Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca.(MIXTAPE: MUSIC)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)

Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca (Domino)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The NY Times called Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth a "genius." What do I say after that? He's not? Genius is some next level business. Longstreth is more like a combination of an MIT grad student and Galileo--a lot of earned, cocky smarts and a sureness that he is seeing stars. Bitte Orca is itself a spaceship to get to the outer orbit of Longstreth's brain, more a vessel of conviction than galaxy itself. Much of the funky golden hue of the album's first single, "The Stillness is the Move"--sung entirely by guitarist Amber Coffman--sounds like an American remix of ancient Egyptian prayers. Halfway through the gentleness of "Useful Chamber," everything drops out except for a budget drum machine and a brief spoken word digression from Longstreth, before the sudden and extreme buzz of two guitar layers, one fuzzed and messy and the other clean and shredding. It's so enveloping you barely notice the drums sound like they are spoons on buckets.

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