Bitte Orca, the newest album from Brooklyn’s Dirty
Projectors, is downright parasitic: It’s an album composed of often
noxious components that is deftly able to worm its way into the
listener’s heart. With its nonsense title, frontman David Longstreth’s
vocal hiccups and complicated guitar figures oscillating from prickly
to dizzying, the album is a vexing initial listen. Those willing to put
in the effort, however, will discover an album of slinking, hypnotic
appeal.
Although Longstreth—who has a music degree from Yale—is
the band’s brain trust, Amber Coffman (vocals, guitar) and Angel
Deradoorian (vocals, bass, keyboard, guitar) are responsible for two of
the finer moments on Bitte Orca. The Coffman-fronted “Stillness
Is the Move” highlights her angelic, fluttery vocals as they weave
around and soar over jangly guitar, cracking drums and electronic hums.
Meanwhile, “Two Doves” coasts on Deradoorian’s melancholy vocals
shrouded in acoustic guitar arpeggios and looming, peaking violins.
Still, this is Longstreth’s project, and he gamely synthesizes his
art-house, workhorse ethos with DIY appeal. The sunny opener, “Cannibal
Resource,” swirls between his blithe vocals and twitchy guitars; “The
Bride” finds great tension between gossamer verses and meaty choruses;
and closer “Fluorescent Half Dome” coolly balances Talking Heads’
R&B and Afro-pop tendencies.
At nine songs, Bitte Orca has little room to fail. Its
complex, personality-disordered tunes are bound to aggravate plenty,
but beneath its adrenalized veneer is a surprisingly affecting pop
album with serious staying power.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.