In what promises already to be one of 2009’s must-see live shows Portland’s Grouper—or Liz Harris as she’s known to friends—heads number two in Making Hey’s ‘over ambition’ series, Saturday March 7 at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Art. Harris’s appearance comes in support of her latest full-length Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill (released on Type), which has pulled rank in Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2008.

While earlier work saw Harris dredge the murkiest depths of reverb-drowned, ambient dirge-psychedelia, negotiating with while never fully surrendering to melody, her work of late is revelation. Dragging a Dead Deer goes a long way in emerging the weighty melodic power that Grouper has kept in the shadows for so long. The new work is a darkly mesmerising folk-dream-pop whirlpool. At once, it is melancholic and optimistic; regressive and revolutionary; mysterious and revelatory. It’s this seeming dissonance and chaos that make the undeniable harmony and control at work in Grouper’s music so defying. Grouper’s performance is set to be an otherworldly, almost spiritual experience.

Joining the bill for the first of their considered live appearances of 09 are local avant-pop icons, the Rational Academy. Melbourne’s improv sounscapist composer, Ian Wadley, completes an unforgettable line-up. Doors open at 7:30.