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Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
Domino
out June 9th
[91]
[Rating Scale]
[rating:91/100]
Notes on Dirty Projectors’ sixth full length album, Bitte Orca, spill out as if dumped from a bucket; they fall one after the other, at a near but not constant rate – avoiding predictability is a mission here. And yet, amongst flexible time signatures and unpredictable rhythms, each note seems perfectly placed. If the stories about Dave Longstreth’s obsessive work ethic are even half true, you can bet on the notes being right where he wants them to be.
Longstreth, the heart and soul of the Dirty Projectors, has the pedigree of an art rocker. He dropped out of Yale Composition school and started releasing music under the Dirty Projectors moniker. It’s oddball music – a glitch opera based on Eagles’ Don Henley here, a reinterpretation of Black Flag’s Damaged there – but it’s brilliant. It’s the kind of complex music that reveals as much on the tenth listen as the first. The kind that you play for your friends with the pretentious disclaimer, “you’re probably not going to like this”.
But not this time. Because here, in this topsy-turvy world of 2009, indie has apparently taken a few hits of pop and is ready to make a run at mainstream. Bitte Orca is poppy, the Dirty Projectors at their most accessible, and downright spectacular.
Let’s not get crazy, though, because this album is tricky. It’s decidedly not mainstream, despite the fact that everything you read about the album will invoke that dirty word. In reality, Bitte Orca doesn’t change many of the divisive elements of previous releases. None of the vocal outbursts, scaling cascades, or odd flourishes that mark the Dirty Projectors’ oeuvre are missing here. Dave Longstreth’s voice is still weird. Source material is still bizarre.
The tweaks are slight, making them even more effective. The singing is a little less controlled, the time swings are a little less stark, the vocals are a little more prominent. The group finds beauty in slight inversions rather than drastic shifts. With Bitte Orca, the Dirty Projectors have achieved the (near) impossible – rather than bending their style to conform to popular music, they have bent the very definition of popular music and forced it to include them.
The biggest difference between Bitte Orca and previous works is its concentration. On albums like The Getty Address and Rise Above, Longstreth and co. have traditionally made it their business to go beyond the usual – to explore the fringes of sonic space, push the boundaries of rhythm, stretch the ideas of lyrics. Their first five records, beautiful as they are, seem distracted at times. Here, the Dirty Projectors are concise, composed, conceptually concentrated. Here the band has a purpose.
What that purpose is, of course, is practically indecipherable. Confused yet? You should be. This album is at once one of the most blindingly smart albums and numbingly incomprehensible you will find on the market. It juxtaposes glitch and guitar solos with no warning.
“Useful Chamber” is probably the best encapsulation of the album, so it’s no coincidence that the album’s title comes from the chorus. The track starts with drum machines and synthesizers, the most processed and least organic moment you’ll find on any Dirty Projectors record. Longstreth’s distinctive voice enters, more subdued than usual, and is soon joined by the heavenly harmonies of Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, and Hayley Dekle. The song takes its time in building – the synth starts to sound more like an organ, sustained guitars start to move a little bit more, the pace quickens. A breakbeat comes in after the two-minute mark, and Longstreth intones, “I don’t know what I should be looking at, but I will look wherever I’m told.” And then! An explosion of noise interrupts the interlude, with grungy guitars, a choppy solo, and Longstreth desperately singing “Bitte Orca, Orca Bitte”. The ladies follow with harsh harmonies (who knew it was possible?) before the song returns to its original course, which is to say that it’s unpredictably gorgeous for another three minutes.
Other tracks are equally impressive. “No Intention” is one of the most beautiful tracks they’ve ever put together, and certainly one of the most sing-along-able. The chorus of “Remade Horizon” is powerful and joyous. “Temecula Sunrise”, the closest Longsreth gets to his earliest stylistic inclinations (complete with references to brown finches), manages to be downright catchy. From front to back, this album is one of the most stunningly enjoyable records I’ve heard in years.
Bitte Orca is a potent nine songs, clocking in at just over 40 minutes. For the first time in the Dirty Projectors’ catalogue, the band really gels. Longstreth isn’t afraid to let Coffman and Deradoorian carry some tracks (see first single “Stillness is the Move” and “Two Doves”) but doesn’t hide his own often polarizing voice. The group works as an ensemble and the guitar work is exquisite. For the first time that I can remember, it doesn’t sound like the Dirty Projectors are experimenting with music. They aren’t creating art that happens to be music, they’re making music that happens to be art. It’s that inversion that carries Bitte Orca to a new level.
To enter to win a copy of Dirty Projector’s Bitte Orca, leave a comment with your thoughts on the tracks you’ve just sampled, or (if you’ve listened to it) the album. Make sure you leave your name/email address in the provided fields! Entries will be accepted until June 19th
Dirty Projectors has such a distinctive sound, yet each of their songs are original as well. The vocals are very masterfully mixed, but I think my favorite is the slick instrumentation… I don’t know, but to me it feels like it could fit into an 80s video game…. in a good way.
I haven’t heard the whole album yet, but I can’t wait from what I’ve heard already.
The tracks I’ve heard, particularly “No Intention,” are so good, they make my brains hurt.
This is so far the album of 2009. I’m sorry AC, Grizzly Bear or Japandroids, this is the sound of the year for me. So far.
This, for me, was the absolute surprise of the year. I had never heard of the Dirty Projectors, until I saw they were touring with TV On The Radio, one of my favorite bands. Then I heard some people talking about some of the songs on the blogosphere, so I checked out some of the tracks; specifically No Intention, and Stillness Is The Move. I played it in the background, and took no notice to it. Then I went back and played it again a couple days later. Then I played it again. I was hooked. So I got the whole album. And I listened to it a couple times through. And then, once again, I just didn’t listen to it for a couple days. Then I saw Pitchfork gave it a 9.2. Shocked, I went back to listen to it again. This was the time everything clicked for me. I heard sounds I didn’t hear before, and everything seemed to be placed perfectly. I got lost in it. So I listened to it again, and again. I realized that this was the album for me. I loved Grizzly Bear, but after listening to Bitte Orca I realize that I kinda was almost forced to like it, getting caught up in all the hype. Animal Collective had a similar effect on me, but in the end, it wasn’t the same as Bitte Orca. While I think this album is very accessible, I also think it could be one of those albums that doesn’t click for everyone. For me though, this is the album of the year, without a doubt. The harmonies are so wonderful, the beats so perfect, the synthesizers so brilliant and catchy. This is an album that most everyone should try out. It’s that good.
This does it for me BIG TIME. I never really “understood” the Dirty Projectors’ previous work, but this totally clicked.
“Useful Chamber” might be the greatest song of the year. Or “Stillness is the Move”. I can’t decide. It’s all so great. Welcome to the future of music, indeed.
In my mind, Dirty Projectors are beating art-rock stalwarts like Radiohead at their own game. That’s right, I said it. Maybe it’s just the shine of newness that makes this album seem so great right now, but I think I like this better than OK Computer. How’s that, music nerds?
And speaking to its longevity: I haven’t been able to stop listening to this album since it leaked back in April (March?). Seriously, if it’s on my iPod when I turn it on, I can’t bring myself to change to another album until the whole thing plays through to the end of “Flourescent Half-Dome”. (The weakest track on the album, maybe, but still insanely listenable).
So, so, so worth listening to.
The guitars are amazing. I love No Intentions.
Wow. To be honest, I’d never even heard of these guys prior to this post, but they blew me away. I can’t stop listening to No Intention. I’m hooked – consider me a fan.
From what I’ve heard so far, it’s amazing! Making year-end lists is sure going to be difficult this year.
I’m a little on the fence with them…I think I need to listen too them more.
I think they’re pretty good. Love the acoustic. “No Intentions” I liked best.
HOOKED!!!!
My plastic heart just melted! This is definitely a candidate for 09 album of the year, no question!
I’m gonna have to say that “Two Doves” was my favorite due to my impartiality towards Amber and Angel, but “Wave the Bloody Shirt” definitely should have made the album – http://finickyfork.blogspot.com/2009/06/summer-solstice-is-move.html – it’s a bit more experimental than the rest of the album though. The pop perfectionism practiced by Dave is the heart of the album, all of the varied orchestral arrangements have a wonderful way of building on each other an culminating in an electrifying climax. For this reason, it bothers me when people compare Bitte Orca to MPP and Veckatimest because they are all so unique and intricate in their own respective ways that trying to quantify how good they are distracts from their real artistic merit.
No Intentions is my favorite so far. The material has been amazing.
I think “No Intentions” is also my favorite–so catchy, and I really like the guitars. The other two you’ve posted here are also amazing…I feel like I’ve been under a rock for not checking out Dirty Projectors sooner! I got to hear Nat Baldwin when he was in Tallahassee doing his solo stuff, and he blew my mind. Ok, so yeah, he’s got a quirky way of singing, but I dig it. I look forward to hearing more of Bitte Orca, so thanks for sharing.
forgot to leave my email address–for the entry.
dirty projectors are the velvet underground of their time……in a good way