somewhat useful, but has some moments of hilarity. if you want to read the actual review in the original french, click here.]

The One Radio operator Am is the project of Hrishikesh Hirway and of his/her partner violonist Jane Yakowitz, duet couples formed with the spring of lannée 2000. Several preceding small sizes this first album, The Hum of Electric Air quon will describe fully as head dSuvre slo-fi slackened.

There is all dabord the voice of Hrishikesh, calm, slackened, whispered, melancholic person and vibrating who points out the stamp of Sooyoung Park (Seam), Jeff Gramm (Aden) or Will go Kaplan (Yo Tengo).

There are then these bitter soft melodies and close friends like a call to be taken refuge under the couette, to go under the cherry trees in flowers of spring or to look at children playing whereas the snowflakes fall thick, at the end of December.

There is this capacity also to awake the kind with lintelligence of discrete and subjacent electronic programmings.

The Hum of Electric Air is a disc which uses and develops the good notions of comfort, a beautiful softness melancholic person and subtle which brings the good being, which protects us from the immediate risks to let come up on the surface lune or lautre more intimate and major reflexion.

The Hum of Electric air, this buzz to lair electric, cest a little as this démotion fraction which makes that lon can be suddenly happy. The One Radio operator Am can make happy and this nest not little, to colour the gray clouds in white, to withdraw the fine gravels of sand. Hrishikesh Hirway is an invaluable songwriter.

The One Radio operator AM starts by leaving séchapper a piece which will put any fan of slowcore at knees, Flicker where how in a few two minutes to join together and reconcile in the same vibration the fans of Low, Carissas Wierd, Galaxie 500, Idaho and Chuzzlewit. Acoustic guitar delicately pinch, layers planing and modified dorgue, drum sequences, dark and haunted violin, and air, delicate song and melancholic person. The perfect song, that for which the button repeat seems to be invented.
All delicately disappears separately an electric guitar pinch, the envoûtant song of Hrishikesh and intelligent and discrete and significant programming electronic. Soft setting in prospect which soffre with the romanticism melancholic person with larrivée dun opened out violin. I Think This Is My Exit, one cannot beautiful any more entry for a disc. The One Radio operator AM has beautiful being a duet, they lend itself to quasi orchestral arrangements. There is a brittleness melancholic person armed with light delicacy, such quon had not met them yet jusquici.

The House We Will Make lets see the duet under one day more alleviated and stripped, guitar folk, whispered voice and discrete violin, the ideal song to listen with the radio at one o'clock in the morning, with low volume and reduced luminosity. No the upheavals with lhorizon, just accumulated tiredness and seeks it dun little calms and peace, found here, like pre-necessary with the sleep.

On Don' T Panic the violin reigns as a Master, which accentuates the romanticism of the song and its sad aspects, one thinks of the most alleviated moments of Carissas Wierd, but the voice of Hrishikesh keeps a special charm which makes lensemble particular and invaluable.

This same violin disappears on Out of Sight, Out of Mind, relayed by rhythmic which misses little of rappeller The Blue Nile, lun of rare the piece banals of the disc with its discrete approach new wave 80s.

Heat Lightning serves dintermède to introduce us with the second part of lalbum, there is something in this instrumental court, the guitar and the rhythmic one undoubtedly, which point out Acetate Zero. A little more upbeat and electronics, The Landmine has one I do not know what which points out Speed.

Many comparisons, but that helps to carry out lespèce mystery which The One Radio operator AM constitutes. The Hum of Electric Air a head dSuvre slowcore who sins his emotions melancholic persons and fragile with the crossroads of indie kinds.

Hrishikesh Hirway knew to vary to perfection lhabillage its pieces, so that never its album does not sound too monotonous or repetitive. All is on same the mood often, but diversity and there and the landscapes ravel, succeeding in preserving lattention of lSil. The luminosity of these crossed spaces clarifies in a way different each piece. Lonesome Moon has thus a heart more folk, sung the guitar as under a moonlight one harms dété, beautiful, infinitely beautiful.

On Measured Mile Begins the violin gives nostalgic colours, instrumental which comes like a breathing at named the right moment, as a pause between two stages at the time dune gone up descaliers where lon discovers through a small dusty window a landscape of countryside dautomne, with the colors sharp.

Rhythmic more choking and cold on Gravity, song close and fine like a net deau with two fingers of the confession, pains quasi palpable electronic melancholic persons. One of most beautiful and moving pieces of lalbum, darkest too.
Easy then to lie down on the ground and to lose with lécoute desperate We Are Also What We' ve Lost which sounds more like piece of group than like that dun duet. Beautiful research on the modified tablecloths of guitar. Of share its rhythmic electronic, The One AM Radio operator sinvente in these moments there of the transatlantic friendships with the English of Weevil or Saso.

Away, Into the Light finishes The Hum of Electric Air with a taste of victory in mouth. Song of plenitude melancholic person on bottom of tablecloths dorgue and violin.
Masterly album, great group. The One Radio operator AM forms part with Gregor Samsa, Carissas Wierd, Komeit or Sea Life Park of these great discoveries of lannée 2002. One will come and return still humer to lair of these opened out and discrete compositions, of this comfortable but especially fragile and beneficial universe

A NAME WRIT IN WATER cd/lp

:: RollingStone.com
:: Time Out New York
:: Pitchforkmedia.com
:: All Music Guide
:: XLR8R
:: Splendid Magazine
:: Venus Magazine
:: Mean Streets
:: Delusions of Adequacy

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from RollingStone.com

Recent Yale grad Hrishikesh Hirway enraptures tender late-night moments with handcrafted sounds. Hirway has evolved the art of the DIY recording from scratchy, ear-pinching four-track tapes to sounds cycled through advanced electronic equipment. Along with a tightly knit supporting cast -- violinist Jane Yakowitz, upright bassist Paul Findlen and trumpeter Joseph Grimm -- Hirway's second volume, proves that this newfound technique lends delicacy and affords greater imaginative pursuits like intentional skipping on "Shivers," soft-and-bouncy beats on "Witness" and lush symphonics throughout. All the while, his library-level hushed voice guides us as the clock's hand edges from one second to the next.

— Kurt Orzeck

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from Time Out New York:

Hrishikesh Hirway, auteur of the One AM Radio, clearly knew where he wanted to go with his music well before he figured out how to get there. The proof is found in two homespun songs on his project's 1999 debut release. The opening line of "Ohm's Law" ("Brush your lips against the windowpane, your eyes fixed on the horizon") marked Hirway as a careful observer of moments on the verge, while the glowering feedback that swells midway through "Ninety Nine, One Hundred" foreshadowed his gift for musically rendering breathless anticipation.

Five years layer, Hirway has enlisted a pair of collaborators in his wistful balladry. The first, musical partner Jane Yakowitz, expands Hirway's palette with her winsome voice, violin and singing saw. The other is Hirway's laptop, with which he fashioned the glitchy breakbeats and buzzing soundscapes that animate the One AM Radio's latest release, A Name Writ in Water (Level Plane). The songs on the disc blossom with a newfound expansiveness, like the poignant fragility of Iron and Wine as choreographed by the Postal Service. Rumbling guitars evoke the elements in "Under Thunder and Gale," while "Drowsy Haze" floats on an amniotic current, prodded by heartbeat percussion.

Still, the effects never overshadow Hirway's innate knack for lyrical illumination. In a recent performance with Yakowitz plus a second guitarist, a bassist and his own slightly temperamental laptop, Hirway demonstrated that lines like "When night falls, there's electricity in the air on your bare arms that sings of what can be" (from "Witness") carry more charge than any patch or loop.

— Steve Smith

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from Pitchforkmedia.com:

The easiest critical dart to toss at an electronic musician is to suggest that his/her music doesn't boast the same kind of greasy, crooked fingerprints that lend other, non-computerized genres a sense of humanity. But Hrishikesh Hirway, the lone face behind the electric-bedroom swansongs of The One AM Radio, is perfectly poised to prove the opposite true, twisting and pulling his beats and effects until they burn like fingernails. Folding soft, singer/songwriter laments into fuzzy washes of constructed sound, A Name Writ in Water, The One AM Radio's second full-length, is a collection of swooning folk songs, just sweet and compelling enough to make your well-worn Nick Drake tapes feel curiously obsolete. And while they may not be as gory as a seven-minute guitar solo, Hirway's tracks still dripping with loads of gooey heart.

Since teaming with violinist Jane Yakowitz in 1999, Hirway has gradually delved deeper and deeper into folktronica nuance, rolling out subtle, beat-tinged poems and spare, instrumental elegies. Most of A Name Writ in Water trades in blurry transitions: The stunning opener, "What You Gave Away", starts with gently shaken percussion as Hirway's soft vocals give way to a fleeting violin wail and quivering maracas falling into puttering beats. Hirway's coos slip into computerized warbles, and a plaintive trumpet finally overtakes the melody, ending in a haze of sharp, sad yowls. Standout "Shivers" opens with glitchy drones and woozy violins, its emotional narrative only stronger for its lack of vocals. "Buried Below", though, is defiantly straightforward, its light acoustic strums and nervous drums backing Hirway's multi-tracked, melancholic pledges.

Hirway's lyrics can occasionally seem convoluted ("Streetlights spark to life as we pass by/ Caught in panes of warehouse windows and reflecting in your eyes/ Lying on your lawn on our sides/ We'll stay outside"), and are generally preoccupied with standard issues of movement, life, death, loss and love. But Hirway's prose is also peppered with imagistic bits of landscape, all grass and dust and summer sunsets. Coupled with his breathy, organic whispers, much of A Name Writ in Water invites big, natural metaphors, somehow only easily comparable to snow-capped mountain ranges or towering, Sigur Rós-ian icecaps. His compositions simply feel colossal.

Unsurprisingly, A Name Writ in Water is stubbornly unassuming in its prettiness, inadvertently figuring songs as portraits, melodies as promises. While not nearly as pert or quirky as The Postal Service's like-minded debut, The One AM Radio is just as addictive-- but Hirway's version of America is less concerned with enigmatically assassinated presidents, and more interested in charting the gray spots between highways and oceans, between guitars and laptops. The maps he draws are beautiful. [8.1 / 10]

— Amanda Petrusich

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from All Music Guide:

Hrishikesh Hirway's second full-length as the One AM Radio, A Name Writ in Water, is a warm, folky electro-acoustic album that evokes a sunnier, beachside Múm. The murky and disembodied sounds that float through these compositions give the impression of light refracting to the depths of a calm and peaceful ocean floor. Songs like "Drowsy Haze" are true to their titles in mood as well as lyrical content: "Drowsy haze of those summer days was deep in my lungs," Hirway sings on the breezy bedroom dream pop number. The Pacific Northwest coast, rusting memories, trips to the lake, glimmering city skylines, and the nostalgia of car trips are all themes that populate this earthy electronic record. Occasionally, Hirway works with stuttering beats — as on "Shivers," for example. But in a curious fashion, Hirway is actually much more of a singer/songwriter than other likeminded bedroom electro-acoustic gurus like Four Tet or Manitoba, and he is at his strongest when he keeps the beats spare and organic, even simple. Of course, it's all of the live instrumentation that really sets the One AM Radio apart (and makes the Múm comparison so clear) — from Hirway's gentle guitar picking to Jane Yakowitz' violin, Paul Findlen's upright bass, and Joseph Grimm's trumpet playing. Finally, production and mixing by avant hip-hop maestro Daedelus seems essential to A Name Writ in Water, providing an atmosphere similar to Daedelus' own recordings — a thick, soft sound that makes the record much more lush than the similar work of a band like the Postal Service and perfectly suits the subtle boom-bip of a track like "Witness." All in all, a stunning follow-up to a great debut that should become a hallmark of folktronica along with Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children and Greg Davis' Curling Pond Woods.

— Charles Spano

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from XLR8R:

The second full-length from this outfit is aptly-titled: its shifting styles and fluid melodies are hard to pin down, a dreamy mix of vocals, guitars, synths, violins, and ambient beats. Bandleader Hrishikesh Hirway brings in guest musicians to add weight to the spare and dispassionate vocals and the result is both lush and thoughtful. Highlights include "Lucky," where a string-backed Hirway croons about not accidentally driving off a cliff, and "Fever Dream," where the delicate guitar sustains Hirway as he sings about memory and desire. The effect is lingering like sleep, and just as enigmatic.

— Luciana Lopez

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from Splendid Magazine:

I don't know what ClearChannel belches up into the airwaves after midnight in your neck of the empire, but I'll bet The One AM Radio outshines it. From the moment it opens with the gentle, susurrous wisp of a lonely shaker, this honey-coated tour de coax is all about the lush, caressing softness best expressed in the wee hours. Hrishikesh Hirway crafts the album's 13 tracks largely out of understated percussion programming, acoustic guitar, upright bass, violin, almost unbearably gorgeous trumpet and his own simmering voice. The application of this bare instrumentation alone spells the likelihood of success, but it's Hirway's songwriting that steals the show.

Lyrically through-composed, Hirway's compositions don't even nod toward the verse/chorus structures we've all been raised on. Opener "What You Gave Away" begins with the line, "The Pacific Northwest coast holds a place I'd longed to see," and at once I'm hooked. As a recent transplant to Washington state, I'm a sucker for its most poetic adherents, but like the bulk of A Name Writ in Water, the line brushes by and then aside, hardly leaving time to nestle in before the next wave of caressing overtakes it.

The proper songs are laced through with instrumental tracks that further sugar the experience. Without an edge of irony, "I Didn't Speak the Language" features humming over spacious guitar arpeggios, and "Shivers" floats on Kid A-inflected beat-splicing that's too saccharine to be mistaken for frenetic. Between these, "Fever Dream" takes the image of dry brush awaiting an incendiary spark as a springboard for a rumination on the aching pull of waiting, any waiting at all -- that lazy tug of knowing something welcome's yet to come.

This coastal motion, the ebb and regress by which The One AM Radio stakes its claim to electro-singer/songwriter greatness, elevates the work from the merely beautiful to bona fide art. Like all art worth its weight in the materials that went into its making, A Name Writ in Water can't be fully appreciated in one dose. There's far more here than the velvet veneer, and few are the discs that are as generous in the mutually exclusive contexts of solitude and coupling. Either way, given the insipid vacuity of most radio programming at any hour, the comparison implicit in Hirway's moniker almost certainly sells the music short.

— Jason Kirk

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from Venus:

With the One AM Radio's second proper full-length, songwriter Hrishikesh Hirway and violinist Jane Yakowitz have moved their music beyond simple labels like "dream pop" or "folktronica." Hushed, delicate, expansive, and beautiful, A Name Writ In Water (Level Plane) is the soundtrack of daydreaming, sleeping under stars, and the lonely, ever-hunting heart.

— Annie Tomlin

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from Mean Streets:

THE ONE A.M. RADIO is the work of local singer-songwriter HRISHIKESH HIRWAY. Hirway has called upon local electronic luminaries DAEDELUS and JOHN TEJADA to help mix and master the album, and it shows. The record is a collection of thirteen lovely electro-acoustic hybrids that fall somewhere in between bedroom electronics and folksy songwriting. The fragility of the music box melodies contained within call to mind acts like FOUR TET or MUM, while Hirway’s scenic lyrics conjure up memories of hazy summer sunsets and isolated stretches of sand. The inescapable draw of life on the road is a common theme throughout, making this the perfect soundtrack to your next summer road trip.

— Brock Phillips

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from Delusions of Adequacy:

This review will never do justice to the beauty of A Name Writ in Water. Honestly folks, you need to hear this to understand. Even the packaging is beautiful with its gray translucent cover of an endless ocean horizon, which is a good physical description of the music, endless shades of gray splendor.

Hrishikesh Hirway, mastermind of The One AM Radio, describes his sound as being “somewhere between bedroom electronica and singer/songwriter.” To get a little more accurate perception of what to expect, think the delicate simplicity of Iron & Wine, the flawless mixture of electronica and real instrumentation of Namelessnumberheadman, and the lush textured arrangements of Badly Drawn Boy. That is definitely a lot of high praise, but Hirway, having released a whole slew of EPs and splits with the likes of Ted Leo, proves his legitimacy. I am really impressed with Hirway’s knack for knowing when to let the music do the talking. For the most part, A Name Writ in Water, as well as his past works, is minimal on the instrumentation relying more on lush sound washes and Hirway’s eerily beautiful hushed vocals take center stage. However, he does a wonderful job of building up the music’s intensity enough to where his voice is no longer needed to fill your headphones. In fact, two of my favorite songs, “This is a Document” and “Shivers,” are completely instrumental and utilize the violin.

The main difference between this album and past One AM Radio releases is the addition of more upbeat, almost danceable beats. “Those Distant Lights” is the best example of this new-found upbeat poppy sound with its almost Nintendo-like synth lines floating over a nice poppy drumbeat. “Witness” has what is easily my favorite vocal melody on the record when he sings “The grass and dust and summer dusk is just settling down. There’s nowhere we would rather be. As day wanes, our shadows stretch below. It’s perfect where we are, as the sun hangs low.”

The most amazing thing about this record is Hirway’s uncanny ability to use multiple instruments - trumpet, violin, singing saw, upright bass - and throw in some very organic electronics to create seamless ballads. The second most amazing thing is that it will be released on Level Plane of all places. The thing that makes this so amazing is I would never in a million years expect Level Plane to release something like this. Level Plane is better known for manic hardcore by the likes of City of Caterpillar, Neil Perry, and Racebannon. But thank goodness they got a hold of this lovely record. I guess if I had to come up with some sort of complaint for this record it would be that the songs are not long enough. Most of these songs don’t even break the three-minute mark, which I think is a crime. That’s really not that much of a complaint though because there are 13 songs that provide plenty of music to digest without getting boring, and I definitely want more.

I am interested in seeing if Hirway will keep with the more upbeat feel of this album or if he will go back to the more mellow approach. Either way, I’m sure his future outputs will be as gorgeous as this one if not better.