David Longstreth formed Dirty Projectors in 2002 and the principal members now consist of Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman, Brian Mcomber and David himself. Dirty Projectors have also introduced an expanded six-member line-up with the addition of bassist Nat Baldwin and vocalist Haley Dekle for their recent [2009] live dates.

On May 8, 2009, members of Dirty Projectors collaborated with Björk to perform an original composition by Longstreth, written for five voices and acoustic guitar, as part of a charity concert to benefit Housing Works, a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing shelter for homeless men, women, and children suffering from AIDS. The concert was held at the Housing Works Bookstore & Café in downtown New York City.

Dirty Projectors are back with their 5th full-length album entitled Bitte Orca. This album has an array of clean crisp sounds with guitar riffs and strings to melt away to.

This album opens with ‘Cannibal Resource’, which has a fresh, lively sound to it. I particularly like the backing vocals on this track as they bring depth and feeling to it and when put together with the guitar riffs it has a great crisp sound.

‘Temecula Sunrise’ has a warm homely feeling about it. I can’t help but feel that there is a distinct Greek sound to this track; I can certainly envisage people sat in little Tavernas all over Greece listening to this type of music.

The vocals on ‘The Bride’ let this track down. To me they are just a little too whiney and this ruins the feel of this track.

The single taken from this album ‘Stillness Is The Move’ is a great track. I love everything about it, the beat, the melody, vocals, guitar and especially the string quartet. This is quite a powerful song and, as they say, less is certainly more.

I love the intro on ‘Two Doves’, it’s so calm and beautiful. In fact, the whole track is calming and the melody is very catchy. Again the string quartet that features on this track is just fantastic - it helps you melt away into the music.

‘Useful Chamber’ has more of an electronic feel to it with a crisp beat, which is broken by spurts of deep guitar crashes in between. Halfway through, this track changes direction and, to me, becomes just sheer noise. It then reverts back to the cool sound before once again turning to be just noise. This is one mixed up track.

Throughout ‘No Intention’ there is a distinct oriental sound. I like this track; it’s different but familiar at the same time.

‘Remade Horizon’ reminds me of the sounds of African tribal music with the mix of guitar riffs thrown in, pure genius. Listen out for the backing vocals at 2 mins, 37 sec; they are certainly worth the wait.

Opening with soft mellow sounds, which is interrupted by the loud crescendo of drums ‘Fluorescent Half Dome’, concludes this album. It’s chilled, calm and once again includes the string quartet and beautiful backing vocals.

Dirty Projectors are certainly showing off all their talents with a mixture of sounds on this album. It feels very much like these guys are well travelled and are using musical influences from around the world to incorporate into their own style of music. Whatever it is it works for them. This is definitely worth a listen.

8

Helena Rea