In my opinion, a new and serenely beautiful genre of music is emerging, taking elements of folk, gospel and post-rock and combining them into sonic loveliness that captures the spirit of bands such as Sigur Rós whilst removing the repetitive overplay of their key songs. Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver are two of the pioneers of this lucid genre, where the vocals seem never ending, played through simple effects with simple instrumentation behind it. However, perhaps the most compelling act to produce this haunting music is Grouper.
Hailing from Portland, Oregon (a city which has produced some of my favourite bands, most notably the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Elliott Smith and the Decemberists) they seem to constantly develop their music whilst retaining a unique sound that is unmistakably theirs. Their debut, 'Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill', is almost foggy in its slightly crackly, reverb-laden sound that gives the illusion that you're simply hearing the music through the trees of a secret, sparse forest. Standout tracks include 'Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping', which is the answer to the question of what the Postal Service would sound like in a power cut, and 'When We Fall'. The new album, 'Way Their Crept', continues to develop the sonic experience of Grouper, and create the fantastic paradox whereby you cannot tell if there is only one instrument or hundreds. The only true concern with Grouper is that they do not fall into the way of many post-rock acts and accumulate such attention that their work is used in television, advertising or other media. This is not bad in the sense that they are questioning their own integrity, but music of this beauty does not benefit from repeated playing; you will simply lose the magnitude and magnificence of the noise. Grouper are very much like you're first love; you will always remember how they made you feel with great fondness, but sometimes the emotion is enough to break your heart.
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