On Friday our server went down. Or we switched to a new one. Something like that. I don’t know if I can think of anything else (well, maybe if the printer, like, self-destructed) that can cause more pandemonium in a news office. So while we dealt with trying to find out what happened to all the Cut of the Day mp3s that suddenly weren’t working and a console that couldn’t be accessed, I needed something relaxing to listen to, so I turned to my favorite comforting, late-night record of 2008: Grouper’s Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill.

Despite the ominous title, the music of Liz Harris—who records under the name Grouper—is compiled of layers of pure beauty. With just her voice, guitar, and lots of effects pedals, Harris makes dreamy, hazy strides of ambient, barely-there guitar-wash. While Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill still bears heavy traces of 4AD bands of the past (especially the Cocteau Twins), it strips most of the gauze off her earlier work and focuses on Harris’ voice and strummed acoustic guitar. “Heavy Water/”I’d Rather Be Sleeping” begins with a familiar background fuzz before dissolving into, well, a folk-pop song.

And even though “Heavy Water” is immediate, all of Grouper’s music has a deep sense of transition and distance. Harris’ vocals sound like they are recorded the next room over, and it’s that distance that makes it an album that is so comforting when you have too much going on in your head. It’s a wonderful headphones record, perfect for riding the bus home, staying up past 3 am, or wondering when the website you run will function again.

Download audio file (Heavywater.mp3)

Links:
GrouperSpace

Photo by Alicia J. Rose