Article
2012 Top 10s & 20s

Albums
Poppy Ackroyd
Mario Basanov
Ryan Blotnick
Peter Broderick
Celer
Débruit
Vladislav Delay
Taylor Deupree
El Fog
Forma
Masayoshi Fujita
Golden Gardens
Grouper
Mano Le Tough
Lusine
Yann Novak
Paniyolo
Strategy
The Swifter
thisquietarmy
Robert Scott Thompson
Christiaan Virant

Compilations / Mixes
Cambio
Hernan Cattaneo
Change The Beat
DJ Deep
Eskimonde
Full Body Workout 10
We Love Detroit

EPs / Singles
Andrew Bayer
Birds of Passage
Brancaccio & Bishop
Maya Jane Coles
Eskmo
Ether
Gerwin, Nuage & 2 Shy
Glacis
The Green Kingdom
H. Salut / Hopeless L. M. B.
Her Name is Calla
Herrmutt Lobby
Darren McClure
Oh, Yoko
Michael Price
Danilo Rispoli
Silencio
Phil Tangent
Widesky
Windsor for the Derby

Grouper: The Man Who Died In His Boat
kranky

The release of The Man Who Died In His Boat follows not too long after Liz Harris's last kranky opus, A|A, even if that double-CD release was a reissue of the Dream Loss and Alien Observer albums she issued on her own Yello Electric imprint in 2011. In actual fact, The Man Who Died In His Boat isn't brand new material either, as it's a collection of unreleased material the Portland-based songstress recorded alongside the Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill album in 2008 (apparently, the latter will be reissued on kranky on the same day as the 'new' one). But none of that matters much once the music plays, as The Man Who Died In His Boat is material that could conceivably have been released in any number of possible years, be it 2013, 1983, or even 1973. In contrast to the experimental soundscaping style of A|A, the new release emphasizes sparsely arranged songs for acoustic guitar and vocals, making it, comparatively, the much more accessible release of the two.

No doubt certain words have been used over and over in reviews of Harris's Grouper music, but it's almost impossible to listen to her material and not have the words haunting and mesmerizing come to mind. Throughout the album, her voice, multiplied into a fragile choir, wafts through the hiss-speckled air accompanied by acoustic guitar strums and, occasionally, fuzzier textures. An ethereal and ghostly quality shadows the songs that bolsters their gothic character.

One is constantly taken aback by the soul-stirring beauty of settings such as “Vital” and “Towers,” whose melodic sequences prove to be potent even when starkly arranged. A nod to the experimental side of the Grouper project emerges in “Vanishing Point” in its echoing piano treatments, but that's a rare occurrence on this largely vocal-based set. The words are often obscured due to Harris's vocal delivery and the instrumental surround but that lack of clarity does little to diminish the music's impact—if anything, it might enhance it for allowing it to retain its enigmatic nature. That as beautiful and haunting a song as “Living Room” can come from such simple means is amazing.

January 2013