GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

Gorgeous. Wonder if this is another piano centric album.

From the promo guff, Liz herself:

Grid Of Points is a set of songs for piano and voice. I wrote these songs over a week and a half; they stopped abruptly when I was interrupted by a high fever. Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.

I love Ruins so I'm not complaining

Not long after recording her 10th album, Ruins, Liz Harris traveled to Wyoming to work on art and record music. She found herself drawn towards the pairing of skeletal piano phrasing with spare, rich bursts of vocal harmony. A series of stark songs emerged, minimal and vulnerable, woven with emotive silences. Inspired by "the idea that something is missing or cold," the pieces float and fade like vignettes, implying as much as they reveal. She describes them as "small texts hanging in space," impressions of mortality, melody, and the unseen – fleeting beauty, interrupted. Grid Of Points stands as a concise and potently poetic addition to the Grouper catalog.

from Liz Harris:
Grid Of Points is a set of songs for piano and voice. I wrote these songs over a week and a half; they stopped abruptly when I was interrupted by a high fever. Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.

Now I did post the second half of that. :-D

Ha, sorry Ned, don’t know how I missed that. I’m waiting til I get home tonight to pre-order. Hopefully it’s not a 500 copy limited edition that’s already sold out

The special edition is already sold out

I discreetly hope that one day Grouper does a faceplant and releases a real turd and all of us are shaking our fists at the $30 trash we all pre-ordered

So this was recorded years ago too? "Not long after recording Ruins"... 2011? 2012?

I've listened to the song once & need to listen again but first impression: the chord progression is really similar to something on Ruins (either Call Across Rooms or the outtake released last year Children), and the vocals are much clearer and sit really high in the mix.

Very excited though

I don't care for the new song! still excited tho

mt eerie's last LP aside, ruins is the most devastating record of the past decade or however long... wasnt expecting more piano work. im so ready to get blue again.

me too. but i'm disappointed this song is so similar to 'Call Across Rooms' and 'Children.' the idea of Grouper treading water musically makes me.... very anxious

There is something very predictable about the way it moves melodically, but haven't taken the time to compare it to previous tracks. Wasn't sure if it was just me.

no it's not, i've seen the same comments elsewhere. when i first played it i immediately recognized the chord progression from Call Across Rooms, and last night, compared the major key change to Children and yeah, it's like a mashup of those two songs.

and again if the press release is accurate and doesn't confuse the recording of Ruins (2011) and its release (2014), then this album is at least 5 years old.

the idea of Grouper treading water

thing is, this latest release was recorded just after ruins (so late 2011/early 2012 i guess?), so this is the sound of her reaching us 6 years later.

just for fun, if she recorded this 6 years ago, way off in space, and it traveled at the speed of sound toward us and we're just now hearing it, then she was 64,901,088 km, or 40,327,666 miles away.

xposts

Right, which is not an issue itself- Ruins was 3+ years old when we heard it and it's amazing. What I'm saying is that this sounds like an outtake or B-side, that because the album was recorded so shortly after Ruins, and with the same setup, it could be an album of exhausted material... tho she wrote & recorded it after Ruins, it's following similar & already traveled melodic paths. I loved Children when she put it out last year, but I can't connect to this song because it's so glaringly similar to two Ruins era songs.

we'll have to wait and see i guess. i had similar fears about The Man Who Died In His Boat, because i thought it would just be a lesser version of Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. which...actually, i'd say it technically is, but slightly, and i love both of them. hopefully grid of points will be similarly rewarding despite the outtakes/b-sides danger

good point about The Man Who Died in His Boat, again it's the difference between good b-sides that have similar sonic palettes and b-sides that are made up of previously used melodies and harmonies. i mean listening to this new song, it's like trying to access a burnt out circuit. sure you could put "vital" or "living room" (maybe) on DDD, but they're not melodically similar to anything on that record.

That just seems to be her process of the last decade or so, doesn't it? She records something and lets it sit for many years before she decides to release it.

I have a friend who is a photographer who works similarly. He shoots and shoots, but he lets a year or more go by before he actually develops the film. I think it puts a distance between him and his work that helps him see it more clearly. I wonder if it's something similar for Harris.

while this is bumped, has anyone heard the Raum album? I mean, it might be on streaming, but I'm curious

I haven't listened to the Raum album in awhile but I remember liking it a lot. I discovered Jefre Cantu-Ledesma because of it. He's great too!

That just seems to be her process of the last decade or so, doesn't it? She records something and lets it sit for many years before she decides to release it.

I have a friend who is a photographer who works similarly. He shoots and shoots, but he lets a year or more go by before he actually develops the film. I think it puts a distance between him and his work that helps him see it more clearly. I wonder if it's something similar for Harris.

And it’s not similar in the same way DDD or A|A blend together- it’s specific chord sequences and melodies from other songs.

this new song sucked the air out of my lungs.

I really only know Ruins. Does she have a consensus "this is the one you need to hear" album, or is she one of those "they're all pretty good" kind of artists?

There are many times you'll see artists explore a theme, with small variations on the same idea. She's not a pop or rock artist so we probably don't have to hold her to those standards. Her music is more fit for a gallery, a place where you might see examples of this a lot. Nobody ought to be giving Barnett Newman too much shit for having done essentially the same thing over and over.

xp

Fellow Evan please check out Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. If you're anything like me, it's because we have the same name (but also you'll love it).

the only dud is the Wide album imo, everything else is worthwhile but DDD and AIA/Alien Observer are my personal faves

Are you the same Evan who also voted for the same top Los Campesinos! song in that feature about the band last year? If so, then were are indeed very, very (almost eerily) alike.

But I'll check out Dragging a Dead Deer either way, thanks!

Unless I've totally forgotten I did that, there must be a third Evan running around! Either way, enjoy!

Does she have a consensus "this is the one you need to hear" album

i think DDD is probably the consensus pick, still, even though you could make arguments for others being better in different ways. but DDD is an outstanding gateway album to her work, and it's hard for me to imagine someone NOT liking it if they like the rest of her work (whereas i really like AIA but i could see someone not liking that while still liking DDD a lot)

A|A Dream Loss / Alien Observer is her masterpiece imo, other than DDD that’s the one most highly regarded. Alien Observer in particular.

/ Does she have a consensus "this is the one you need to hear" album/

i think DDD is probably the consensus pick, still, even though you could make arguments for others being better in different ways. but DDD is an outstanding gateway album to her work, and it's hard for me to imagine someone NOT liking it if they like the rest of her work (whereas i really like AIA but i could see someone not liking that while still liking DDD a lot)

Me I'm trying to find reasons to keep anything prior to DDD on my hard drive.. I don't ever find a place for those records in my life

Also I think "Clearing" is her best song but Ruins is a very weak album

i think ruins is fine but it seems worse in the context of her work bc it really lacks the sense of drift she usually nails

I like the new song. I agree that it sounds similar to some of her other ones but this doesn't bother me. There's different stuff in there also. Sometimes I like artists that have a strong central focus to their work and then explore lots of subtle variations of those ideas. Grouper is a bit like this, William Basinski is like this also. In a completely different idiom, I think Howlin Wolf is like that as well, all are artists I like a lot.

Imma rep for Way Their Crept here, too. I'd have it over Alien Observer and Ruins all day long.

Hear Grouper's stunning headlining set at @LEGUESSWHO last fall, featuring new songs and the late Paul Clipson. https://t.co/LqJmRILRfQ

— FACT (@FACTmag) March 14, 2018

this really is stunning, and a great setlist:

thanksgiving song
field recording 1
cover the windows and the walls
field recording 2
no one (four of cups)
fishing bird (empty gutted in the evening breeze)
field recording 3
i saw a ray

jesus, when the distortion comes in on 'i saw a ray'

page not found?

shit it looks like it got pulled? i can't find the set on soundcloud either. it's gotta be a technical issue or something, Liz Harris was quoted in the brief piece saying that she doesn't usually like listening to her own live recordings but that this one was an exception. i'll post it if i find it or they update the page.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F460766655&show_artwork=true&dnt=1&secret_token=s-tHR28

here it is. this seems like the same setlist she did when i saw her last year, nice to find out what most of the songs were

Oooh sorry for my dumb opinion, I relistened and realized I just don't like "Way Their Crept" on earbuds

Which was how I last listened to it

It's OK, it's pretty good-- Wide is amazing tho, especially the last track-- Cover The Windows is so wild also-- renewed fandom

Close Cloak is the standout track for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Btd9qL68A

another new song, "driving": https://www.stereogum.com/1989713/grouper-driving/music/

Thanks for that link @ufo

Thanksgiving Song is amazing.

comparing track lengths on the Grid of Points iTunes page + the length of that live recording, Thanksgiving Song is likely half-mislabeled - the second half is a guitar arrangement of Holding from Ruins.

also I can't believe this record comes out in a week. I keep forgetting about it.