NEW YORK TIMES
"Percussionists provided driving rhythms...over which Haale's warm, supple voice unfurled like a curlicue of smoke. Her band's amplified rumble served as a reminder of the extent to which rock bands like the Doors and the Velvet Underground turned to the East for their hypnotic efforts; here their borrowings were reclaimed with interest."
WASHINGTON POST
"Haale is...a star on the rise…her raw sound owes as much to '60s psychedelic rock as it does to the ancient Middle East...”
BOSTON GLOBE
"[Haale] sings with a supple, blissful Persian flair and the intensity of an arena rocker. While she quotes mystic poets or slashes guitar riffs, her electric band of downtown New Yorkers kicks out hypnotic grooves... Her name is Haale (think "halle"-lujah), and she's ready to break out; just ask fans like David Byrne or Sean Lennon."
PRESS FOR THE NEW ALBUM, “NO CEILING” & 2008 TOUR
BOSTON GLOBE
"'No Ceiling' is set to go down as one of this year's most memorable releases...a woozy, swirly little gem of an album...It situates Haale in a particular tradition of female rockers who balance electric-guitar frenzy with the intimacy and alluring elusiveness of poetry."
CHICAGO SUN TIMES, JIM DEROGATIS
"An extraordinarily powerful vocalist. The emotions expressed in Haale's songs are as warm and inviting as the sounds..."
PERFORMING SONGWRITER
With [No Ceiling[, her first full-length outing, Mid-Eastern influences freely intertwine with contemporary rock regalia, and the effect is mesmerizing."
JAMBASE
"Tough and seeking, bold and reflective, there's absolutely nothing timid about Haale's hybrid, which flows like hot mercury or pungent smoke, singular shapes impossible to pour into standard molds. Hard rock drones ride Middle Eastern percussion, while she glides between English and Farsi with a voice that's part PJ Harvey, part Nina Simone – resolutely powerful but capable of great, cathartic fracture.On the heels of two excellent 2007 EPs, Morning and Paratrooper, Haale's full-length debut, No Ceiling (released in March on Channel A Music/Music + Art), picks up the fire of that performance and places it in wonderfully constructed lamps that light the way towards some of the first truly international music of the 21st century, a marriage made on Earth with an eye tilted skyward at all times.
This music offers a gateway to something far deeper than casual background accompaniment. Theirs is a door of perception swinging wide, and while many of us might not understand every word, the underlying meaning – and "the pleasure of foreign tongues" as Barthes once put it – is evident. Haale calls out to the universe, and by gum she might just get a response if she keeps it up like No Ceiling and the band's intense, almost ritual concerts, which seem hell-bent on shattering barriers and preconceptions at every turn."
CITYPAGES
"One of the most memorable albums of the young year…a deeply sensual release, powered by the groove and Haale's smoky, honey-thick voice."
CHICAGO FLAME
"Haale is on the verge of redefining the music scene. Songs to check out: "Middle of Fire," "Off Duty Fortune Teller" and "Ay Dar Shekasteh."
VAIL DAILY
"If I had to describe the overall tone of "No Ceiling" it would be like making love in a ring of fire while awaiting death at the hands of marauding enemy soldiers. It's equal parts chaos and beauty, a pearl snatched from the mouth of a violent sea.”
GLOBAL RHYTHM
"In every song she creates, Haale makes it difficult to discern where tradition ends and modernity begins -- the indelible mark of truly progressive artistry."
BUFFALO RISING
"Equally erotic and enlightening."
SECOND SUPPER
"No Ceiling is - and I'm going to capitalize this because it bears emphasizing - A BIG FUCKING ALBUM. The sonics are far more Western than might be expected, though the Persian elements fade skillfully into the songs, giving additional depth to the already deep. The total is greatness, heedless of origin, a silk-sharp explosion, beautiful and monstrous. This is easily in the running for my album of the year.
BLOGCRITICS MAGAZINE
"This CD is a feast for the ears and the mind. [It] is a reminder of what the music in the 1960s was...an experiment in our musical capabilities, pushing the limits, stretching the boundaries, finding a sound that shouldn't work, but does, wondrously No Ceiling is all of these things and more."
THE PITT NEWS
"It's the fulfillment of music's "East Meets West" fantasy… No Ceiling is an American return to our mystic roots and the cradle of civilization… Haale's music is a bridge across two cultures often portrayed in conflict and hostility."
SIGNAL TO NOISE:
THE JOURNAL OF IMPROVISED AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
“The music has an enormous, physically hypnotic power, merging propulsive drumming, droning guitars, and Haale’s ardent, throaty vocals to send shivers down the spine.”
RUTLAND HERALD
“The songs are almost sculptural, shaped and molded by strong lyrics and surreal auralscapes. In "Zero To One," Pink Floydian warnings and bleak, unstructured spaces render a raw dreamscape roiling with anguished moans, atonal murmurs and surreal imagery. "Off Duty Fortune Teller" showcases the luminous, slightly girlish core of her voice and lucid story-telling skills. The gorgeous lament "Hastee”… is yet more hypnotic. It is in the context of her Persian singing that Haale achieves her most primal, intuitive vocalizations…with dazzling authority and moving, earthy resonance. ..[as in] "Ay Dar Shekasteh," [which] pulses with ecstatic praise and percussive energy.”
STATIC MULTIMEDIA
"Her sound is as mysterious as her look. Her voice is like a boa that wraps itself around you and refuses to let go. On her debut CD, No Ceiling…Haale offes a ticket into her extraordinary world. [She] takes you on a melodic adventure with tracks like Middle of Fire and Ay Dar Shekasteh..."
THE FIRE NOTE
"Haale's vocals easily make No Ceiling stand out...and make repeat listens an effortless task. Her ability to mix English with some Persian throughout the album builds a gorgeous border of sound, strings and guitar, which gives Haale that niche sound that can easily build a fan base with this solid and complete debut."
CITYPAGES (2ND REVIEW)
“One of the most interesting and sexiest discs of the year…”
THE HYPE MACHINE
“Haale…successfully manages to blend the…rhythm and passion of…Sufi Trance music and fuse it with a beautiful take on the post modern rock most readily associated with the likes of Radiohead. Dark and beautifully orchestrated spaces allow for the true breadth of her voice to shine throughout the title track of her debut release No Ceiling”
PLAYBACK: STL
"No Ceiling by Haale is a splendid journey through blended cultures and influences…hypnotic and enchanting. This album is definitely an early favorite of 2008."
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
"The music inevitably calls to mind the efforts of others to mix those styles, such as the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Peter Gabriel. None of them, however, went quite as far as Haale,…Her voice has some of the reedy quality of Janis Ian or Madonna as she sings over a combination of electric guitars and acoustic string instruments such as violin and cello. This creates an effect that is neither traditional Persian nor contemporary rock, but something in between, and that eclecticism may just make it exotic enough to sound new to rock fans, while giving fans of Middle Eastern music the sense that they are hearing an evolution of that genre."
PENNLIVE
"No Ceiling," a darkly exotic, evocative collection that includes songs sung in Persian with lyrics by Rumi. It has points of Zeppelinlike heaviness, with minor-key arrangements and Haale's own ringing electric guitar lines (think "Kashmir" or the "No Quarter" album).
TKB CD REVIEWS
"The album “No Ceiling,” with its 10 songs, will leave no one untouched. She is crossing between Amy Lee, a modern Bjork and Jim Morrison"
REMIX MAGAZINE
“Haale...was inspired by her father's Dostoevsky novels, Jimi Hendrix and the sounds of traditional Sufi singing. Remarkably, all of those influences can be discerned throughout her new set, in songs like the trance-y “Off Duty Fortune Teller,” the striking title track and the rumbling undercurrent of “Zero to One.” Haale exemplifies the meaning of world music in her songs, combining a pretty potpourri of sounds from disparate elements to create a mystically poetic stew grounded by the complex rock rhythms of her bandmates.”
ROCKISLIFE
"No Ceiling is a journey into a dark and sometimes haunting realm. Middle-Eastern inspired rhythms give gypsy-like qualities to the musical output. It's not the kind of music you'd hear in your average everyday coffee shop. But late at night, when that coffee shop turns into that hip underground club, that's where you'll find Haale.
MAXIMUM INK MAGAZINE
"Haale incorporates her unique position between cultures in a mesmerizing maelstrom of ancient traditions and modern tastes, making transcendent music that stirs the soul."
LUCID CULTURE
"This artist is all about adrenaline, exhilaration and transcendence.”
CONTINUED PRESS
FLAVORPILL
"[Haale's] earnest blends of electric guitar, thoughtful lyrics, and vocal gymnastics borrow from both ancient song and the poetry of Persia. The surprise chestnut at the heart of the music is the dynamic, fiery delivery of Haale herself, whose voice is by turns deep and commanding, feather-light and breezy, and as rich and sensual as dark-chocolate fondue."
JAMBASE
"The trio, led by an intoxicating Persian-American singer who gives the band their name, were deep into a tangent that might have slipped from Zep's "Kashmir"...It was apparent these three were spinning out something deeper than a musical performance, something worshipful yet still wholly rock 'n' roll. Haale seem capable of something really special, say a record like Astral Weeks or Dark Side of the Moon, or maybe hallucinatory concert spectacles like the '70s Patti Smith Group. Within them burns the potential to kick down a bunch of doors of perception. Listen up now and begin being nourished by this music sooner than later."
CMJ
"Totally original songs." CMJ
POPMATTERS
"On her two latest EP releases, 'Paratrooper' and 'Morning' (both self-releasd), [Haale] works a panoramic blend of luscious rock, heady bass, and brilliantly produced rhythms."
DAVID BYRNE
"A mixture of experimental downtown stuff with the vocal intensity of U2, but more intimate." http://journal.davidbyrne.com/
READ EXPRESS
"Western Pop Artists have long looked to the East for inspiration, from The Beatles making a pilgrimage to India..in the 1960's to...1990s indie rockers Macha sojourning to Indonesia... But New York City singer-songwriter Haale doesn't just gaze East and cherry-pick its music to dress up her own folk-rock songs. She's a U.S.-born Iranian-American who also draws on the Persian music she grew up listening to from her parents, who moved here in 1974.. Haale's bewitching Sufi-steeped trance rock can be heard on her recent debut releases, two five-song CD EPs: "Morning" and "Paratrooper..."
METROLAND
"A combination of Jim Morrison, Nico, Edith Piaf, and Selma Hayek...Haale's voice was playful, sultry, and nuanced; she could wail over the din as well as coax a melody out of her breath... The 90-minute set seemed to pass in a blink."
PASTE
"A New Yorker of Iranian descent whose exotic voice builds a bridge between Sufi music and psychedelic rock...trippy stuff."
ART VOICE
"[Haale] pours out her soul just as well in Persian as she does in English, switching back and forth between the two with a voice as intense as Bono's backed by a sound heavy enough to support it."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"[Haale] draws from both the American rock lexicon and Sufi mysticism...She sings in Persian and English, quotes Iranian poets like Rumi and can shred on guitar."
