9th June - Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca

Artist – Album: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Released:  9^th June 2009

Sounds Like: Nothing else

About halfway through the first track on the Dirty Projectors’ second full length Bitte Orca, I realised I’d have a job even to ascribe a genre to its quirky, unique sound. It feels appropriate to prefix styles such as pop or indie or rock with words like art or experimental, but such descriptions pigeonhole this music, which in truth simply sounds different to anything else out there.

Their sound is built around the twin towers of their labyrinthine guitarwork and lead singer David Longreith’s ascending, howl. These are then supported variously by shifting time signatures, left-of-centre arrangements, looping rhythms and orchestral synths and strings. All of which sounds like a lot more hard work than it truthfully is.

Because, despite the group’s distinctive approach, the result is a sunny, light album, albeit one which is perhaps more fresh and crisp than that of its contemporaries by virtue of the rarefied slant. This is by far the best album by one of the most interesting bands currently out there.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       Cannibal Resource – 3:55

2.       Temecula Sunrise – 5:05

3.       The Bride – 2:49

4.       Stillness Is the Move – 5:14

5.       Two Doves – 3:42

6.       Useful Chamber – 6:28

7.       No Intention – 4:17

8.       Remade Horizon – 3:55

9.       Fluorescent Half Dome – 5:45

Listen to ‘No Intention’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqmjOER-PU

Also released on the 9^th June:

1978: The Rolling Stones – Some Girls

Also released on the 9^th June:

2003: Radiohead – Hail to the Thief