Liz Harris' first two Grouper albums, Way Their Crept and Wide, consisted mostly of layers of her pristine vocals blanketed in drones, reverb, and distortion until they blurred into a blissful, and sometimes eerie, haze. That haze lifts ever so slightly on Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, letting more melody, more structured songs, and even a few phrases emerge from the ether. Fragile acoustic and electric guitars and the occasional keyboard also bring this album more down to earth than Grouper's earlier work, but the music never feels stifled or limited -- if anything, the added structure lets these songs take flight and reach peaks of beauty that Wide and Way Their Crept only glimpsed. Harris' voice is especially spine-tingling on "Stuck," where her gorgeous harmonies only need gentle strumming to support their ebb and flow. Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill's soft, intricate layers have their roots in late-'80s/early-'90s dream pop (and the work of the Cocteau Twins and early His Name Is Alive in particular -- Home Is in Your Head could be this album's great-great-grandmother), but Grouper's take is looser and more organic; there's a reason many of the song titles feature nature imagery ("Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping," "Traveling Through a Sea"). Dragging a Dead Deer also shows more musical range than Harris' previous work: "Disengaged," which introduces the album with blasts of static that suggest wind and waves, and the wistful "Invisible" fall closest to Wide and Way Their Crept's drifting approach, while "Fishing Bird (Empty Jutted in the Evening Breeze)" and "A Cover Over" boast distinct verses and choruses as well as the rest of the album's otherworldly atmosphere. This is also Grouper's most emotionally wide-ranging work, covering the electric lullaby "When We Fall" to the slightly ominous shimmer of the title track. Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill offers moments that are just as memorable as the entire album, and all of them are subtly, but stunningly, beautiful.
For somebody who specialises in the rich layered chilled out ambiance that Grouper proffer, she surely must have been disappointed to get the lead-off slot at this year's ATP Vs. The Fans Festival. The first slot on the Central Stage is basically a warm-up for the sound engineers and the distorted, ethereal sound of her recent album, Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill sounded crackly and stagnant.
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--- - |- New WaxGrouper is Portland songwriter Liz Harris, and information on her is somewhat scarce so the music will have to do the talking. Listening to her new album Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill feels like a Vicodin-induced haze. Like that time I flipped my car on the interstate and wrecked my arm and they gave me enough pills to numb a killer whale. Grouper's new album is chalk-full of ...
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--- - |- New WaxGrouper is Portland songwriter Liz Harris, and information on her is somewhat scarce so the music will have to do the talking. Listening to her new album Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill feels like a Vicodin-induced haze. Like that time I flipped my car on the interstate and wrecked my arm and they gave me enough pills to numb a killer whale. Grouper's new album is chalk-full of ...
More >
For somebody who specialises in the rich layered chilled out ambiance that Grouper proffer, she surely must have been disappointed to get the lead-off slot at this year's ATP Vs. The Fans Festival. The first slot on the Central Stage is basically a warm-up for the sound engineers and the distorted, ethereal sound of her recent album, Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill sounded crackly and stagnant.
More >
We couldn't even begin to explain what Grouper sound like and we doubt any of you could without using at least ten different muttered, stuttering examples. With just one member, Liz Harris, the band is really just a strange, ethereal project by one dedicated singer-songstress and a woman who has so far released three full-lengths under the moniker.
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 "Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill")
