Man Who Died In His Boat, The

Plucky drifting ambient lullabies. Grouper is Portland musician Liz Harris, who has lots of connections to the Bay Area “On-Land” scene. Her music has always been guitar and voice oriented, introverted, trippy, dreamy; lots of delay and reverb; “lo-fi.” She released Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill in 2008, which incorporated acoustic guitars and more prominent vocals, and jettisoned to the pseudo indie-mainstream when critics paid attention to her. She confused teenagers and hipsters everywhere, opening for Animal Collective with her delicate music on their amphitheatre tour. Harris was originally “embarrassed” by the album because it was so “poppy,” naked, and comparatively straightforward, and followed it up with an abyss-plunging, haunted double LP in 2011. Here, someone has apparently convinced her to release the second half of recordings from the Dead Deer sessions, and it’s quite a treat. More of that blissful sound (possibly even pushed further into pop?): strummy washes, cooing melodic vocals, relaxing blankets of sound. These are the best lullabies you’ll ever find. RIYL: Windy & Carl, Root Strata, Inca Ore, Mirrorring, Badgerlore.

1. Trippy. Jumping into space. (1:50)
*2. Beautiful vocal melody anchors slow ambient pop beauty. (4:14)
3. Prominent strummy acoustic. Like the counterpart of “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping.” (4:05)
4. Slow gliding, a little bit psychedelic. (4:46)
5. Airy dream pop vocal layers over more acoustic strumming. (4:06)
*6. Heavy delay waves of trippiness and relaxation. (5:48)
7. Really weird effects; trippy cascading interlude of keys/bells. (3:32)
*8. Slow, lo-fi ish gentle cooing acoustic guitar dreaminess. (5:01)
9. Ringing steady strum and melodic vocals. (5:19)
10. Fewer effects, simpler, straightforward picking pattern, still dreamy. (2:22)
*11. Completely enveloping foggy wash. (6:06)