GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

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

Seeing her next week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZgkmnOXc0g

NY folks please please please go to her 9/12 and 9/17 shows. I think only one of them is sold out. Show in Philly tonight was fantastic. Opened with The Races -> Alien Observer, lots of new stuff, some songs from Grid of Points, DDD, Ruins, and what I'm pretty sure was Cover the Windows and the Walls but with completely different lyrics. The train whistle is the new microwave beep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcp3H93CXVw

and what I'm pretty sure was Cover the Windows and the Walls but with completely different lyrics.

"One song to the tune of another"?

Listening to the recording it is actually CTWATW

Speaking from the other side of the world, Grid of Points is absolutely beautiful music for Christmas morning.

New album! Under a new project name -- Nivhek.

https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/after-its-own-death-walking-in-a-spiral-towards-the-house

whaaa

“Crying Jar” features Michael Morley, Gabie Strong, and Christopher Reid Martin.

Per the PR guff:

Opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes, and broken FX pedals by Pacific Northwest musician Liz Harris, created during and after two contrasting residencies in the Azores, Portugal and Murmansk, Russia, combined with pieces made at home in Astoria, Oregon.

can't waaaaaait to get home from work today!

i love how the track lengths go down to milliseconds

0 - 7:48:544 Cloudmouth
7:48:544 - 8:19:489 blue room
8:17:503 - 11:27:011 Night-walking
11:27:011 -16:41:254 Funeral song
16:41:254 - 26:00:991 Thirteen (version)
26:00:991 - 28:39:125 Crying jar
28:39:125 - 29:29:394 Entry
29:29:394 - 37:33:056 Walking in a spiral towards the house
37:30:846 - end Weightless

Walking in a spiral towards the house

0 - 3:14:509 Night-walking
3:14:509 - 8:37:153 Funeral song
8:37:153 - 12:59:510 Thirteen
12:59:510 - end Walking in a spiral towards the house

also very interesting how the "nightwalking>funeral song>thirteen" sequence is repeated twice (once per LP)

Damn!

can't waaaaaait to get home from work today!

― Karl Malone

otm, although I have a record show to hit first so this will have to wait a bit

sound amazing!

Ordered the double LP sight unseen / sound unheard. Can't wait.

has no one else listened to it yet? of all days where i had to stay 3 hours late at work...

putting it on (aka 'clicking the bandcamp button') now!

also i just remembered that i'm seeing her play next week (for the first time), so hopefully i'll be able to pick this up at the show!

this is very ambient even by her standards, only "Cloudmouth" really resembles her usual work

not really sure what the intention is for Walking In A Spiral Towards the House to be mostly repeats of tracks from After Its Own Death, only track that isn't is the alternate version of "Thirteen"

i haven't made it to the second LP yet, but i was assuming they'd be different versions of the tracks that appeared on the first LP? i'm really enjoying the vibraphones on 'night-walking' and 'funeral song' so far.

they're all the same except "thirteen" which swaps out the guitars on the first LP's version for more of the vibraphones that are everywhere else