A tidier Dirty Projectors

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | musiX, pdX

I want to take a swim in Dave Longstreth’s gray matter. Just a little dip. The eccentric leader of Dirty Projectors has created another ADD-riddled album in Bitte Orca—and by all accounts, it’s much tamer than the band’s previous efforts.

It’s my first exposure to the Brooklyn sextet. Interesting, for how sprawling Bitte Orca is, I was hooked within 30 seconds. I like artists that push the boundaries by simply doing what comes natural, where the music/words/art are a very short extension of the creator’s mind. There’s no plan here. Longstreth takes his band of music-makers with him, pushes them, and has come up with some of the most interesting, weird pop music I’ve heard in a long time. The guy did an arty interpretation of Black Flag’s Damaged album fer chrissakes.

I’d make a headphones-required rule for this band. Boy-girl harmonies play tug-of-war with odd-time signatures, as do guitars, synths and Brian McOmber’s sometimes-stodgy drum beats. The album hits on so many genres of music that I think it has officially created a new genre by doing so. I can’t say I like every song. Yet. Right now, I’m finding enjoyment in the parts rather than the whole, trying to figure out how/why Longstreth decided to get from point A to point B—like in “Useful Chamber,” which starts off so unassuming before it bobs and weaves into a grandiose, noisy crescendo. How the hell does he do that? Maybe I don’t want to know.

But I’m sure you’d like to know that Bitte Orca is out today, and that Dirty Projectors will return to Portland July 4 to perform at Holocene (happy 6th birthday!) with What’s Up?. I’ll bet you’d also like to know that you can still stream the entire album at NPR Music.

“Stillness Is the Move” - Dirty Projectors

“Useful Chamber” - Dirty Projectors

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