GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

anyone recognize this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBE08ybWZ_U

new helen when

wow flappy, that song is gorgeous. sounds kind of like "Water People" but darker

I was at that (incredibly excellent) show. Not my video; glad someone got it.

I had to stop listening to Grouper when I realized how many creeps there are out there whose entire personality consists of “listens to Grouper”

I have yet to meet a Grouper groupie

You are fortunate

lol. they can't all be bad

Only takes a couple to really spoil it! That said, this new album is refreshing in its pivot away from obscurantism-- "Grid Of Points" made me wonder if she was gradually moving toward entire albums of untouched, unprocessed single-take field recordings. Not the case! I don't know if I like this Nivhek thing more or less than the more clouded stuff but it's definitely good good good

the Helen album is really good

Love the Helen album as much as the late 80s early 90s indie pop it resembles

always happy to have new music from Liz but i hope someday we get a new Mirrorring album

First listen and I'm IN in a big way.

anyone know the set time for Friday’s show. billed as an afterparty, but doors at 7:30?

oh this new one is excellent.

....... this is tight
damn

I keep forgetting I'm listening to Grouper because I'm not

the show in chicago a few weeks ago, at the athletic association, was so, so good. first time i saw her play live. i went in expecting a great show and was still still unexpectedly blown away. she played a new song, an acoustic/reverb one in line with D a D D up a H, that i'm guessing flappy b referenced or posted above somewhere, that was on par with the best of her work

I'm glad I listened to the black record first. the white record, the 45rpm one, feels like a bonus disc at best but is it the one that's sequenced first in the digital? there are no markings on the LP at all, not even in the runoff grooves (besides her usual aphorisms).

Hey the vinyl is back on the bandcamp for those that missed it:

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

Okay! So I was fortunate enough to interview Liz H about Nivhek -- and I could be wrong but I think this is the only interview she's doing about this project in specific.

https://thequietus.com/articles/26584-liz-harris-nivhek-interview-grouper

That’s one of the best interviews with her that I can recall, thanks!!

yes great read, thanks ned

Thank you both!

performing as Nivhek for a few lucky cities this fall.

https://www.instagram.com/p/By1FKAslPEX/

“I’ve been buying Grouper records for a pretty long time,” Tweedy says of Liz Harris’s opaque experimental project. “There’s real growth from record to record, but she’s been able to maintain this mysterious atmosphere even as some things have become a little more unlocked and a little more accessible.”

“It’s the kind of record that I almost don’t want to know who’s responsible for it,” he laughs. “It’s not presented in a way that makes that a priority. It’s presented with a very limited exposure of identity. It could be a group of aliens that kidnapped a female singer, or any number of things.”

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/10/04/wilco-jeff-tweedy-bandcamp-picks

Previously unreleased 11 minute live recording of "Alien Observer" from October 2009

https://soundcloud.com/kranky/grouper-alien-observer-live-at-emanuel-vigeland-mausoleum-oct25-2009

just FYI AIA: alien observer and AIA: dream loss are being reissued on vinyl by kranky on the 25th of this month

best album of the decade!

makes me want to pull out my OG “vinyls” and give them a spin. Title cut of Alien Observer is one of my fave tracks.

Maria Somerville made a beautiful album this year, 'All Our People'. Perchance it's not entirely fair to put this here, but a) I didn't know where else to put it and it's definitely anchored in the Grouper realm, and b) it deserves all the love it can get imo.

Maria Somerville draws on folk forms alongside post-punk, traditional Irish motifs, starry eyed pop and hypnotic drones to create wholly original music that is borne of her roots in Connemara, Western Ireland.

All My People (self-released on 1 March and distributed by Rush Hour), channels the wilderness of the Irish landscape through dense, ethereal soundscapes, bare boned percussion and a heady electronic undertow, interspersed with ghostly vocals that are ever present and all encompassing, like crystalline glints of sunshine peeking through dark stormy clouds.

https://mariasomerville.bandcamp.com/album/all-my-people

i like this a LOT. wish it wasn't sold out already! i will keep my eyes peeled for new stuff from her!

my 2019 listening is very scattered and shallow, as always, but this would be one of my faves from this year for sure.

Hmm, noted!

As for Liz, there's a Nivhek show happening Saturday night here in SF.

Warms the heart that you're enjoying it so much, KM!

For whatever reason, I took against The Man Who Died in His Boat and it turns out - yet more evidence that I don't know shit about anything - that it's fabulous. STS and Living Room as the final 1-2 are Harris in excelsis.

That is my banal 'I've been listening to Grouper today' story.

i splurged on the split with inca ore on discogs a few days ago - it just came in. man, "poison tree" is soooo good

yeah that's a good one, and the Inca Ore side is good as well iirc

oh man, I found that one completely randomly at honest johns in London a few years ago, one of the best record store kismet experiences I've ever had. such a great split and yeah "poison tree" is one of her best.

new track

https://clatsopanimalassistance.bandcamp.com/releases

Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.

Not new unfortunately, from the Inca Ore split in 2008. Great song though.

lol I wondered abt that, thanks. bought it anyway, good cause

yeah the cat i had most of my whole adult life was a clatsop rescue, god bless 'em

Idling away a Sunday afternoon, I made this compilation - criteria being only 10 tracks, only 1 track per release. I mean, look at it. Artist of the century so far, surely?

Headache (Paradise Valley)
Blouse (Grid of Points)
Parking Lot (Parking Lot)
Little Gray Cat (Inca Ore/Grouper)
When We Fall (Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill)
Down to the Ocean (Cover the Windows and the Walls)
Holding (Ruins)
Being Her Shadow (The Man Who Died in His Boat)
Vapor Trails (A I A: Alien Observer)
Close Cloak (Way Their Crept)

i shall listen to this playlist!

but you might have another spot to fill - "parking lot" is also on Grid of Points

(maybe Helen's "Felt This Way"?)

Oh, of course! And, confession, I've never listened to the Helen record. I am shamefacedly listening now.

"hold" or "moving machine"?

there is probably a better one on there! "felt this way" was a song on a 7" they put out before the album. i only gave the album maybe 1.5 listens, and none of it struck me in the same way, but i should have given it more time!

the entire helen album rules imo