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Clear Your Lenses
An experiment in sound you have to see to hear
Dirty Projectors (Photo: Sarah Cass)
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It took an appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” to bring Dirty Projectors into the general consciousness. The band’s debut performance of “When the World Comes to An End”—featuring the clicked, chirped, cheeped and hummed harmonies, like frogs calling to one another from nearby lillypads, of vocalists Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, Haley Dekle—in September impressed both Fallon and band leader ?uestlove. The latter, so much so, that he invited the band to join the Roots on stage sometime. Their idiosyncratic sound—melodic rock punctuated by strong guitars supporting a collage of vibrating vocals and choral melodies—explains their collaborations with Talking Head David Bryne and Icelandic siren Bjork.
In 2003, David Longstreth introduced Dirty Projectors to the scene, a rehash of his former project, The Graceful Fallen Mango. Dirty Projectors’ 2007 release, Rise Above, is a cover of Black Flag’s 1981 Damaged, reinterpreted and remembered by Longstreth nearly 15 years after he last listened to the album.
The line-up has changed over the years, but currently consists of Longstreth, bassist Nat Baldwin, Brian McOmber on drums, and singer Haley Dekle joining Dirty Projectors alum Amber Coffman on guitar, Angel Deradooria on keys, creating a firm foundation for their meandering musical voyage. Longstrenth writes to the strengths of each gentle voice, catering to each woman’s own unique sound.
Bitte Orca, the band’s 2009 release, is a bit neurotic and hard to classify; think of a trippy but low-key, slowed dance album, with a beat—then immediately disregard that when you hear the next track. The title, translated as “Please, Killer Whale,” refers to the album’s sweet but biting nature. Quiet yet busy songs, like chaotic “Temucula Sunrise” and heavily plucked “Two Doves” are all consuming. “Two Doves” is akin to the noise of a breezy, leaf strewn fall day, dappled with blinding sunlight. The sound of leaves crunching underfoot is replaced by casual guitar chord changes, carried on enveloping ethereal vocals chasing after warming viola, violin and cello strings. Jazzy “Stillness is the Move” has a tinge of fringe Japanese duo Cibo Matto’s whimsically eccentric but, only occasionally, accidentally, pop. “No Intention” and “Florescent Half Dome” are hauntingly serene, while “Useful Chamber” has the potential to evolve into a teenage-angst anthem; tranquil singing serenely builds over three minutes, before erupting into SoCal punk-flecked noise, teetering back and forth between the two styles, before ending on a loud note.
Though it’s easy to wrongly dismiss Dirty Projectors as just another quirky, Brooklyn-based hipster band, there’s talent beneath this cliché. Three sold-out New York shows prove it.