Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (2009)

I'll start off this post by saying that I'm not really sure what I think about the Dirty Projectors. The sounds are nicely unique and there are many elements in this music that I really like. Then again, the songwriting is quite noisy and not always even very pleasant to listen to. I like quite simple melodies in pop music, or at least melodies that are recognisable. Dirty Projectors seems to just improvise as they go along and it's usually not even according to any chord progression. There are just random noises here and there forming the songs. Animal Collective has used similar approaches in their music and, similarly to Dirty Projectors, I'm not too sure what I'm thinking about them. Maybe I'm just too conventional when it come to music. I mean, I only just started enjoying my first jazz fusion albums. Anyway, even if I think there's something genius about this album, I'm not sure if I like it that much.



This seems a very contradictory thing to say. How can I think something is genius, but at the same time say I don't particularly like it? I guess it's because after listening to so much music from different genres, I've grown to appreciate bands for what they are even if I don't like the genre they represent. I have actually no idea what genre I would include Dirty Projectors in. I've used art pop and experimental pop in the tags of this post, because I feel like those were the closest matches. But in all honesty, I don't know if that describes this well.

The instruments used on this album, are quite normal. There are acoustic guitars, electric guitars, drums, bass and vocals. It's difficult to imagine that you can make this kind of music with just those instruments. There are obviously some electronic instruments as well, but they don't take a main stage here. The vocals sound interestingly original, but they are often a bit off-key, which makes listening to them a bit challenging.

The songs that come closest to being pleasant to listen to, are Cannibal Resource, a pretty basic modern indie pop-rock song, The Bride, a psychedelic folk song, and Two Doves, another folk song with even more stripped down sounds and even some string arrangements. Also, the last song on the album, Fluorescent Half Dome, sounds like a pretty strange RnB song, but at least it has quite a sensible structure. The rest of the songs are more or less noisy and experimental chaotic pieces.

The music video for Stillness Is the Move features dancing and singing on the mountain top in strange capes. It also has some llamas. Sounds kind of psychedelic, but then again, I felt like the music made more sense, when I could see the people singing it in front of my eyes, so who knows.

So, why do I own this album, if I think it's so weird? Well, once again, I borrowed it from the library in Helsinki back when it was a new album and I thought it had something I kind of enjoyed even if I couldn't really understand it. Also, I had heard their song on the brilliant Dark Was the Night compilation album and felt like I have to give this band another chance. Then I saw this album second hand with £2 at a London record shop and I decided, what the hell, maybe I'll grow to understand it. I still feel like I haven't, but maybe that time will come.

Listen to the album on Spotify.