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Liz Harris ā the one-woman, do-it-all singer/songwriter/musician who essentially IS Grouper ā is the sound of someone disappearing before your very eyes; an ache with no underlying injury; a whisper from an unseen voice. Such is the ephemeral ghostliness of her music, an intensely private form of expression captured within a very public context. If you took My Bloody Valentineās layered collage of sounds and applied Lowās 4AD ambient acoustic surface to them (vs. Kevin Shieldsā concussive, punishing feedback waves), you might be approaching the outer rings of Grouperās orbit.
"On dreams I'm moving through heavy water/
The love is enormous, it's lifting me up/
I'd rather be sleeping."
Druggy, sexy, arty, pretty, but never pretentious. The sound of the waking dream.
Mar 20, 2024
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Vocalist Patty Waters straddles approaches that are something like a lounge jazz and a vocal avant-gardism, singing to stripped down instrumentals playing familiar then dissonant intervals, often ones that feel just slightly off of what you expectāthe effect is something like holding an old photograph in your hand and noticing the material distortions. What sounds sentimental in a Nat King Cole or King Moody croon, becomes haunting or grin under Patty Waterās command.
I especially get that effect from this album, College Days, in which her voice warmly vibrates at the center, with the instruments falling into the background. Itās perfect rainy day music from her, but this album also has a lot of her screaming and using her voice in a remarkable way, it definitely draws comparison to someone like Meredith Monk, where breathe voice and tone become their own force. This track Wild is the Wind is the noisiest and reminds me of Arthur Russell at some points.
Reccomend if you like: Joan La Barbera, Bjork, Shelley Hirsch, Fiona Apple, Meredith Monk.
Jan 9, 2024
Jonnine Standish, one half of the long-running Australian moody, atmospheric post-punk band HTRK, also makes solo stuff that Iāll let her bio describe: āSkeletal rhythms slink and echo through dimly lit streets framed by fragments of guitar, bass, breath, keys, scrapes, and haze.ā HTRK inspired a lot of bands Iāve featured lately, like aso, Astrid Sonne and Acopia
Mar 6, 2025
doing a deep dive, checking out the whole discography. rid of me is a knockout of course but i really like the spooky eerie almost trip-hop vibes on this one.
Sep 20, 2024
Top Recs from @coreydubrowa
May 22, 2025
Hey tyler hopefully this doesnāt violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canāt wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ā¤ļø
Mar 27, 2024
āSongs Of a Lost Worldā coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 š¤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024