GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

this is great

loving this

Kelso is so good. Aside from the otherworldly Paradise Valley tunes, as pretty as anything I've heard from her.

it's her best since AIA, not counting Paradise Valley - wish there was a whole album's worth of that

Only four tracks in, but oh my god that opener

and oh my god kelso!!!!

once again, thank you based liz

I like how “the way her hair falls” is not just a (natural) loop but a loop that breaks

yeah Paradise Valley is really special. would love more in that style, oh man

headache is a worldie

'promise' from the new one is very special. imagine being that quiet with someone.

🚨🚨🚨🚨

whoa... new RAUM (Liz Harris + Jefre Cantu-Ledesma) 2xLP ???https://t.co/cJCoQsdrRN

i loved their first album together. this one is already sounding gorgeous & deeply zoned, pure drift mode

— Good Willsmith (@GoodWillsmith) February 4, 2022

it RULES so far

this is the good stuff

Oh nice!

Apparently there is more than one Raum - Spotify shows a pic and bio for some electronic musician. Looks like their discographies are mixed up too. (Not the usual imposter shit that happens - I think this is legitimately two artists using the same name.)

i'm still in the middle of my first listen. very, very pleasing mix of guitar, piano, field recordings, and synths (very The Alps, which makes sense)

the last track is 20 minutes long, i'm so pumped

here is the earlier album: https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/event-of-your-leaving

going to listen to that one later, but today's release is plenty for repeat listening for now

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is severely underrated. Very prolific too.

It's a miracle I nabbed that Paradise Valley 7" back when that came out because recently the special editions of her releases are scooped up as soon as they drop! I was lucky though, because when that 7" was gone it was gone. At least I could still get "normal" versions of these more recent offerings.

yo this is terrific

i like jefre cantu-ledesma a lot but sometimes it feels like he sands the rough edges down a little too far, liz adds a little texture back

^^^ same

they are a very good duo, sounds and methods that work well and reveal new things in each other's music

To be fair to Jefre his albums generally all sound a bit different, some rougher than others.

this is pleasant

i figure i should dig more into cantu-ledesma at some point, i liked on the echoing green a few years back, especially "a song of summer" which was an incredible shoegaze epic. no idea where to go from there though

saw her play last night -- my first time ever seeing her -- at a sold out theater in portland last night, maybe 150 people total, most everyone seated. while it mostly blended together song to song, i definitely picked out "alien observer", "headache", "living room", and i believe parts of "i'm clean now" and "vanishing point"? she played electric guitar and a mixing board from what I could tell. the visuals were often gorgeous and hypnotic, some unforgettable.

by happenstance i ended up sitting next to some of her friends and she stopped to chat with them just before going onstage, and she introduced herself to me and told me I looked sharp. so i'm good for awhile!

she introduced herself to me and told me I looked sharp. so i'm good for awhile!

whoa, that's awesome! definitely one for the back of the book quote!

i saw grouper once, a few years back in chicago, the athletic association. that was such a lovely night, maybe a slightly larger crowd (200? guessing) but also very intimate, and everyone was so quiet. lovely memories.

yeah it was pin-drop quiet, someone dropped their phone on the floor near the end of the performance and it was like a bomb went off

but even then, i'm sure one of her mics picked up the sound faintly and it softly entered the woozy reverb sound to pleasing effect

I saw her the other night in BK and it was the best I'd ever seen her. I've been trying to find the reworked version she did of "False Horizon" the other night because it blew me away. The only thing i could find is this upload from that same show shot on mini dv but it does the job. truly beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu2NGV1UKxE

starts at 21:08 in case my link loses the timecode

I also saw her there but on Thursday, great show.

someone asked me if helen would tour. i laughed and then became very sad

― flappy bird, Tuesday, September 22, 2015 3:27 PM (seven years ago)

They're touring now! A few dates down the west coast: http://www.groundcontroltouring.com/artists/helen

I live nowhere near but someone taped the first night in Portland last week and put it on D!me, sounds great. A few new songs, so hopefully a new record in the works.

i was at the portland show, it was great, though felt like they oversold tickets at the very small venue. viewing space was shoulder to shoulder packed and there were dozens and dozens of people in the overflow area. nobody in the band spoke a single word or even glanced at the crowd, which is always part of the LH experience. mostly just felt honored to be able to see Helen, felt like spotting a ghost in the daylight.

My last.fm tells me I didn't listen to a single Grouper song last year. Just put Alien Observer on and can sense why: the experience of lockdown is right there in the fabric of the music, like comet tail scintilla, blown back into itself.

After Borges: the pandemic invents its musical precursors.