You should be bracing for everyone to lose their shit to Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca LP, so maybe hearing the studio treatment of the SXSW show-stopper “Stillness Is The Move” will help with that. While the track sees the outfit push into new terrain (think Mariah over art-damaged, African-guitar infused R&B), the single’s cover art ironically sees the band circling itself: the image of “Stillness”‘s lead vocalist Amber Coffman teases the Bitte Orca album art, which itself reprises Dirty Projectors ’04 release Slaves Graves & Ballads. (Whoa.) That cover and Longstreth’s Progress Report suggested the album would provide Amber and Angel some moments in the spotlight. “Stillness Is The Move” definitely is Amber’s star turn.
You can download the MP3 free by entering your e-mail below. You’ll be signed up to Domino’s Dirty Projectors list, and a .zip file should automatically pop up upon submit.
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Don’t expect anything else on Bitte Orca to be so Hot 97-ready, but it’s no coincidence the album’s lead single is this adventurous. Get psyched. Listening to the radical vocals Dave Longstreth’s arranged historically, and now on new songs from “Stillness” to “Remade Horizon” (below), you begin to understand why Björk is a fan and is allowing him to arrange a vocal piece for her to perform in a SoHo bookstore. That’s not to say every word of that sentence isn’t crazy, just that hearing the shades of brilliance that Dirty Projectors are revealing makes it all a little more fathomable.
The “Stillness Is The Move” 12″ is out 4/21, and Bitte is out 6/9, both via Domino. Dirty Projectors make the list of Top Live shows every year, but Austin was different; I’ve never seen a crowd go so wild for a full set of music they’d never heard a note of before. Here are some clips from the show that did us in down there (during a day party no less, a difficult situation in which to impress, let alone do whatever it is this is).
Here’s “Remade Horizon.” At around 4:00, when the vocals are deconstructed and then brought back in the round, stitched together and at full force, the only mouths not screaming were the ones that were slack-jawed:
And here’s Amber working it out on the set-closing “Stillness Is The Move.” The video doesn’t do justice to the crowd’s cheers, but Dave plugging his ears at the end does.
Unfortunately it cuts out before my favorite part, which was Dave being like “Hey that was all new stuff, from a new album we have coming out called Bitte Orca, we’re pretty excited about it,” as if he wasn’t watching everyone lost their minds the entire set. Yay. (See also.)
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you can see some more videos of them live at SXSW here: http://ohmpark.com/photos/sxsw-day-4-saturday-one-last-night-to-get-dirty/
Video’s gone.. I don’t think you guys were meant to blog about this just yet.
i seriously do NOT get this band. they sound like cats dying. why do people like this band? and if someone can give me a valid real reason – i am all ears. so over hyped up hipster SHIT.
i seriously do NOT get music. it just sounds like differences in air pressure oscillating with variable frequency. enjoying the vibration of your stereocilia is just hyped up hypster SHIT.
now photosynthesis – THAT’s a physical process I can enjoy.
ok, so i cant play the youtube video, but based on the live video of Stillness Is The Move, this band i just flat out not good. is this a joke? the guitar part is earsplitting, the vocals are dull, and there is hardly a beat!! booooo!!
I wouldn’t base my opinion of a band on a rough live clip that somebody recorded on their cameraphone, but that’s just me…
never got into their last album but that live shit is nuts and awesome. technically unbelievable.
Lacey needs a hug.
really looking forward to this one. dave longstreth is a genius, I am sure of it.
Other than Angel and Amber, who is the third girl performing with them (the one next to Amber)?
Haley Dekle is her name, according to their Myspace page.
I saw them at Benington College (sort of a weird place) at the beginning of their tour in February. I managed to get a set list:
Cannibal Resource
Remade Horizon
Bitte Orca
Stillness is the Move
Ground Underfoot
Black Dove
The Bride
Ascending Melo[dy]
World Emblem
Fluorescent H.D. (I forgot what the H.D. stands for…)
Knotty Pine
The show was ridiculous. I was talking to Nat Baldwin, their bassist, and the drummer; they told me that “Ascending Melody” was written two days prior. I don’t know if they’re playing it at SXSW, but it’s clearly not on the album. It’s just this crazy crescendo of a song that ends with over distortion and smashing drums – and then in true DPs style, at least as far as I remember, went into a beautiful vocal harmony. I also talked to Dave after the show – what a nice guy! Anyway, I’m super excited for this album, more so than anything in awhile.
Henrietta Doolittle?
hd stands for halfdome. and that set list is pretty close to the tracklist
brilliant.
I’ve heard from a friend that met the band that Dave treats his bandmates like shit, and bosses them around, kind of a tyrant, as if he’s the orchestra director or something, and also that he’s sort of paranoid about things and spaced out most of the time.
He seemed incredibly amiable but professional with his band at manchester, of course he’s gonna have to be a bit bossy seeing as though dirty projectors is his band, and i’m guessing he writes most of the band’s lines. i think the fact that Nat Baldwin’s returned to the fold shows that he’s probably a very nice guy
Welcome to the way that basically 90% of bands operate, my friend.
Not true at all.
chewbacca, dave cultivates a fela kuti presence on stage, but is a very good and generous person IRL. uninformed gossip = not needed.
OK…SNL knows what it has to do to get me to watch the Zooey D episode…I don’t know if it will happen though…it would blow the whole conspiracy of mediocrity…(before you knew it the public would turn French and the whole Kanye/Police Academy 5 house of cards would fall !)
Kevin, I’d like to shake your hand for “dave cultivates a fela kuti presence on stage.” Well said; I love this aspect of their live act. Dave reminds me of chicken police http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVb3t560oY , with Amber and Angel as the bunnies he needs to keep in line. Mmmm…. Amber…. Angel… bunnies…. Wait, what was I saying?
http://codigomusica.com/wp-content/uploads/Dirty%20Projectors%20-%20Stillness%20is%20the%20Move.mp3
A good rip of “Stillness”
LEAKED!!!!
does anybody else realize that Bitte Orca leaked a few days ago? I’m wondering why no one has been talking about it and none of the usual blogs (or even what.cd) have it up. am I the only person on the internets that was able to grab it?
BTW…. HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THIS BAND INCREDIBLE
got that shit. and yes THIS BAND IS INCREDIBLE!!. the nyc shows are a bit expensive so i am going down to baltimore to see them with a place to bury strangers. best record of 09 so far in my opinon
You want to drop a hint as to what site? Or is this just a wind-up?..
not a wind-up. I found it on Soulseek randomly over the weekend — it popped up from my wishlist. i was expecting it to be all over the place by now and i’m really surprised it isn’t given how anticipated this release is.
Thank you for the tip-off!
where did it leakkk???
I?ve been led to understand that Dave Longstreth is an intolerable tyrant. My guess is that some degree of pigheadedness is necessary to realizing Longstreth?s singular genius.
lies. hasn’t leaked.
your mom is lies. don’t be mad just because you cant find it.
this album shits on everything else released this year
It leaked and it is fucking phenomenal. Far too good to be belittled with Album Of The Year banter but yet so are MPP and Veckatimest and look what happened to them.
Seriously though great bands are throwing down epic shit in 2009.
hey cool, those are my vids up there.. and yah the Dirty Projectors were awesome at sxsw!
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Hi Stereogum,
On behalf of Domino Records and the Dirty Projectors, many thanks for plugging “Bitte Orca” ? street date 8th June ? .. thanks, also, on behalf of the label and artist for not posting any pirate links to unreleased / unauthorised (studio) material and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then ?Stillness Is The Move? is available for a limited time at http://www.dominorecordco.us/usa/news/09-04-09/dirty-projectors–free-track/ for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc … .. for info on “Bitte Orca” and the band?s 2009 shows, check-out http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprojectors , http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/dirty-projectors/ and http://westernvinyl.com/artists/dirty_projectors.html … .. also, keep an eye on these official sources for details of preview material and pre-release promotions.
Thanks again for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
…leaked!
this reminded me to listen to The Getty Address. Thing is nuts.
cool song.
Trying to explain how good this song is pretty much useless…
I can’t get over it.
Though I am a little disappointed that Dave doesn’t sing any on this one, but it is pretty much perfect as it is.
I loved “Rise Above” but this does NOTHING for me…Hmmmm
it actually makes me mad that people think this is good. You’re all wrapped up in hype. If you told me this wasn’t dirty projectors but a high school band playing in battle of the bands, i would believe you. But I wouldn’t believe you if you told me they won.
some nice legs, otherwise i’d rather hear my cat scratching in his box.
More white kids playing African music?
Bitte Orca is sick. I listened to the whole thing a number of times last night — and I just can’t stop. This is no hype, my friends. The album is brilliant. I just finished writing a review on it — with this opening:
“Look no further. This is the album of the year.
No offense to the mountain of talent in the music world today — but there won’t be any album in 2009 to equal the majesty of the Dirty Projectors’ upcoming “Bitte Orca” — a record shimmering with polyphonic brilliance.
There’s no mistaking, singer Dave Longstreth is the painter of this masterpiece. But he’s also a conductor who knows the music is good because he’s surrounded with talent. He’s a lead singer who doesn’t overshadow. His soft phrasings and high falsetto often serve as undertone to the currents of harmony that rise and swell thanks to backing vocalists Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. These two songbirds and drummer Brian McComber form Longstreth’s vision into a reality. These nine creations are as detailed as embroidery. As intricate as architecture.
There’s no getting around it. This album is brilliant.
It rivals David Byrne’s solo work, full of idiosyncratic borrowings of mutli-rhythmic sounds. It’s Frank Zappa’s orchestral organization skills meeting Zap Mama’s keen ability to keep these sounds cohesive. There are also echoes of Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Nick Drake, folksy Appalachia, and even some of the most creative R&B — with backing vocals that, at times, sound like they could find a home equally in the songs of The Be Good Tanyas, Beth Orton or Mariah Carey. Take your pick.
What an odd, golden piece of inspiration this album is.
We’ve heard hints of genre bending in some of Dirty Projectors’ earlier albums like the “New Attitude EP”, “The Getty Address” and the re-imagining of Black Flag’s “Damaged” in “Rise Above” — where Longstreth takes the lyrics of Henry Rollins and re-tools them Dirty Projectors style — finding softness and vulnerability beneath the Rollins bravado.
But what’s fascinating about this album is a uniqueness that matches its accessibility — with harmonies as addictive as candy. The band’s ambition has paid off with an absolute classic. The album is as complex as efforts by the The Books — but as listenable as The Beatles. It owes as much to African tribal rhythms as it does to 70s rock, David Byrne, Zap Mama, 80s pop, the likes of Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello and the modern avant-garde.
The band’s complete command of dizzying structures throughout the album are nothing short of amazing. Complex vocal arrangements compliment R&B grooves, string arrangements, pizzicato plucking, flamenco-style guitar, full violin assembles, understated drumming — all giving rise to gorgeous harmonies, wild transitions and powerful hooks.
“Bitte Orca” is a smorgasbord of sounds — soul inspired, ebullient and mind blowing.”
Love this and the cover by Solange