GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

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.

Today's resident advisor podcast is mixed by Grouper

https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=621

just put on her boiler room set

Good timing thank you for the link

She was also on NTS a couple of weeks ago

https://www.nts.live/shows/kranky/episodes/kranky-w-grouper-12th-april-2018

"Tae Keening" <3 <3 <3

really great mix, thank you

the new album is pleasant but very short - only 20 minutes. it's basically just Ruins 2 as expected. i hope she has more like Paradise Valley in the vault, Headache is the greatest

'Grid of Points' vinyl alert! Don't know how many lp's are pressed but I'm guessing not a lot, going off her previous lp's.

first listen to GRID OF POINTS tonight from a soulseek leak. melodies seem neither here nor there, vague. midrange a little harsh at some points. the whole thing feels too brief to really settle into - not quite rushed, but not paced, either. i thought 'ruins' was grouper's best work, that record really stands alone for me -- the environment feels very immersive, like old erics trip records or something. whereas the piano is so animate and vocal on 'ruins', the recording of 'grid' just feels a little too distant, floaty, indefinite. the reverb almost feels like an obstruction at times. at any rate, i didn't want another 'ruins', and that it very much isn't. maybe it's a grower. standout track would have to be 'blouse'.

FTR, and contrarily: though i think that the hemming and hawing holds 'grid of points' back in places, i feel that ethereal, gossamer fragility/femininity is such a rare quality/sonic palette that very few contemporary artists exhibit. see also emily haines' two solo records for piano/vox. please more softness forever

Ruins really is such a stunning work. so OTM about how immersive it is, the quality of the recording and how the piano, her voice, and the environment sound. I know I complained a lot about familiar melodies in the promo songs upthread, but I was also immediately put off by the way everything sounded. Whatever, any new Grouper music is good. But right now, in a sleep deprived daze, about to go to bed, Ruins is the best thing in the world.

beep

lol

it's ALL about the microwave

https://pitchfork.com/features/profile/groupers-liz-harris-explains-the-art-of-the-paradox-and-the-beauty-of-mistakes/

this is a great piece

interesting (but not surprising) that she has so many unrecorded songs and that she's learning lap-steel guitar

so, about 5 minutes into my first listen, i realized that perhaps i should be playing it at 45 instead of 33! starting over at normal speed now. :D

i have to say...i know the slowed-down thing is kind of gimmicky, but seriously - i was enjoying the slower, pitched-down version! knife-like vocals

there's no sort of indication on the record or sleeve that it should be played at 45, so i'm guessing a lot of people are having a similar experience right around now

playing it at 33 makes it a 28-minute album

i will need to give this more listens. at it's proper speed, it's 21 minutes and it does fly by rather quickly. 'birthday song' stuck out on first listen.

y'all heard Quiet Eyes? from a 2008 ambient comp. never heard it before last night. so beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBk05B2JKBI

Wow, that's gorgeous.

Would love another Helen LP at some point...

https://www.allmusic.com/album/dragging-a-dead-deer-up-a-hill-mw0001233331

This might be old news but I just realized that Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill got upgraded to a 5-star rating on Allmusic!

anyone else listening to grid of points?

still struggling to find a way into it, tbh.

after a couple listens there are kinda bright spots in the murk but it might take a little while to really put it together. the length is part of the problem imo, as soon as i settle into the vibe the train sounds start and it's over.

got Grid of Points and have listened all the way thru maybe a dozen times now. i love the bookends - acapella stacked harmonies / flanging train. i like the previously released songs much more in the context of the record. all of the songs are beautiful. but it isn't much more than a companion piece to Ruins, which is fine. it just isn't long enough, also while the songs are great none of them come close to anything on Ruins. if anything Grid of Points reinforces what a masterpiece Ruins is.

anyone recognize the first song here? sounds new to me. similar to headache / i'm clean now but slightly faster. maybe from that batch of material. i saw her a month before this show and she definitely didn't play this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF32TA4WUJQ

the yt comments claim it's an unreleased song titled California

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.

― Z S, Monday, June 23, 2008 2:26 AM (ten years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink