Dirty Projectors

Bitte Orca

(Domino)

US release date: 9 June 2009

UK release date: 8 June 2009

By Matthew Fiander

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For those who have followed Dirty Projectors from the beginning, there had to be some feeling that the band was working towards something, some notion that there was more to their tangled musical constructions. Not that earlier works like The Getty Address or The Glad Fact weren’t stunning in their originality and breadth of sounds, but they came off more as sounds you were running into than ones you were meshing with as you listened. Their hyper-compositions, with all their edgy tangents, didn’t exactly invite you in.

But 2007’s Rise Above marked a turning point for Dave Longstreth’s band. By re-imagining Black Flag’s Damaged—which on paper seems like a fool’s errand—Longstreth not only mined deep feeling out of those gritty anthems, but he also revealed his own personal connection to music. We were being let into his world a little more, and with Bitte Orca, we are now fully immersed in all things Longstreth.

What makes the album so astounding is its ability to be accessible, but only in its own enigmatic way. So, it doesn’t have the immediate hook of more straight-up pop music, but this is Dirty Projectors we’re talking about. And their crumbling, shape-shifting compositions can only be so catchy. But on Bitte Orca they are as infectious as they get, and Longstreth and his band seem happy to reach out and bring you in. He invites us, on opener “Cannibal Resource”, to “look around at everyone, everyone’s alive and waiting.” Quite a communal statement to start the record, but it sets the tone for an album that does, unsurprisingly, make you work to figure it out, but while you’re doing that you’re also dancing, smiling, even laughing. In other words, you are feeling this music throughout.

The first half of the album is all morning-sun brightness, braced by “Cannibal Resource” and the brilliant “Temecula Sunrise”. To hear Longstreth turn that awkward titular phrase into a gliding hook in the chorus is a feat in and of itself. But the song itself gives early signs that the album is taking on a sort of deconstructed soul sound. “Temecula Sunrise” is, after all, a sort of slow jam love song. And it has it’s own sort of goofy charm, as Longstreth sings, “And what hits the spot like Gatorade? You and me baby, hitting the spot all night.” And that is not just the start of the song’s nerdy but magnetic humor. On “Stillness is the Move”—maybe the best song in the Dirty Projectors’ catalog, period—Longstreth laces the track with his intricate spider web of guitar notes, while Amber Coffman turns in some stunning vocals, and paints herself as a rangy torch singer. The soul feel continues later into the record with the blue light shuffle of “Fluorescent Half-Dome” and the danceable rhythmic stomp of “No Intention”. Mixed within these tracks is plenty of other genre hopping, with “Two Doves” splitting the difference between the mannered compositions of earlier Dirty Projectors work and the lush schmaltzy folk of someone like Mickey Newbury.

But to assign genres on Bitte Orca is only to give titles to the unknowable, to name the population of the frenzied pen of muses buried deep in Longstreth’s mind. No track proves the futility of trying to pin this all down better than “Useful Chamber”, the six-plus minute track that basically builds itself up as a strong but necessarily uneven foundation for the rest of the record. It starts with a glitchy-synth coolness that eventually builds to a big, rock band freak out before settling into a beautiful interplay between Longstreth’s twisting croon and the ghostly lilting of Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. It’s a song that throws you off the scent of the album’s trajectory, and in that way cements Longstreth’s intentions. He wants you to join him in a room called Bitte Orca, but he’s not going to turn on the lights just yet.

The one thing you can say about this album, and feel almost certain of what you’re saying, is that this is the most guitar-driven Dirty Projectors album to date. No one plays like Longstreth, and he uses that to his advantage. He overplays, speeding notes past the song’s tempo before slowing back into the track. He climbs the neck in towering crescendos, he plops uncanny chord phrasings in batches throughout tracks, and on “No Intention” and “Useful Chambers” he drops in solos that are so unwieldy and unnerving, the beg you to go back and listen to them again.

But, most importantly here, he never lets his noodling overtake the song structures. Bitte Orca is made of nine distinct and powerful songs, and perhaps that is what makes it more inviting than earlier albums. But fans of the older work shouldn’t feel slighted or let down by the new album, because this isn’t a simplification of their complex sound. It’s a tightening of that sound, and in compression Longstreth’s musical vision has taken on a wonderful heft and an alarming tunefulness. Those older fans should, though, get ready to clear some room. Because, in the wake of an album as wonderful and singular as Bitte Orca, there’s going to be a lot more people coming to that party in the dark.

— 10 June 2009

Dirty Projectors - “Cannibal Resource” (Live)
 
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Comments

another indie band with no personality or charisma overhyped for the masses.  They’re pretty terrible live to boot, they miss a lot of their notes, especially the lead singer dude.  You’d think the TVOTR audience would be their crowd but they just stood there with their arms folded unimpressed.

Dirty Projectors are being pushed by indie rock critics the same way mainstream rock critics tried to push the Vines as the saviors of rock.  It just aint true.  You may fool some of the sheep who follow Pitchforks lead on everything, but overall it aint gonna bite.  The emperor has no clothes, and these guys suck.

Comment by Jiord — June 10, 2009 @ 8:00 am

Jiord—if you don’t like their sound, you don’t like it, but “no personality or charisma”? Have you heard “Rise Above”? I listened to the Dirty Projectors and was impressed long before I ever read a review of them. I’ve never seen them live, but their work on their albums is absolutely phenomenal from a musical standpoint. I’m no sheep, just someone who appreciates incredible harmonies, impeccable timing, character, original forms, and an unmistakable sound.

Fortunately Longstreth has a lot more going for him than perfect intonation—have you ever heard the Microphones/Mount Eerie? Live, Phil Elverum was missing pitches right and left. If that bothers you too much, I think you’re missing the point.

Comment by Elizabeth Newton from USA — June 10, 2009 @ 2:43 pm

Jiord - contrary to what people (mainly those who have received a bad review) lead you to believe, us music fans don’t actually base our taste on what Pitchfork says. In fact - and I want you to suspend disbelief for a minute here - I haven’t actually read Pitchfork’s review of the new Dirty Projectors album, and I like Dirty Projectors. Madness.

Comment by Chris from UK — June 10, 2009 @ 6:28 pm

“Have you heard “Rise Above”?”

Yes. The comment stands. To me, anyone who prefers that pretentious base level conceptual tripe over the actual Black Flag album needs their head examined. I’d pay to hear Henry Rollins listen to it and then quickly punch someone in the mouth due to the frustration of other people claiming this was not only ‘music’, but ‘good’

Good for you Chris, but you’re telling me there arent legions of hipster sheep who will at least pretend to like DP because indie critics insist its good despite all evidence?

DP aren’t the only band lately that falls into this category. Sunn 0))) are so much worse. You like a fog horn blaring for half an hour?  This is what happens when you let the indie kids decide which metal is ‘cool’

Comment by Juord — June 11, 2009 @ 7:05 am

Musically, Sunn 0))) and Dirty Projectors are hardly comparable beyond your contrived classification of them as bands that are overrated.

Funny thing is, I live in Seattle—a supposed center of hipster sheep—where I am a DJ on local independent radio, and therefore interact frequently with many of the “legions of hipster sheep” you speak of. While, God forbid, some people absorb other people’s tastes and preferences, I feel quite confident that most people I know who like Dirty Projectors never read critical reviews and actually *gasp* enjoy their music, despite your determination to believe otherwise. 

Frankly, if you don’t like Dirty Projectors, then more power to you. But please, come down from your high horse and quit making ridiculous generalizations about fans of bands you self-servingly deem pretentious. You complain that people claim DP are good “despite all evidence”, well, we could get into a lengthy discussion about specifics of musical quality if you wish.

But I don’t think the actual quality of music is what we’re debating here, more like your own vain stereotypes about a demographic that doesn’t even exist outside of a judgmental, contrived division of music fans into those allowed to have opinions and those who are apparently just “sheep.”

Comment by Elizabeth Newton from USA — June 12, 2009 @ 3:40 pm

“most people I know who like Dirty Projectors never read critical reviews”

This is a load of crap considering the only way anyone knows of this band is through critical hype or seeing them open for someone else.  And anyone who had seen them live before hearing the songs is going to be treated to one of the more annoying experiences of your life.

Comment by Juord — June 15, 2009 @ 6:36 am

“you’re telling me there arent legions of hipster sheep who will at least pretend to like DP because indie critics insist its good despite all evidence?”

Yes, I am. Who exactly do you see as “pretending” to like Dirty Projectors? Do you genuinely think people are prepared to spend their hard earned cash on something they don’t actually enjoy, simply because other people are seen to enjoy it? Or do you have friends who claim to like DP and whom you think are lying to look good? Or do you think me and Elizabeth Newton here are lying, in order to make you - someone who I’ve never met, and will never meet - believe that we like DP? If it’s any of these, I’d ask you to think ‘Why?’

Also, by “against all evidence” you basically mean against the fact you don’t like DP and therefore don’t think anyone else should, right?

Oh, and for the record, I don’t particularly like Sunn 0)))) Given that I DO like DP, does that make me hipster sheep or not hipster sheep?

Comment by Chris — June 19, 2009 @ 9:07 pm

Jiord in the first post, Juord in two posts subsequently. Weird.
Pick a name first, then do your complaining.

Comment by jonk — June 24, 2009 @ 12:25 am

— PopMatters sponsor —

The comments seem to have gone on some sort of tangent, intriguing, beautiful and complex record though.

This review may be of interest to you, http://www.whatisthegrain.com/2009/06/say-goodbye-to-post-britpop-pastiche-hello-to-dirty-projectors-bitte-orca/

Comment by The Grain — June 24, 2009 @ 12:07 pm

I read the Pitchfork review of Bitte Orca a month ago or so, it was glowing obviously. After reading the review I quickly acquired the album and soon feel in love with it. Is that my bad? Oh shit, I guess I let Pitchfork prescribe me my taste in music.

Actually, is there anything wrong with reading critics to try and pick up new bands, films, books, whatever? I am well informed, but at the end of the day I decide what I like and don’t. There’s been plenty of bands they’ve praised that I just haven’t liked and vice versa.

Comment by Frank — August 19, 2009 @ 8:18 am

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