Dirty Projectors (Domino)
Dave Longstreth doesn’t make it easy for admirers to unravel the meanings and motivations behind his music.
Previous works include a song cycle about Eagles’ drummer Don Henley and a stab at reimagining Black Flag’s album Damaged.
If there’s elaborate conceit behind Bitte Orca, Longstreth’s keeping it hidden.
On the surface, thanks to a larger line-up and richer production, it sounds like an attempt to ground the group’s multitude of inspirations into something more accessible.
You can pick out everything from Ghanaian highlife to ’80s electro in the nine tracks.
Despite its magpie jumble of influences though, Bitte Orca is very much its own record.
And for all its thrilling moments – the group’s four singers bouncing off each other on Remade Horizon, Amber Coffman’s soaring vocal on Stillness Is The Move, the centrepiece of Useful Chamber – it’s also greater than the sum of its parts, and unlike any album you’ll hear this year.
WILL FULFORD-JONES
