Grouper announces debut album with other band Helen, shares ‘Motorcycle’

Liz Harris, best known for her work in solo project Grouper, has announced that she’ll be releasing a debut album with her dream-pop band Helen. ‘The Original Faces’ is out on September 4th via kranky. The new group(er) have also shared a new track ‘Motorcycle’. It follows on from Helen’s last release ‘Felt This Way / Dying All the Time,’ which they shared almost two years ago.

The press release states that Grouper and co. “originally started [Helen] with the intention of being a thrash band,” and while Helen isn’t thrash in the conventional sense, its the most abrasive, direct thing Harris has ever been involved in. Plaintive surges of piano give way entire to fuzz-drenched riffs, and echoing, half-comprehensible lyrics with more than a slight hint of menace.

Along with Liz Harris, Helen includes Scott Simmons, Jed Bindeman of Eternal Tapestry, and a mystery back-up vocalist called Helen. Many of the songs on ‘The Original Faces’ come from demos by Simmons and Harris.

The tracklisting for The Original Faces’ is as follows:

1. Ryder
2. Motorcycle
3. Covered in shade
4. Felt this way
5. Pass me by
6. Right outside
7. Allison
8. Dying all the time
9. Grace
10. City breathing
11. Violet

Listen to ‘Motorcycle’ below.