Hold The Way

I know I've written about Grouper (Liz Harris) once before, after first discovering last year's Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. However, since then she's really come to dominate my musical likings. With 2009 nearing a close, the inevitable list of albums I'll be putting together to compromise my list of Favorite Albums of The Decade has been ever-present in my mind. In examining my listening trends, I realize nothing has quite topped her album in the last ten years (though some have come close, mainly Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights from 2002). In anticipation of what her forthcoming new music might behold, I've been seeking out all the other releases she's put out prior to Dragging, which include two prior full-lengths and a handful of 7"s and split-releases with other like-minded acts.


What's so engaging about Grouper is the space she provides in her actual music. Often her songs are nothing more than a couple of distant melodies that are repeatedly piled atop one another to the point where they reach this ethereal calm. Without sounding like a total sap, my absolute favorite way to experience her music is late at night, driving around alone on usually-busy streets that become dark and desolate by midnight. It takes me to a place where I can fixate and reflect without distraction, like the occasions in which you're in a dialog with someone and you lose focus and end up staring at some inanimate object unknowingly before being snapped back into the realm of full-attention. It's the best way I can describe it. Try it sometime.

Here's a video of her newest song, “Hold The Way”, which is slated to be released as part of an EP whose full details are yet to be announced. It captures the haunting feeling pretty accurately, but stylistically shows how she's varying her sound in a slightly new direction. The video itself is pretty stunning. It should be noted that the meat of the song doesn't kick in until a minute or two in.



Even if you don't quite like it, I still suggest you give Dragging A Dead Dear Up A Hill a real whirl. Its effects are like few I've felt before. Here's a nice fan-made video for one of the actual album tracks, “Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping,” which I never seem to get sick of hearing.



Grouper is made up just one woman, Liz Harris, and she is based out of Portland. If you like her music, please support it the right way. Here's her MySpace and her Blog.