Grouper - Shade '2021

Tracks list

Liz Harriss 12th album is a heart-melting anthology of songs written over the
last 15 years. A mixture of Dragging A Dead Deer... emotional rawness and AIA
-style tape-dubbed sonic fog, its a timely reminder of why shes one of the
crucial underground voices of the era.
When Harriss early Grouper material began to emerge thru the cracks in the wall
of wyrd folk CDRs and hand-made cassette tapes, we could already sense it was
something different. There was a bare quality to it that set it out of time:
this was music that sounded as harmonious with Slowdives melancholy shimmer as
it did with the Olympia and Washington DIY set. Shade is a career-spanning set
that accurately charts her evolution thru the years, running a course that
broaches ambient music, Laurel Canyon folk, grunge, dream pop, and everything
in-between. 
Her music is unified by its unique spirit and personified by Harriss voice - a
ubiquitous element thats sometimes an elasticated, ghostly whisper and at others
a spiraling coo. On opening track Followed the ocean, its an assured driving
force, but her powerful tones are reduced to glowing cinder beneath the burn of
overdriven, tape-distorted noise. Words are present, but indecipherable - its
like hearing a song taped from radio and endlessly re-duplicated for heightened
ghosting. The fog dissipates on Unclean mind, harking back to Heavy Water with a
grunge-y strum and angelic moans.
Shade is a good title, because the interplay between openness and insularity
lies at the heart of the album. From track to track is sounds as if Harris is
revealing herself and then retreating under a blanket of tape hiss. The way her
hair falls is so clean you could hear a pin drop, making out every nuance in
Harriss voice. The biggest surprise is the albums closing track Kelso (Blue
sky), where her vocals are finally given a grand treatment, drenched in reverb
but completely tangible. The result is a glimmering slice of lingering acid folk
that sounds divorced from time and space.

Tracklist:
 01. Grouper - Followed the ocean (02:54)
 02. Grouper - Unclean mind (03:51)
 03. Grouper - Ode to the blue (02:53)
 04. Grouper - Pale Interior (03:51)
 05. Grouper - Disordered Minds (04:34)
 06. Grouper - The way her hair falls (02:35)
 07. Grouper - Promise (02:49)
 08. Grouper - Basement Mix (05:17)
 09. Grouper - Kelso (Blue sky) (06:15)

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