GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

ysi for 'black out' I posted last week to noise ysi is still up

Uh, a friend of mine is sending me a mixtape song by song and "Disengaged" by Grouper just came on, obliterating all songs of this year before it. What is known of this "GROUPER"?

http://www.typerecords.com/artists/full.php?id=48

Friends description: "Liz Harris is from Poland, and she's got a few musical projects that run the gamut from spacey Hope Sandoval type music to this, a combination of drone soundscapes and lo-fi broken east-european folk. That description is a misnomer - think folk and you imagine exactly what Grouper is not. This music has more in common with the Microphones than Devendra Banhart, and her real draw isn't her mastery of narrative po-dunk lyrics - it's her soul-melting, beautiful ethereal voice and her ear for incredibly moody - albeit lo-fi - recording aesthetics. Imagine one of the Deheza twins becoming obsessed with fuzz pedals and dark psychedelia. As Grouper, she's begun to manipulate her voice in the same manner that she does every other recorded instrument on her projects. On this first song from her newest album, her voice follows hand in hand the melody of the rhodes-come-blown-out-leslie. I can't tell what she's saying, and it truely does not make a difference to me. The atmosphere is beautiful, her voice is beautiful, and the emotions she is conveying - terrible though they must be - are beautiful as well."

she's from Portland, not Poland

Here you go:

http://www.myspace.com/grouperrepuorg

Looks like she logged in today.

We are so lucky to have her here. I've seen some really great (and always unassuming) sets from her in coffee shops, in the park...

Love Grouper. New album is ace. Can't wait to get the vinyl.

New album is brilliant. Up there with Inca Ore's release, my best release of the year so far (I think).

YES! I'm really digging the new one. I loved it so much that I bought a couple of her previous releases. Can't wait to get them in the mail.

high praise from this review:

foxy digitalis : reviews: Grouper "Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill"
http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=3440

"This is an amazing album that will most likely remain a highlight release for the year. " 10/10

'grouper' CDR EP - (heavier noiser mixes of her first recordings, most of these were remixed for the first album)
'way their crept' LP - still my favorite, her harmonies & the absurd levels of tape delay bury the songs but the songs are still there
'he knows he knows he knows' EP - like the 1st LP, just as great
'wide' LP - follows on from the first LP, heavier & spacier and more intense, maybe a less instantly memorable group of songs but I need to go back and check
'flashlights: eckords' - collaboration with violinist jorge boehringer, very very very spaced
xiu xiu vs. grouper - 'creepshow' - haven't heard
'cover the windows and walls' EP - only have mp3s of this so haven't spent as much time with it -- never even saw this in stores, but it's songs
'dragging a dead deer up a hill' LP - this is going to do very well for her, she's pulled back on the delays but everything still sounds covered in silt and her songwriting has taken a jump forward

she's one to watch

Ok, I finally listened to the rest of the songs for the first time, and yes, they're all great. Not enough have just straight up said "What a graceful voice", and they should. This is peaceful death music, I love it.

I predict I will post about this again on August 3rd of this year, because that's the day I finally get back home. And when I arrive, there's going to be a small pile of her records because I'm going to have to drunkenly order a good half of those LPs and EPs Milton just mentioned. Not the Xiu Xiu one, though.

I'm going to save the S-word too - Slowdive. This wouldn't be out of place on Pygmalion.

I will also say it.

If this was a dude, you wouldn't care

Well, at least I still get to care about something, which is a nice consolation prize.

Yeah, still fucking awesome.
This is off the newest one:

Heavy Water/I'd Rather be Sleeping

and I have two other (better) songs from Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill here:
http://headofstate.muxtape.com/

And this is a little older.
HERE

got new lp in the other day

I missed buying that Dragging A Dead Deer album, can't find it anywhere. Any leads?

http://www.boomkat.com/search.cfm?q=grouper

There's a dude here in Portland who's just as good as Grouper. His project is called Dragging An Ox Through Water.

Finally got the new one today...So amazing. Like, one of the best things I've heard all year. Its been a long time since I've been able to just sit down and let an album wash over me, but this has done it. "Stuck" in particular just makes me swoon. The melodies on this are amazing! I just ordered the re-release of the split with Inca Ore from Aquarius. Can't wait.

Is very good, that new one.

what is it called?

"Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill"

Best album title ever too!!!

I just ordered the re-release of the split with Inca Ore from Aquarius. Can't wait.

Have you got it yet? Is it good? Did you order it from her website? How much was it?

Yeah, I'm still really, really into the new one. It only sounds better as it gets colder and more leaves fall off the trees.

nice

vaguely recall a mention on ILX and an Inca Ore connection (blown away Ms. Saelens live recently, her LP one of few sweet spots of '08 for me)...

must investigate further!

also, this Grouper LP punching well above it's weight in obscurity here http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2008

The inca ore and grouper split is from 2007. It's ok, sort of a bridge between her first records and the minimalistic approach of guitar/voice style that she used on 'dragging a dead dear'.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/inca_ore___grouper/split/

Has anybody deciphered the lyrics to 'heavy water/I'd rather be sleeping'? - so far I can only make up: 'love is enormous / it's lifting me up / i'd rather be sleeping / i'd rather fall in your tidal waves / right where the deepest currents pull'

this album ! :-O

really really good.

If this was a dude, you wouldn't care

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Monday, June 23, 2008 2:43 AM

If she was a dude she would still be 1000x more interesting than Fleet Fuxxes

^^real talk. 'Dead Deer' is on my top ten list of the year, but I don't know what she looks like (if looks are what's implied). And well, imagining the vocals as coming from a he, well that's just silly.

btw, I wasn't quoting that as in "I agree with this", I was quoting that as in http://i44.tinypic.com/2mhvo8j.jpg

I want to say something about how this album unfolds it's pleasures like a flower, at about the same speed, without it sounding dirty.

Possibly the most gorgously intimate and non "produced" sounding thing I've heard all year too. She might as well be in the room.

This goes down well with a copy of Chris Ware's graphic novel The Smartest Kid on Earth and my Mom's fried boneless fish.

If this was a dude, you wouldn't care

Plenty of us care about Sonic Boom!

I picked this up on a whim today from amazon's mp3 store, where it's on sale for $1.99. It's remarkably gorgeous!

by "this" I mean the Dragging a Dead Deer album

Deeply amused by "fart alert"

That's a damn good price (I paid $14.99 retail) and almost makes me want to switch over to buying in digital format... but not really. xpost

That's exactly my sentiment, ilxor. But if a crazy low price like that leads to more people getting into her music, it's all for the better. She deserves it.

Baffling, pointless review on Tinymixtapes of the live show:

The show is sold out, but most fans are waiting to pile in after the opening act, Grouper — a one-woman showcase of bullshit. Imagine Enya making airport symphonies for hipsters. I try to salvage something from the fuzzy reverb and her long, lonely wails, but I can’t stop picturing her masturbating in front of a full-length mirror. Self-indulgence, indeed.

...but you write for tinymixtapes.com

ugh.

...but you write for tinymixtapes.com

Really? That's news to me!

if you're going to choose such an ambiguous username...

Hahaha, no no, that was meant as a response to the reviewer, for some reason. I saw my comment this morning and wondered what the hell I was talking about, because I don't really have any beef with tinymixtapes.com.

That AOL sonned thread has me thinking about who I do and do not have beefs with today.

it's kinda weird with reviews like that where you can't tell if the reviewer is trying to be funny... or if they're just trying to come up with the most awe-inspiring humorless zings to satisfy their explosive rage at the act in question.

I don't really mind Enya as a reference (Enya is pretty awesome imo tho) and I have been digging pretty heavily on Dead Deer for the last couple weeks.

Enya making airport symphonies for hipsters is the kind of stuff my friends say about the downtempo balearic cheeze i listen to. it kind of goes hand in hand with "elevator music for grad students", a term which used to bug me but i think i'm ok with it know

Hahaha, no no, that was meant as a response to the reviewer, for some reason.

Ah, makes sense now. I laughed out loud. Nice one.

WAY THEIR CREPT and DRAGGING A DEAD DEER are two of my favorite records right now. Is there any other stuff out there like this? Melodic, atmospheric, experimental, droning, and emotional?

this album is kinda staggered by the one two punch of heavy water and stuck

dead deer obv

I really wish we could edit the title of this thread!

Video for HOLD THE WAY

http://www.thefader.com/2009/10/07/video-grouper-hold-the-way/

Should have mentioned I saw her last month as the final act of the On Land festival. Entrancing, mesmerizing, etc -- if a band like School of Seven Bells is (mostly) about shoegaze as propulsion and pop, Grouper is (mostly) about it as immersion and flow.

Gooooorgeous live set over at the free music archive http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/blog/ATP-NY_2009_Grouper_MP3 From ATP last month ...

saw her columbia university when she was in NY for ATP. was great. loved the swirls of white noise running through the whole set.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to splash out and see her on Sunday, based on these last few comments. Anybody disagree with the decision?

Glasgow then? See you there!

Didn't know there were UK/Euro dates! Would love to see her live. Don't think I can make any of them, sadly, but I'll have to think about it.

I have fallen in love with (mp3s of) her tour split 7" from last year with City Center and it's totally out of print, alas. Anyone know if there is a tour release this time round, so I can act more promptly?

Are the new myspace tracks "Hold The Way" and "Vessel" available to download anywhere?

(just noticed Vessel EP coming out in Late 2009)

she had this 7" when I saw her but not the city center split:

http://www.discogs.com/Grouper-He-Knows-He-Knows-He-Knows/release/1771400

as a 7"? I bought that from her as a 3" CD.

yep, as a 7"

Went to see her play on Friday night. It was pleasant if unremarkable, she only played for 40 minutes too.

I don't get that complaint. Forty minutes is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for a set, imo.

if you only have 1 album and only charge a fiver then maybe

Wasn't really a complaint, more of an observation. It was actually a double headline show with some noise dude, tickets were 12.50. It was BYOB though so worked out cheap enough.

doesn't she have three albums?

Has a Grouper / Julianna Barwick tour happened yet? Seriously would be an awesome double bill.

Great live set from London in Nov 2009 available to download free here: http://milesofsmiles.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=548002

i wonder if this dude ever interviewed grouper

I missed this news:

Grouper to release two new albums
http://www.factmag.com/2011/01/21/grouper-to-release-two-new-albums/

“The process of making these albums reacquainted me with what I want to explore in music,” she continues. “Friction, exploration of something large and outside of me, describing and traveling to intangible objects and places, unseen movements and connections between people and spaces. Songs that move on their own, that have an autonomous monstrous quality, songs from another world.”

A I A, TWO PART VINYL, SELF RELEASE, APRIL 11th, 2011. Vinyl can be ordered through Mississippi Records, digital downloads will be available as of the 4/11/2011. CONSISTS OF:
-DREAM LOSS, FULL LENGTH 12", GR-006A.
-ALIEN OBSERVER, FULL LENGTH 12", GR-006B.
**Mississippi is no longer taking orders for this. If folks are still wanting vinyl (digital will be widely available, I have a direct agreement with a distributor) this summer than will repress**

aw man. i hope this is gonna be in stores, and stuff, on wax.

ahhhhhhh annoying

sux

I like that she's releasing the stuff on FLAC. I won't pay for mp3s, and the vinyl is just too hard to get a hold of.

she is actually really righteous about re-pressing her LPs, which seems kinda unusual now. like i saw her a while back and was psyched to pickup dragging a deer ..., which i'd figured was one of those things i'd never get because i slept on it in the first place. there's a note inside saying it's pressing three. so it's cool that the vinyl is gettable and isn't going to disappear. hopefully some of this has been ordered by stores, anyhow, i can't really tell.

Samples up on Amazon...

Dream Loss
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TPTL0W/

Alien Observer
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004TPTNTG/

this is a funny group to listen to samples of.

"group"

er...

yknow. them all. with the name. the entity.

FUCK. I have a decent amount of Grouper vinyl but failed to get paid in time.

I emailed Mississippi a few weeks ago, and no fucking reply. Fuck them and their shadow way of doing things.

another ltd release ive missed out on by grouper. At least I got the early ones i suppose but this is annoying

hoping this shows up on some distros

bummed that i can't order it, but...

can we talk about how awesome this release is going to be, musically?

^ a good example of why buying vinyl sucks

eh, same thing would happen if she pressed a stupidly limited amount of cds

there is a newie that is up on pitchfork that i can't listen to because i'm at work; thought getting someone here to describe it would be a worthwhile exercise, what with her music lending itself to extravagant prose. would also like to hear reviews of what one can deduce about her new lp based on thirty second low quality samples.

Fuck you, Mississippi

i mailed mississippi to ask whether any of these were going out anywhere, and they said yes: small quantities going to Forced Exposure, Revolver, CTD, Thrill Jockey, Reckless, Fusetron, Aquarius and Boomkat. so hopefully there should be a shot at picking some up in stores or online in advance. see, they are cool guys.

anyone seen her recently? she's playing here next saturday

There'll be a re-press in the summer.

anyone seen her recently? she's playing here next saturday

― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 5 April 2011 17:19 (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah, a couple of months back. it was great; i'd seen her a couple of times before but this was the best, which might've been the venue but, whatever. i can't really remember what she played but then i don't think that's the point, with her, live.

You can pre-order AIA with Ed Hardy at Eclipse Records, btw. Each disc is twenty bucks.

yeah, I've seen her over the last year or so. if you're a fan, definitely go. you'll be into it.\

xpost

also saw her do a long-form set once where she was working primarily with tapes. the weather was unbelievably humid and there was zero ventilation in the venue. it was crazy - felt like I was on the verge of hallucinating!

this is awesome

Dude I met at a potluck this weekend is a total Grouper freak, kinda funny.

Make me a tape, Zach? I will return the favor. C'mon.

webmailed ya sean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IHlhD_GV8

so great

what i did get to hear of liz last night was lovely . . . but, dearest brooklyn scenesters, why would you go to a grouper show . . . and talk the whole way through it? ugh

Heads up, Volcanic Tongue has the LPs in stock... https://www.volcanictongue.com/artists/browse_all/8947

at twice the price of everywhere else?

yeah i have been scanning for these non-stop but damn.

It's VT. And you gotta add postage to that too.

Was she selling the new album at the show last night? I'm going to see her tonight and I'm wondering if I should bring extra $$$ for the album...

but, dearest brooklyn scenesters, why would you go to a grouper show . . . and talk the whole way through it? ugh

yeah, can't stand this shit.

look forward to hearing this...love grouper.

Keenan's VT review is spot-on. These are both incredible albums. I think "Dream Loss" is my favorite of the two, but I'd be surprised if I hear anything else this year that tops either. Such desolate, haunting music...

they kind of feel like weird enya albums.

Was she selling the new album at the show last night?

nope. at the merch table they told me the only place that has them is Other Music

That's lame. Touring off a new album(s) and not being able to sell it at your own show because it's so damn limited? I know it's available digitally but WTF

at twice the price of everywhere else?

― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Sunday, April 17, 2011 Bookmark

Yep, that is pretty pricey.

Before they stopped taking orders the records were £28 delivered to the UK direct from Mississippi.

damn. i think boomkat's waiting on some, so i neurotically re-visit the site; i wondered if the reason VT's were so expensive had to do with them somehow getting them before anyone else but, even still, y'know.

If you're feeling really neurotic you can subscribe to an RSS feed of Boomkat's new vinyl which they are extremely proficient at updating. They've added 15 new arrivals already today.

Volcanic Tongue ALWAYS charge way more than everyone else. Why do you think david keenan is so hated?

that sounds more like an open subthread than a direct question. i don't really know.
thanks for the RSS tip; knew they were on top of tracking what was coming in but it's helpful. sorry i am making this thread so boring, i will talk about the records, provided i get hold of some.

Listening to Dream Loss right now and I'm struck by the effortless flow of the songs, they just drift into each other.
This is very blurry and distant. I like it but I don't see myself listening to it compulsively. It's just so detached.

up on forcedexposure fyi

yeah, emailed aquarius records and they had copies as well.

some copies around the corner from aquarius, too, at EXPLORIST INTERNATIONAL: http://www.exploristinternational.com/blog

theyll do mailorder!

I checked Forced Exposure, Aquarius and Explorist's websites now... are they all gone already? Because I can't find it.

http://beta.forcedexposure.com/SearchResult.html?SearchType=Basic&Type=artist&Key=grouper

Thank you!!! :-)

Copies for sale up on Thrill Jockey too... http://www.thrilljockey.com/catalog/index.html?id=105356

wau, outta stock already at that link?
pretty sure this is worth picking up ASAP; boomkat are getting fifty e-mails a day about it

Wow, they were still in stock when I last looked.

This place has them, apparently: http://zum.bigcartel.com/

it is available to buy digitally tho right?

i wonder if limited mp3 release will become a thing/is a thing

y'huh though, via boomkat etc??

is there a "best of grouper" collection i could purchase also (nb, digitally)

x-post cool...

Alien Observer is up on Spotify as well fwiw

I wonder what the thinking was behind the decision to not press enough to meet demand? Cos it strikes me as being conscious rather than cautious.

I mean, DDD is now on its third repress.

Anyhow, Weird Forest will have some on sale tonight...

"WF HQ received a VERY LIMITED quantity of the new Grouper A I A LPs. So few that they would sell out before everyone on the mailing list received this message. In the interest of fairness, I will post them for sale on the Weird Forest website at 7pm (pacific time) tomorrow (Tues 4/19). I apologize in advance for any disappointment but there were not enough records to go around."

xp to ronan, ya, it's on itunes

wonder what the thinking was behind the decision to not press enough to meet demand? Cos it strikes me as being conscious rather than cautious.

do you think? ehh. i kinda saw it more as an obliviousness. that there are also provisions for another press based on demand doesn't make it seem like a kinda fetishisation-of-the-limited thing.

one of the weird things that comes up re: this & mississippi is where the boundary lies between, a), pressing a bunch of records and selling them being a personal project, that one can take control of and do according to your own terms, versus b), there being an obligation to provide for the market and meet demand, etc. there are a lot of records that have come out (the first nite jewel & zola jesus LPs, say) in the past few years where the vinyl has disappeared & never come back, even while LPs go for crazy money on ebay. i sorta think that keeping stuff in circulation, repressing if there's enough demand, etc, means that you should be able to print something up according to your own specs without being called out for being small-scale or exclusive or whatever. i can see how doing it on a handmade basis, albeit in smaller numbers, and maintaining control, is worth some of the awkwardness of not necessarily meeting demand.

like: there is always a lot of fuck mississippi etc, but why shouldn't you be able to open a store and do your best to make and distro some lps?

do you think? ehh. i kinda saw it more as an obliviousness. that there are also provisions for another press based on demand doesn't make it seem like a kinda fetishisation-of-the-limited thing.

I can totally see this side too.

I guess I was just angling at the fact that it felt to me like this (relative) level of demand could have been anticipated and that there must have been other factors at play. Perhaps financial ones relating to the size of the pressing they could afford for instance.

And being that this is a private press I want the money to get to her you know? I want her to be able to meet demands and sell and sell so she can afford to keep making music.

But as you say, there's another run coming so my conjecture is moot anyhow!

Ordered a copy from Forced Exposure but have doubts it will actually ship. Don't mind buying digital as long as it's FLAC.

Ordered a copy from Forced Exposure and specified a zip code of a town I lived in a year ago, rather than where I am now. It still says "processing" so ideally they get my corrections (there's no way to specify it on their webstore) before they go out (if they go out at all). I will go ahead and say that this has been a bit of a hassle (and I'm not making things better by participating).

album doesn't turn up in forced exposure's search anymore, plus my account now shows no open or shipped orders. so that's the end of that adventure.

hey hazel i do not really understand your posts but they are freaking me out, disrupting the serenity that descended after ordering a copy of this & stopping worrying about it all. doesn't your account just say being processed or whatever?, since that was the state it would've been in before? that it's disappeared from the site seems more like a good sign than a bad one.

nope, my account shows no orders whatsoever, although I have an email from them with an order number. didn't mean to panic you. I'd like to hear it sooner rather than later, but if there's going to be a repress, I won't die.

but what about the rest of us

but

Weird FE stuff. I got an email saying it has shipped ups. I didn't use the beta site btw.

that's a good point, the beta site is a beta site. some weirdness could be expected.

Weird Forest has them up right now for those who haven't got em yet

they had them up for about six seconds.

My FE order just says "ON HOLD / Awaiting Restocks" now. So I'm pretty sure that's the end of that.

^^ Same here, sadly.

I appreciate limited releases of an artist like Grouper, who controls her own output, but this is rather ridiculous. Scouring the internet, going to music websites where the records are up only a minute or so before they're all gone... Hugely frustrating.

The chase was thrilling but unsuccessful, so I torrented it. When it's easier to buy, I'll buy it. Boomkat has FLACs, but I'm not paying $26 for a download.

Are you kidding me? $26 for a fucking download?

That's for two albums I assume, but still.

Don't hate Boomkat too much, the exchange rate is what makes it so high.

the albums are a fiver each on itunes fwiw

Or two pounds something each on emusic.

Do they have non-lossy formats?

No, just cheap and cheerful 256kbps vbr MP3s iirc

A copy of each just showed up on Discogs. $30 though.

And some here too... http://www.reckless.com

I can't get that one to work, after clicking buy it just freezes (in both Firefox and Safari). This record is cursed. Thanks anyway.

And some here too...

hey thank you
assuming my FE order is not happening also so trying these guys.

Gone from reckless.com now

ha, yeah, i got that e-mail also. there's something on their FB from like Monday saying they got them in, so i guess it makes sense. i am hunting these lps so hard i am going to mount them like a moose-head when i get them fwiw.

don't understanmd all this stress, they will be repressed for sure just like Dead Deer.

it is being excited to hear it, just. i am trying to be deliberate about the way i hear records first, because with leaks, sometimes things come out, and you hear them, and then the point at which you buy them - which shouldn't be the exciting thing about an album coming out, but which should be a thing that you do, if you like the record - becomes pretty much devoid of discovery or excitement and so laborious and unappealing, and then bam it's a record you've been playing around and around for two months but which actually buying is a drag, some perfunctory measure that you mean to get around to. with the smog record, i heard half of it when it leaked, and i'm still psyched to get the LP. with this, i'm excited for it; that i'll get the vinyl means i don't want to buy a download of it, and the idea of hearing it and then waiting just feels like it'll lead me into that zone where i don't get around to buying a thing or i just buy one of them and--. i don't know. it isn't possessiveness, it's just anticipation for her LP; that there is other music to listen to until it gets re-pressed doesn't diminish the excitement of a new record that people are enjoying.

like, i'm trying to avoid that record-buying paralysis i sometimes get, when you feel like you're materialistically compiling objects that you already in some sense have, or know, out of this semi-nebulous sense of propriety & investment, getting into a conflict about whether i should be buying something more adventurous (having heard this specific thing), or one of her other records, or food, or eroding my debts, or whatever, instead. you eventually get reminded that records are good, useful, worthwhile objects to own, when you're broke and only have them for entertainment and they display their worth by modifying your living space, but buying something i've heard always feels like it's me being sorta possessive. where as trying to get it and so tying together the part where i hear it, & it is good, with the part where i reward grouper for excellent record-making efforts, just feels more convenient.

Got my copies in the mail yesterday, and damn these are great. But I think the reason these records were self released and not pressed in a large quantity is because it seems that they aren't really a proper follow up to dragging a dead deer up a hill. These songs seem like kind of an experimental departure for her. I could be wrong, but thats just my impression after a couple listens.

i'd say that these most recent two fit easily into her catalog...really the only departure was Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. That was the first exposure of Grouper for a lot of people (including myself), so it's easy to view that as the baseline, but that was actually quite an unusual release for her in terms of accessibility. and while that accessibility brought her a lot of accolades and most people intrinsically think of it as "better", she may have a totally different view. more power to her!

Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill is by far my fav Grouper release, btw! :) i'm just saying that this new one is kind of a return to her older , pre DDD up a hill sound.

the hold/sick 7" that was out a while ago felt like a step towards the more submersive old stuff, for sure

My Forced Exposure order was cancelled today. Does anyone know if Dead Deer is getting any more represses?

The two albums very much feel like one is considerably older and one is newer. In my car Dream Loss sounded so blown out I couldn't even tell that it had vocals, while Alien Observer feels like it has songs but that the vocals and the lyrics are nowhere near as crucial to the structures as they were on Dragging a Dead Deer. It sounds to me like she's shifted her melodic instrument from acoustic guitar to electric piano, and I think this is the first time I've ever actually missed the presence of an acoustic guitar on someone's record. But yeah, these seem way more in line with Wide / Way Their Crept / Cover The Windows and the Walls than with Dead Deer. Will likely grow to love it regardless.

i was a sucker and ordered from Volcanic Tongue as soon as I saw the post above, even though they were like a billion dollars each. And even then, I just received this message:

Apologies for the delay getting back to you, we've been overwhelmed with Grouper orders. Sorry but the Grouper LPs have sold out, the demand far outweighed what Grouper could supply, we’re very sorry you missed out.

Same here, tried it at two places now (FE, Reckless) as in actually placing an order and a while later hearing the demand was too high. Does it even exist on vinyl?

Tried FE, VT and Weird Forest, no luck. So i bought the ones on Discogs. Thankfully the exchange rate is in my favour...

just fyi this is gone-gone, i think, now: sold out on fusetron, & at boomkat too, boomkat who were charging twenty-pounds-each for the lps.

I want to buy these records. Please make more of these records.

Yeah, vinyl unavailability aside, Dream Loss is killing me. Haven't even spent any time with Alien Observer yet.

I prefer 'Alien Observer'..had a bit of an epiphany with the title track, on a still, sunny evening waiting for a train with blossom in the air. Need to spend more time with 'Dream Loss' tbh.

Here's a little bit/interview with Liz. Her part starts around the 4:15 mark
http://www.wk.com/wke/show/dont_move_here/episode/3

Norman Records had some yesterday but all gone now:
http://twitter.com/#!/normanrecords/status/65078711191470080

Listened to Alien Observer last night and it's astonishingly beautiful.

^^yeah, no kidding. I still haven't listened to dream loss yet, but wow, alien observer is a stunner.

and man, the gauzy, low-fi thing just works so well for her sound. the electric piano (is that what it is?) on here sounds gorgeous.

I think it's a wurlitzer

ah, that does sound like a better fit.

i kinda think alien obsrvr is formless garbage honestly /no whiney

^Been waiting for someone to say that, really.
I don't think it's garbage, necessarily, but there isn't much for me to hold onto.

sure, I can see that. not necessarily a negative on a grouper record, tho. (imo)

hahaha, that's what everybody I have played any Grouper at all for says. "what is this crap? that's not even music."

Just play them some Stars Of The Lid and tell them to STFU

I was similarly somewhat disappointed. It's not like she screwed up or anything, either. She just wasn't aiming for the same kind of sound as on dragging a dead deer up a hill. But that for me is her standout release, so while I enjoy this new material for what it is, i've ended up listening through these about as much as I listened to her earliest releases - 3-4 times each - rather than the many dozens of timed I've listened to DDD.

I love SotL more than just about anything on this shitty planet, btw!

i can't decide whether it's crap or beautiful. there's something about 'dead deer' that's really moving.

i think with the excess of shitwavegazebrochillwitchhouse or whatever the fuck it is you kids do these days, its hard to tell whether stuff in this circle of drone music has been well crafted, or is just plain no-effort-let-the-pedals-do-the-work garbage

actually no it's not hard to tell at all, it's either shit or not, but uh, it's changed the way people approach and appreciate stuff.

The early stuff esp 'Wide' and 'Way Their Crept' is still awesome to me.. 'DDD' was shocking to hear at first, and is less of a straight ambient record than the others.. 'AIA' seems halfway, but less dense than the pre-'DDD' material.

think with the excess of shitwavegazebrochillwitchhouse or whatever the fuck it is you kids do these days, its hard to tell whether stuff in this circle of drone music has been well crafted, or is just plain no-effort-let-the-pedals-do-the-work garbage

It doesn't matter if it sounds good

The early stuff esp 'Wide' and 'Way Their Crept' is still awesome to me.. 'DDD' was shocking to hear at first, and is less of a straight ambient record than the others.. 'AIA' seems halfway, but less dense than the pre-'DDD' material.

think with the excess of shitwavegazebrochillwitchhouse or whatever the fuck it is you kids do these days, its hard to tell whether stuff in this circle of drone music has been well crafted, or is just plain no-effort-let-the-pedals-do-the-work garbage

It doesn't matter if it sounds good

'dead deer' is ok, ive never been all that impressed w/ her music but im really not sure what the point of her 'music' even is, it seem p bereft of any ideas, also its not really enjoyable to listen to so

That's a shame

you can post that twice

I think the idea here is taking a lo-fi, indie sound as a starting point and then blur the edges and stretch everything out (in some cases more radically than others). not exactly novel but I think she pulls it off and I wouldn't say the music is bereft of ideas even if it isn't heavily conceptual.

Just wait until her MTV Unplugged CD comes out.

backed by the roots

"Slow Walkers is a new collaborative project between Australian sound artist Lawrence English and ambient pop artist Liz Harris, aka Grouper. It's a multi-media project about zombies that will take the form of an album, video installations and a live audio-visual concert." (http://p4k.in/trPvwA)

http://vimeo.com/30846604

Pretty stoked for this. Lawrence English's The Peregrine LP is one of my highlights of the year.

Lawrence English's The Peregrine LP is one of my highlights of the year.

oh really? what's it like? i think he's real interesting but haven't really heard any of his solo stuff. the tenniscoats lp he recorded is special.

Here's a sample http://bit.ly/sbtPOM and a great piece on The Liminal http://bit.ly/ulpeYw.

I've been a fan since the two Digitalis vinyl reissues of A Colour For Autumn and Kiri No Oto so was primed for a new one.

A Colour For Autumn is fantastic, pretty excited to hear this news.

Great interview with Liz in the new Wire, I was totally clueless on the biographical stuff. Mostly about her upbringing as a member of a cult-ish commune called The Group and the influence of that on her music.

the peregrine is indeed beautiful

OOH tell me more about the cult

Okay, from what I can remember, it was a commune based at a large estate in the Sonoran mountains that was into Fourth Way spirituality. Children were encouraged to think of the group as one big family and consequently were persistenly moved around between different sets of parents. They were given a lot of freedom to roam around the estate and so spent a lot of time outdoors, but apparently Liz Harris didn't mix with anyone from outside the community until she was eleven when she got sent off to public school, where obviously she was a complete outsider. This was when I think the commune was collapsing anyway.

Meanwhile, her father had left the commune previous to this and as a result Liz didn't feel wholly a part of the group but was instead was in this limbo between that and the outside world. The article then goes on to talk about this theme of inbetween states as a central part of her work. It was useful!

(also Manuel Göttsching is on the cover, it's a nice issue!)

i wish that magazine weren't so expensive! is the Göttsching article long? worth reading?

also wow, what a mess of words here:

is never without some task around which and in connection with which it can alone exist. When this work is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the work which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.

cults are so interesting

Yeah I'm not sure I completely understand that wiki entry, it's still about as clear as mud to me.

The Göttsching piece is pretty much focussed entirely on E2-E4 btw. Haven't read it yet though.

^^ That makes me want to buy it even more

there's also a piece about sandwell district

The Visitor 12" by Grouper & Ilyas Ahmed is available from http://littleaxerecords.com, under distributed titles.

I'd been looking for it for a while.

“Spent the last two weeks writing sketches/demos for forthcoming collaboration between me and Grouper for the upcoming Ninja Tune Bug album.”

http://www.factmag.com/2012/01/11/the-bug-working-with-grouper-on-new-album/

yeah, very interested in how that's going to turn out

Me too! Maybe like a droney lo-fi, dubbed out version of Liz Frasier with Massive Attack?

err, Liz Fraser obv

totally, in a general sense, although hopefully very much its own thing as well

it's nice seeing this new Ethereal/Witchy Girls + Beats sound happening in a lot of places, as that's prob one of my fav combinations ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y46RQCMGjZU

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS LIKE A DREAM COLLAB

Albums out in a couple of weeks time on Kranky (which makes sense cos the sound of that song is 100% pure essence of Kranky tbh).

anyone hear this yet?

I've only given it a couple of cursory listens on spotify while I've been doing other things so I've not really formed a full impression of it yet, but it seems to be nicely split between dronier ambient soundscapes and folkier tunes with acoustic guitar (which I guess is the Tiny Viper side of things? Don't really know her work very well).

This song is very, very lovely btw and the most immediate track on the record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmERm-l2_uc

^ top ten track of the year sort of stuff for me i would say

Enjoying Jesy Fortino's voice on this, reminds me a bit of Marcy Mays from Scrawl. Definitely going to have to listen to more Tiny Vipers.

tiny vipers - life on earth is in my top 10 of all time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_kUEgu2edI

i like the mirrorring album quite a bit, but it's hard to separate it from my overwhelming expectations and desires for a new tiny vipers album

tiny vipers - life on earth is in my top 10 of all time

Am listening to this album right now btw. It's good!

folkier tunes with acoustic guitar (which I guess is the Tiny Viper side of things? Don't really know her work very well).

yep, the song-oriented stuff is straight from Tiny Vipers' two Sub Pop albums, both gorgeous, but way more straightforward and tuneful than Liz' work as Grouper. the Mirrorring album is lovely and strikes pretty much an exact midpoint between their two styles. i wrote about it here in detail.

Looks like the AIA double album is getting a CD release on Kranky at some point in the near future. That'll be nice.

yesssssss!!

oh that's cool.

the mirroring record is nice. liz quietly harmonising with/echoing tiny vipers is gorgeous.

& i went to see grouper's tape loop thing a couple of weeks ago, & only caught the end. swirly.

Looks like the AIA double album is getting a CD release on Kranky at some point in the near future. That'll be nice.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, April 7, 2012 8:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

and probably cheaper than buying the FLAC files, this is good news.

goodness me this mirroring album is beautiful.

finally got my finances sorted and ordered a copy. I will read it with my copy of the Diablo III art book since they are coming in the same package.

got the A I A two CD set on Kranky, just now hearing Dream Loss for the first time, awesome & immersive... "Atone" is gorgeous.. haven't even gotten to Alien Observer yet.

anyone heard Violet Replacement?

that is literally the ONE grouper release i wasn't able to get. such a bummer...i've heard its beautiful. going for a lot of money on discogs now, obv.

I predict an LP pressing of Violet Replacement down the road.

wait isn't violet replacement like 2hrs+

I predict a $46 pressing limited to only 300 special edition LPs that sell out before I can figure out that they're even on sale somewhere

otm

Hello,

A curation non-profit from Vancouver BC called Filip is putting out a fragment from a tape collage piece called SLEEP. One-sided vinyl 12". They're on a low budget, made 800.

They have a pre-order button on their website. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... BVH52CGL7W
Otherwise Little Axe/Mississippi will take orders soon. Everyone has agreed not to charge more than 15$ for this record (it's a little high due to production cost.) If enough people want it I will repress it again later as a YELLOWELECTRIC release.

Thanks, be well

Liz

an unreleased record from 2008 is coming out on kranky,

http://pitchfork.com/news/48908-grouper-to-reissue-dragging-a-dead-deer-release-new-album-of-unreleased-material/

Hey, thanks for posting this. Always meant to listen to this record, and that link has it streaming. Listening right now and it truly is lovely stuff. I like the guitar playing a lot.

^ so nice to read this. it's such a special record. the last place I lived I would listen to it most nights, playing the first side or putting the whole thing on through my ipod & falling asleep to it. the harmonising is so saintly & the guitar playing so affecting. it is so playable a record. i remember walking around a city on a really bright day, feeling ill & with it playing in my headphones, not attentive enough to squint away the sun & feeling like my brain was cotton wool and honey.

http://cdn04.cdn.gorillavsbear.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/GROUPER-THE-MAN-WHO-DIED-IN-HIS-BOAT1-575x575.jpg

http://archive.org/details/unreleased_Grouper_mp3-218

I'm going to start signing credit slips by writing Grouper in cursive like that.

https://soundcloud.com/kranky/grouper-vital

i almost can't believe we get another grouper album from this time; in its mood & place it feels like unearthing a new gospel or a lost painting. i don't know how this is different from awaiting another of her records, but there's something so specific about the feeling, it feels lucky to hear it.

Really enjoying this new-not-new album.

I listened to it not knowing it was unreleased from 2008 stuff and felt disappointed. Less so now I know! But am chomping at the bit to hear what she does next.

Getting lots of play around my house

i love the new-not-new one! much more than the dual A I A releases tbh

yeah those left me cold compared to Dead Deer, haven't heard this "new" one. Are there Soundcloud samples or anything?

I think there are. I'm on the phone so I can't really search. But if you liked D a D D up the hill you'll definitely like it.

i like this one a lot!

Can't wait to pick it up, as well as that reissue.

I received this e-mail from Mississippi/Little Axe distro about two hours ago. Of interest to those who do not want to be eBay gouged...they are all still there now.

Hi there - I discovered a few boxes of several Grouper titles that are currently out of print. There is a limit of 1 of each item for this stuff and please don't just buy it to flip on ebay or discogs. They will be added to the website this afternoon and come down as soon as the copies are gone.

The available titles will be:

Grouper - Sleep $15
Grouper - Visitor $14
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer (self-released 3rd Pressing) $15

http://littleaxerecords.weebly.com/distributed-titles.html

thanks for the head's up. just ordered sleep + visitor. also listened to the sample from the Barna Howard on the same page and it sounds great. threw that one in the basket as well.

I can't really justify picking these up right now, & there is a bunch of grouper stuff I still haven't got (never had that connective moment with the first record, seeing it in the store makes me want it), but buying grouper records is totally sensible behaviour; I play them way more often than probably anything else I own because they're just such a good environmental contribution to a living space. I don't even mean, wow, nice background music; just that I want to hear them more & more flexibly than I want to put on other lps.

ooh, there's an interesting roy montgomery album up there as well! thanks!

her sparse, rhodesy work on her side of her montgomery split is really special

jeez I need to get on that mailing list! I kinda know the Little Axe folks. Thanks for the heads up, I ordered a bunch of that stuff.

this is an incredible song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnejbIBLGTg

man, mirroring are playing a show in london in a couple of weeks. i would like to see those guys.

whoa, been avoiding this stuff for some reason but that track is gorgeous. Whole album like that? The stuff I heard from that Dead Deer album was a tad droney / aimless for my tastes, and I can only take so much of that post-4AD, post-Fursaxa type stuff. But that Youtube clip has me wanting to hear this new-not-new one.

sort of, lots of droney stuff but at least half of the record is acoustic songs like Living Room. all excellent

Can't find a copy of The Man Who Died In His Boat anywhere :(

kranky's mail order is nicely affordable, fwiw

they're outta the vinyl though

Try discogs. There's two sealed copies on sale right now, one for $13.99, the other for $16.99

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=519536&ev=mb

oh, shit, those were CDs. sorry! there's a few LPs on sale through discogs too, but at a higher price.

little ax maybs worth a shot too ida thought

Nah I don't see it there either. Worried it went out of print, but I'm hoping they're just trying to catch back up to demand on production.

they'll make more re best new music

from the Kranky website:

just to be clear, these two releases will NOT be limited on vinyl and they will remain in print, so please remain calm and you will get as many copies as you like in short order.

I'm looking for the place the spirit meets the skin
can't figure out why that places feels so hard to be in
we're all of us at this ill-fitting party
busy pretending to relate
and it's getting harder and harder to fake
acting like everything's in its place

from the Kranky website:

just to be clear, these two releases will NOT be limited on vinyl and they will remain in print, so please remain calm and you will get as many copies as you like in short order.

― sleeve, Sunday, March 17, 2013 5:22 PM (1 hour ago)

Oh I missed that bit, thanks!

just got my records in from little axe. i ordered the "Sleep (fragment)" one-sided 12", plus the Visitor collaboration with Ilyas Ahmed.

"Sleep (Fragment)" is a long drone piece.

The Visitor record is pretty great! apparently they collaborated on all four of the tracks, but side A is definitely more Grouper-y and side B sounds more like Ilyas Ahmed is taking the lead.

I got the "Sleep" record from them too, I like it.

btw I have also seen restocked LP copies of The Man Who Died In His Boat appear on an update or two.

Through Kranky you mean?

I assume so, my Wall Of Sound update said "back in stock"

i have been listening back to alien observer lately. such a strange record. so pretty but so swampy. like it has such weight to it. the guitars are like those folk tale tree limbs that are grabbing at everything else on the record. i feel like one day i will be in the perfect mood for it & it will blow me away.

For me, the only time for those AIA records is after 1am. When everyone else is quiet. And they are lovely then.

that sounds like the right way to listen, I have not clicked with those yet.

Really wish Grouper wasn't onstage at 5.30pm at the Swans London gig tonight.

it's a helluva time for a thursday, i'm wondering if anyone but me will be there.

i saw mirrorring live last week, exactly what you'd expect and utterly gorgeous.

Early start is probably a good thing, get up there before the noisy chatterboxes arrive

aw man, i saw a picture of the mirroring show. what was it like? they just played some album songs w/some drones goin on?

I've had Way Their Crept since its release but didn't know what to make it exactly. Now listening to her entire oeuvre on Spotify, I like it in part because I probably prefer her at her most echo-laden and abstract.

Despite liking Dragging a Deer Head, to me the song structures feel a bit less unique. Still, I like that she explores a few different sides to her thing.

it would be so awesome if we could get this thread title changed

it's the little things, sometimes, and i truly feel that if i could convince someone to change the title of the thread, the terrible rating of the world would decrease by at least 1

Did that help?

Meantime, there's a new mix from her up at FACT

http://www.factmag.com/2013/04/22/fact-mix-379-grouper/

I like the cryptic thread title!

Can't please everyone.

I wish Grouper had been on 3-2-1 Contact.

oh wow she is playing in austin soon! in a church!

her music is so beautiful it feels like god's joke

saw her play tonight! it was dreamy and spooky and out of this world

http://elbo.ws/video/30846604/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/felt-this-way-dying-all-time/id703325022

if anybody knows if this exists physically i would like to buy it

hmmm, looks like it's also a 7" and it should be out very soon. i'd keep checking https://sites.google.com/site/yellowelectric/ and http://www.exiledrecords.com/

can't wait to listen to it! HELEN

yeah i am all over yellowelectric, i guess i was just waiting to see if there was anything concrete. i know people get bummed out by her records becoming unavailable, cyclically, sometimes, but she is reliably great w/production & distribution i think. psyched for HELEN.

http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Music/v4/15/af/e4/15afe482-1e13-7d9d-7da1-488a581ac3d1/888003109841.170x170-75.jpghttp://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Music/v4/15/af/e4/15afe482-1e13-7d9d-7da1-488a581ac3d1/888003109841.170x170-75.jpghttp://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Music/v4/15/af/e4/15afe482-1e13-7d9d-7da1-488a581ac3d1/888003109841.170x170-75.jpg

i'm going to keep checking it too, but if you find out more info can you post it here? i wwwaaaant it

z s let's make a pact

you have to promise

let's synchronise watches & transnationally headbang once it is in both our hands

i am listening to this now & it slays, btw, DYING ALL THE TIME kills

i promise!

and if there is only one left, then whoever gets it has to agree to very carefully slice the 7 inch in half so that we each get a song/side. i'm sure it's very easy to do!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dkSHDNZrYwY/TqsbKFWSkMI/AAAAAAAAALc/Ekr9kp_wXpo/s600/negative.jpg

...i hope that i receive the 7" so i can do the cutting.

oh man, that is an expensive mistake xp

YES, this is GOOD! want full album now, want want want.

very different from her other stuff - people interested in her earlier stuff or in fuzz rock in general would do good to check it out

like her dead moon cover but louder & with someone playing drums over it

wait, she has a dead moon cover?!

this is the best day

i'll have to check it out. but yeah, helen (so far) sounds sorta in the vein of bands like belong (a high compliment imo) - i could see them doing something pretty amazing given the space of a full length

ha I kinda wrote that dreaming that I could be breaking it to you; yeah, a kinda echoed-out DEMONA on a split seven inch inside YETI magazine a few issues back, probably still gettable online at yetipublishing.com. it's really good.

I forget where but I remember reading Liz talk about her affection for that Stephen lp on flying nun, & it feels kinda not a million miles away from her playing with those kinda skewed pop structures

so this is really great, huh. it is funny, she played here, a few months ago, & i have seen her on & off for awhile now, & before, when the last two records came out, but i remember this time her finishing with moon is sharp & this long kinda burnt-out coda of her just running the chord progression of it into the ground, like some kind of disastrously malfunctioning engine, & at the same time as it was as kind of mellow & not-hard-edged as any of her stuff, it was simultaneously so heavy & vicious. we left & got to have that discussion where someone is like it's actually really punk & somebody else agrees, cause it really was. & it's funny hearing this now - the grouper dna, that she's slowly stretching these lines out over the fast guitars - but it feels of a piece with where she was at, kinda.

also i feel like underratedaerosmith would vibe with this.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/felt-this-way-dying-all-time/id703325022

if anybody knows if this exists physically i would like to buy it

― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Friday, September 13, 2013

I asked http://www.volcanictongue.com and they replied to say...
We'll have it in 1-2 weeks, keep an eye on the updates as we'll announce it there when they're in!

hey thank you man
what a fun excuse to go to volcanic tongue

No problem.

I just got a copy from these guys...
http://www.discogs.com/seller/time-lag-records

ugh, this is SO GOOD

i am still looking for somewhere to buy this & searched twitter for "dying all the time" & just found people complaining about ios7

dropping a wild & indulgent $10 on this inc shipping from @steadysounds in richmond, if anyone is still hurtin'

i don't see it listed on the steadysounds website! i'm hurtin'!

nuh UH!, z S!, you gotta twit them up! if you check their account you will see me liaising with their Social Media Accounts & Branding Manager about such a transaction within the last five minutes. i paypal'd.

Include message to retailer:
please send 3.5" of this release to my buddy z s, thank you

awesome, i just sent them a twit!

got it! (plus Cover the Windows) for $27 including shipping. thanks for the pro tip schlump!

really glad you got hooked up

feeling this:

ugh, this is SO GOOD

― Z S, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 12:03 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bass playing totally has that one-too-many-cups-of-coffee vibe, it's so fun

Just spotted that Time Lag are selling their last copy on Discogs for $25.

The copy they sold me two days ago was $12.

60 bucks on discogs now. ugh. really wanted this

gross

i remember when a i a came out, boomkat making them £20 each; this isn't even necessarily an example of the most explosive upselling or anything but at the same time it's such a bummer considering that her records seem to be produced according to this awkward but idealistic ecosystem in which they're small-run but reliably re-pressed affordable lps

Just in at Volcanic Tongue, have tried to order. They said it was on on their Instagram 4 hours ago so am hopefulish. £10.99 for a 7" but fuck it.

Really liking the Raum record - Liz Harris with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma who used to be in Tarantel and who also runs the Root Strata label iirc

That sounds cool, have seen people here and there saying that the record is good but didn't know who was behind it. May try to track that down.

It's on Spotify if that helps?
http://open.spotify.com/album/0u9EF2bbsELJvn9ibBzUm7

Also I obviously meant Tarentel not Tarantel

Cool, I will take a listen. Thanks!

http://vimeo.com/77818746

Is Raum on iTunes?

i think i read a mirroring interview where they talk about listening to a lot of julee cruise before making the record. & it is such a totally crazy lens to look at the record through! like it sorta sounds a lot like it while being just so not.

latest grouper thing-----
https://vimeo.com/94267838

i got t hat roy montgomery compilation released by liz harris's lable. it's phenomenal.

label

oh cool. i never really cracked him, i know a bunch of people here are big fans. maybe i should get it.

Yeah, still fucking awesome.
This is off the newest one:

Heavy Water/I'd Rather be Sleeping

I adore this song.

Cover pic of Dead Deer really unnerves me.

https://soundcloud.com/ninja-tune/the-bug-void-feat-liz-harris

^ dunno if this has been posted elsewhere already

kind of a massive attack with liz fraser move by kevin martin, good track though

New album announced. Another new/old album... but newer/old than than last new/older one.

a friend at ZDB played me a few moments from it last year. definitely not more of the same. very beautiful.

(not like I would even complain even if it were more of the same -- I loved 'AIA')

This is exactly the sort of thing I am hoping for every time this thread gets bumped. Excellent.

Gorgeous song from the new album premiering on Vogue (!)

i now think of grouper every time i see spurs play

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/13/article-2558329-1A2FC0AF00000578-35_634x385.jpg

sometimes read this thread title and think it says GROUPER "Under Rug Swept"

thanks lbi, really beautiful

i got the man who died in his boat recently, good stuff

I think the Mirrorring album is my favorite thing I've heard from Liz Harris.

^ me too!

Ruins is hitting the spot for me at the moment. The little details like the restarting of the track on Clearing, or keeping the stove beeeeeeep (which I almost always think is my own) near the end of Labyrinth add lovely touches to the album.

it's out already?

OMG

holy fuck it's been on pirate bay for two weeks

pre-ordered my LP - so far this is as great as i expected, very great. much very great

I'm going to wait until the record comes so I can listen to it with the field recording of the thunderstorm.

grouper music is proof that the universe isn't completely indifferent to the human condition

i feel like harris is constantly searching and yet has all the answers has the same time

*at the

"Disengaged" came up on our shuffle yesterday and my wife's old friend (who is visiting) was immediately enthralled, it sounded esp. great out of context.

Looking forward to hearing the new one with vinyl crackles after 1 am. Her music just isn't the same to me without those two things. Is that silly? Listening to AIA all through tonight and it sounds incredible.

p4k review was spot on

just took a minute to reread the first bit of this thread, and

1) god can we change the title of this thread some day soon
2) i miss that magical 3 hours or so where i thought she was from Poland
3) If this was a dude, you wouldn't care

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Monday, June 23, 2008 2:43 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dammit, that's confusing. parts 1 and 2 are my own deep analysis of the beginning of the thread while part 3 is a really dumb thing that IACFTPWBAA said

after a few listens, I'm on the hook now. 'Lighthouse' is beautiful.

polish vibe can't be shrugged

pierogi vibes

drone : shredded cabbage

*microwave beeps bc cucumber soup is ready*

quintessential chilled soup imo

so wait...if the microwave beeped because of a power outtage, wouldn't her 4 track power off/stop recording as well?... ... .. . .. . .

prbly battery operated

grouper albums are basically this mookieproof post from the 'me irl' thread
https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/2d6f2dc2a5e1b515203905140236bf75/tumblr_ndrs5ytC1B1r2rj8po1_500.jpg

yup. rediscovering all the shows she played after DDD, it's all AIA material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQj9fF66xU

seeing her on Saturday night in this venue:

http://www.albertaabbey.org/s/cc_images/cache_4206279675.jpg?t=1404070353

Most of the time I put Grouper on I'm left with a "is that all there is?" feeling, but man does this music ever destroy me when I'm sick in bed

she would've been a great sponsor for TASCAM. a lot of that grouper magic is pitch control

Most of the time I put Grouper on I'm left with a "is that all there is?" feeling, but man does this music ever destroy me when I'm sick in bed

― fgti, Friday, October 31, 2014 2:29 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this is super surprising to me! they are the ultimate slow-burn records for me; even the ones i can't unravel feel like there's some unplumbable more i can't reach, rather than any kind of limit

it's the only music that still feels of another world to me. i'm not thinking about chords, notes, equipment, effects, even structure - though her songs have it. Aided by the fact that she doesn't tour, plays live very selectively, and doesn't do a ton of press...Harris has so much mystery because she's pretty much just there in the music, not on twitter, all over the world, getting interviewed backstage at bonnaroo, etc...

"Clearing" is one of the most beautiful songs I know rn

saw her play in a church and man it was like no other show I've ever attended, magical

this is in an abbey! so excited.

Yeah there was a Swedish American Hall show in SF I saw as part of the On Land festivals that was BEYOND great. Catching her live is special.

after a few listens, I'm on the hook now. 'Lighthouse' is beautiful.

― $0.00 Butter sauce only. No marinara. (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, October 28, 2014 3:34 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, for sure - the albums (this new one especially) sneaks up on you.

jesus christ i just found this song from 2008...another treasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgSTG6z-KtE

show was amazing, natch. killer version of "Clearing" from Ruins, also I think the last one off the new one as well? something long and drawn-out at the end.

I love how invisible she is, in her black stocking cap, crosslegged on the floor, you could barely see her but the sound was huge and the whole wall behind her was covered with video projection.

also, I cannot believe how great the full length version of "Sleep" is, I had only heard the LP-side excerpt

what was the rest of the setlist like?

no idea but I loved it. looked like she switched from a small keyboard to guitar and back a couple of times? hard to see.

to be a bit more clear, there were a lot of effects and nothing sounded much like the piano tracks on Ruins, in fact I could swear that she played "Clearing" on guitar

got the new record in the mail today, and have been listening tonight! wow it is different. I like it! and I liked the effect of the thunderstorm CD behind the album so much I am playing it over some other records too. right now roy montgomery's scenes from the south island.

oh that's so lovely; it hadn't occurred to me it was intended as a pairing. just out of curiosity, is that inferred anywhere or are you just freestyling?

when I ordered it I said I was super-excited about the thunderstorm field recording CD and ms. harris suggested the idea!

so neat!
& thanks for passing that on.

Grouper announced a short European tour! http://www.factmag.com/2014/12/16/grouper-european-tour/

http://www.splicetoday.com/music/grouper-artist-of-the-decade

"Grouper music is something that is tapped into, not created. Harris’ gift in capturing the in-between states of our natural cycle is what puts her in rarefied air—it goes far beyond the relatively simple joys of being in love with a band, song or an artist’s persona. Grouper music is like peeking into the afterlife, or a parallel spiritual world that only affects us subliminally. The subliminal force of Grouper music has me convinced that Harris is merely a conduit for the voice of the universe; that the sound coming out of her pedals and tapes and guitars and keyboards is only passing through like the wind, waiting for her touch."

wow, simultaneously hyperbolic and condescending

maybe... she's just a good songwriter?

yeah would not be flattered to be called a conduit.

Yeah but could be for worse things than the voice of the universe.

This remains the worst titled thread

Heavy Water sounds like Benoit Pioulard

wow, simultaneously hyperbolic and condescending

maybe... she's just a good songwriter?

― some kind of terrible IDM with guitars (sleeve), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 4:37 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm fairly sure that this is Spazz's way of saying she's a great songwriter.

i need to listen to the new benoit pioulard - didn't he go full on ambient/instrumental with the new one? BP was always really frustrating for me. i have a couple of his records (the Precis and Temper collected 2LP thing that Kranky put out a while back), and saw him play once with Windy & Carl (some of the audience actually fell asleep!), but somehow it always felt like things never completely came together in his recorded output. his music is almost singularly in between spaces for me, and although i love the idea of that, in practice i end up turning the stereo and off and sitting in silence.

None of BP's albums are dramatically different from each other, but for the record Lasted is the best iteration of his sound. So if you like what he does generally speaking but feel like his records haven't clicked, that might be the one to try.

The new one is full ambient, apparently, but it's not out yet. Comes out in March I think.

i finally dug into ruins and it leveled me. "clearing" is a tidal force. that song will be with me for the rest of my life.

also recently discovered julie byrne's 2014 album "rooms with walls and windows" which i would strongly recommend to grouper fans. it's a bit less, idk, spectral compared to grouper, but i've been really enjoying it. it puts me in an headspace that's adjacent to what harris' stuff does for me.

yeah that julie byrne album is great, you might want to check out Broken Twin's May as well

YES

http://pitchfork.com/news/60270-groupers-liz-harris-announces-debut-album-from-dream-pop-band-helen-shares-motorcycle/

A couple years ago, Grouper's Liz Harris released one single by her dream-pop band, Helen. The band, also featuring Jed Bindeman (of Eternal Tapestry) and Scott Simmons (and someone named Helen credited with "back up vocals"), have now announced their debut album. The Original Faces is out September 4 via Kranky. Listen to "Motorcycle" above.

01 Ryder
02 Motorcycle
03 Covered in Shade
04 Felt This Way
05 Pass Me By
06 Right Outcome
07 Allison
08 Dying All the Time
09 Grace
10 City Breathing
11 Violet
12 The Original Faces

i'm at work so haven't had the chance to listen to the new song. but man, i really REALLY loved that little 7 inch they put out a couple years ago. can't wait to hear the full length

ohhhhhhhh swooooooooooooooooooooon!

this sounds great!
w/ organ & tangled guitar grouper dna not so present in the first two songs.
hey maybe we get to go see helen shows

http://cdn3.pitchfork.com/news/60270/8700513c.jpg

best band foto

awesome, that track sounds like an early sarah records 7"

Love it!!!!

YES! "Dying All the Time" was fantastico.

another song is streaming!

http://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/jump-into-the-gently-swaying-noise-of-violet-by-helen-143

plus it's not available for pre-order at http://www.kranky.net/

I think you meant "now"

mistakes were made, the zs story

this is so good

ty karl, this is hardchoral

Enjoying the lost classic from ~1990 vibe of the Helen record. Could imagine discovering it via a Forced Exposure review that references Kendra Smith and Crystalized Movements.

Happier times when i was lonely, scared and miserable in my bedroom.

just discovering pale saints

The Helen album sounds very 90s liberal arts college band-y. Not a bad thing.

I don't like how her vox are drenched in so much reverb. It's not like she has a bad voice...I understand it's the aesthetic but...

Drummer demonstrates that perpetual behind the beat, just learned to play a month ago vibe

Bad Calstars Posts Copyright 2015

this is so great
the grouperness of it is so satisfying, & then there's this whole other dimension to the really pop pop songs
like allison is like early best coast
i remember reading grouper & tiny vipers talking about the mirroring record & how they spent forever choosing song titles
& this is in that same lyrical zone sometimes
like i am walking around thinking city breathing

i still haven't heard it! i got a download link via twitter dm but couldn't get it to work without malware. i'm going to go old school and buy a physical copy though, so it will work out. can't wait.

get the malware version

ltd ed DELUXE malware version ft KoolSearch Browser Toolbar

Dear recipient,
Avangar Technologies announces THE ORIGINAL FACES, the beginning of a new unprecendented global employment campaign.
reviser yeller winers butchery twenties
Due to company's exploding growth HELEN is expanding AVAILABLE business to the European region.
During last employment campaign over 1500 people worldwide took part in Avangar's business
and more than half of them are currently employed by the company. And NOW we are offering you
one more opportunity to earn DIGITAL MONEY working with Avangar Technologies.
druggists blame ANALOG classy gentry Aladdin MONEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1O9O21TXqc

guh <3

instrumentally 'covered in shade' sorta sounds like early clean. so good.

the galaxie 500/new order higher register bass thing is happening throughout the record. the two songs from the 2013 single (felt this way and dying all the time) still rule just as hard. i don't know how many people heard it so they'll probably still be new to most. 'dying all the time' appears in remixed form and is even more woozier and fuzzier than the original version. a keyboard is added to the mix, and the guitar is moved to a more abstract siderole. i loved the 2013 song with a burning passion so to hear a new version of it that is somehow even better is a blessing. #blessthismess 'violet' is another standout.myeah, the vocals are reverbed out. i like reverb, so cool with me. but if you're not a fan of it you should probably listen to real life instead, particularly in soundproofed small-medium sized rooms.

Grace is fucking great, keep replaying that one

the bass is the best part of this lp

Loving Ruins tonight. Its so great. Everything she does is gold.

someone asked me if helen would tour. i laughed and then became very sad

"Allison" and "Violet" FTW

Why wouldn't they tour? Seem to be getting some heat on this LP, hell even Eternal Tapestry gets to Europe every couple years.

pretty sure that liz harris hates touring, she hasn't done it since 2009. she does a run of gigs here and there, but never more than half a dozen at a time.

really like the HELEN album but listening to "wind return" right now thinking she could make 1000 more songs like this and i'd be happy

i dunno if/how she'll ever top 'Alien Observer'... every second of that record is perfect... honestly makes me cry just thinking about it

I've seen her live like...seven, eight times? She seemed to play New York a ton and I've seen her twice in the bay area now, only been here about a year. Not sure if Helen live at Budoakan is imminent but an east coast run, a west coast run, why not? Some other thing she's doing: http://hollywoodforever.ticketfly.com/event/964063-bug-earth-liz-harris-los-angeles/

fao karl malone
http://momaps1.org/sundaysessions/grouper-and-william-basinski-live/

i saw her do hypnosis display a couple months back but this mentions an entirely new set of material

i forgot to reply to that, schlump, but i went! and it was great! first time seeing grouper, and basinksi was amazing as well, although his set hewed a lot closer to the recorded material (cascade, and he also did one of the disintegration loops as an encore)

the whole thing is looping here: https://boilerroom.tv/session/grouper-william-basinski-live-at-moma-ps1/
(looping meaning you can't skip forward or backward in the set)

i saw basinski a little while ago in london - he was great, and his fashion was extremely bold.

as for grouper, she played for about an hour, and although there wasn't any silence at any point (iirc) there were definitely 3 main arcs to it. i thought i heard elements of her released music in there, but a lot of it seemed new as well, and of course there were improvised live vocals and keyboards over the top.

it was an interesting space as well, the geodesic dome in the courtyard. i didn't think it could hold so many people, but it did. everyone just kind of naturally found their spot and sat down on the carpet upon entry, but just before grouper played the organizers told everyone to stand up, but also that they could sit down later if they wanted to. i think the reasoning behind this was to have everyone stand and move in closer to take up less space so everyone could get inside, but it confused some people into thinking they weren't allowed to sit. despite this, a movement to sit down started spreading through the crowd, beginning at the left edge and creeping toward the middle-back like a welcome contagious disease. unfortunately it didn't hit our section until just before she finished playing. then she finished, and everyone stood up again. then during the wait between sets, everyone sat down again. as soon as basinski walked on stage, all the people on the front row immediately stood up (????) but then a courageous sitter in the back yelled 'HEY! SIT DOWN! EVERYBODY SIT DOWN!' whoever that person wins the Pontiac Real Driving Excitement Attendee of the Show award, because then everyone sat down for the rest of the show and it was just blissful.

^the most detailed recounting of the sitting down and standing up at the grouper/william basinski show on the entire internet^

bonus highlight: during basinksi's set, the guy next to me was snoring incredibly loudly and rhythmically, once every 4 or 5 seconds. as 'Cascade' continued its long fade and got more and more quiet, his snores became more audible to everyone in the area. The piece concluded and there was complete silence (it was a great crowd tbh, very respectful) and then ---**SNSNOOOOOORRREEEEEGGGhhhhhghhhHHhh___ghhhhhhhhhh---. it was really, really funny. a great juxtaposition of the beauty of basinski's music along with its practical effects

I really wish I could have made it to that!!

photo from last spring's marfa myths show:

http://i.imgur.com/UzwQinS.png

nice!

that marfa myths set was one of the more devastating live shows i'd seen in a while

rad pic f. hazel
+ so cool to read about + then hear this karl malone. & yeah she plays some older things with new things, alien observer & some piano from ruins on top of a new thing, i guess it was that it is a new set not a set exclusively consistent of new songs. i am so hyped that there will maybe be more grouper. it is sorta just so intriguing that she moved into such heavy territory w/ a i a & we haven't really heard where that goes next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQj9fF66xU

you guys, there is a new grouper 7" on spotify, and it is a MUST LISTEN

Oh damn, this is good. It's nice to hear Harris behind a guitar again.

Oh yes, this is great.

New songs are so beautiful, so glad she's back. Was worried about those retirement rumors. Grateful for Grouper

Get her some direct coin via Bandcamp, I sez:

https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-valley

7" went really quick. Hope I made the cut...

she'd get even more direct coin if she'd press more records! oh well, hopefully they'll repress at some point.

Can't believe I missed the 7". Sold out on my way to work.

Was looking at her bandcamp and noticed that Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill has been modified: it's just listed as "Dragging a Dead Deer," and the tracklist is in reverse order:

1. We've All Gone To Sleep
2. Tidal Wave
3. Wind And Snow
4. A Cover Over
5. I'm Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
6. Invisible
7. Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In The Evening Breeze)
8. Traveling Through a Sea
9. When We Fail
10. Stuck
11. Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping
12. Disengaged

she'd get even more direct coin if she'd press more records! oh well, hopefully they'll repress at some point.

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, December 21, 2016 6:09 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ this is so otm. I appreciate the control artists want to have over their output, but with more and more artists it's a shame the first presses are so small. Every Grouper release sold out today is on discogs for the amount times five tomorrow. Same with so many more (Caretaker comes to mind). They've become investments for resellers.

(Yeah, I missed out on the 7" too..)

I don't really understand the motivation for artists to do this. It looks like eventually most things get re-pressed, but its just this fake, tiny weird market bubble for some of these artists...does it really enhance their overall mystique/desirability/bookability as artists?

pressing records is really expensive. i doubt Harris expected to sell 300 copies before noon. it might not have been possible for her to press anymore than that anyway. the logistics of pressing vinyl independently are so fucked, there are so few pressing plants and they're all backed up with major label releases and Pink Floyd reissues.

While the latter is certainly true, the former though.. Quite sure Harris is aware of the fact that her albums are being sold well over $100 a piece. It's simply a demand issue: way more people want her physical releases than the number she releases them in.

new goal: get someone to loan me $10 million, use 100K of that to hire someone who knows what they're doing and use the rest of the money to open a new record pressing plant, profit

seems like they're putting vinyl up on bandcamp right now?

https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/ruins

xps You're right, I'm sure she's aware of discogs gouging. But I wouldn't be surprised if she's simply pressing as many as she can due to the plants being clogged and prohibitively expensive for someone doing it herself.

That's a 2014 LP, not the new single in question

still, i am shocked that the 7" sold out so quickly. was sure i'd be able to get it. bummed bc i'm definitely not getting it second hand from discogs.

xp yeah she's been selling self-releases of most of her records through the yellowelectric site for a while now, that Ruins pressing isn't new.

no i get that, i'm just saying that afaict that 2014 vinyl reissue was literally just this second posted

Are you talking about the "special edition" version of Ruins on there though because that certainly looks new.

She sold an identical artist's edition of Ruins when it was released in 2014. Not sure if this is a new run or she is just selling her stuff through bandcamp exclusively now.

https://www.discogs.com/Grouper-Ruins/release/6237251

yeah the special edition went up today afaict. it said "ships dec 21" earlier today, and now says "ships in 7 days" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

important information about new grouper release

GROUPER RULES

Maybe that should have been on the t-shirt that came with the 7"

it might be time for a custom t