The Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca

THE REVIEW

I'm surprised that no one has written anything about the Dirty Projectors yet. It's funny that I have to do it, given that I don't have much experience as a critic. Because this album is of a lethal density and what I have to say is little.

Is it possible, today, to do something imaginative in the "guitar+bass+drums+voice+distorted guitar" scene? It's an incomprehensible question, but I asked myself, and the answer was yes. 

The Brooklyn quintet had already made an impression before. The vocal trio formed by Amber, Angel, and Haley, along with Longstreth's falsettos, constitutes a trademark. But the levels reached with this album exceed all expectations. 

It is the voices, mostly female, that make this work full of brilliant insights. The guitar is sometimes funk, sometimes beat, hard; the rhythm, dub, soul, prog, hip-hop. The playful voices, sweet and Afro. Delicate and sharp choruses interact with Longstreth's unique interventions, creating a particular scene: it almost seems as if you see them arguing, and in the end, they move forward united in the same direction. When it seems they are experimenting, you realize that there is nothing unfinished, left to chance. Dissonances and rhythmic stumbles without virtuosity. A creative laboratory with much to teach. Everything is part of the melody, clean and compact. Pop.

Bitte Orca is beautiful.