30 March 2009

Grouper - 2007 - Wide

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

Most of my thoughts concerning Grouper in the review directly preceding this one pretty much relate to this album as well. Like Way Their Crept, Wide is an endless plunge into a hazy vortex of sound. I guess that this one rises ever so slightly above the aether. There is a little more of Ms. Liz Harris beating guitar strings (I think) through infinity, but this is still pretty unlikely to show up on your local top 40 station anytime soon. Once again, it's almost impossible to break this down into individual songs. If you put on Grouper, you best be in it for the entire 38 minute experience. As the rating above indicates, I'm not quite as infatuated with this one, but it goes nicely as a double feature with Way Their Crept. Our intrepid sound voyager does have another LP out which I haven't heard, but I'm hoping that a few stylistic changes appear. This is awesome music, but it could lead to quite a rut and I'd hate to think that Grouper is a one-trick pony. Well, we'll make it two tricks as I'm more than happy to pass on my recommendation for Wide.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/214779372/Grouper_-_Wide.rar

felixkrull said...

Grouper has a newer release 'Kicking a dead dear up a hill' that came out last year, and it is so amazing. From what I heard from reviews is that it does sound different than these recordings, but only, I have never heard these before and I am very excited to hear some of their older stuff! thanks for the post!!

Ondrej said...

it is "dragging a dead deer up a hill" <- its like the most accessible LP from Liz. Very different.

Also check out "Cover the windows and the walls"... very nice.

She has recently released a split with Pumice... check that out.

Also that split with City Center is pretty sweet .. (you can find City Center on blogspot, he releases some recordings for free, usually every few weeks there are few tracks.)