Stream Four Songs Off Gil Scott-Heron’s New Album, I’m New Here, Which, According to Brooklyn Vegan, Will Be Remixed By Goth-Brits The xx; Elsewhere, Does Anyone Know Whether or Not the Revolution is Going to Be Televised This Year? I’m Pretty Sure I Saw It On TV Last Year, But Who Knows…[Brooklyn Vegan]

Speaking of The xx, They Permanently Lose Keyboardist Baria Qureshi – Meaning They Are Now Contending With Only New Kids on the Block For Least Attractive New Kids on the Block Look Alikes [NME]

Stream Animal Collective Playing “Bleeding” Live, a Version of Which Will Appear on the Upcoming Fall Be Kind EP; Released November 26 [Stereogum]

Watch New Video From Clipse, “Doorman,” From the Oft-Delayed Till the Casket Drops, Due Out December 8; Clipse, We Get It, You Love Cocaine, It’s Played Out, No One’s Career Has Ever Been Defined By Their Love of Coc – Oh, Wait, Nevermind. Keep Doin’ What You’re Doin’ [Pitchfork]

Stream Flying Lotus’s Remix of Lil Wayne’s “I Feel Like Dying,” Which May Make You Feel Like Dying (I Apologize For Easy Joke, But C’mon, Flying Lotus’s Doom-Glitch Is Supposed to Make You Feel Like Dying) [Myspace]

Stream Memory Tapes Take On New Yeasayer Single, “Ambling Alp,” Which Retains All of the Original’s Inspiration, But Cuts Away the Almost-Sickening Attention to Detail (Read: Overproduction); Yeasayer’s Odd Blood Released February 9 [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Stream Solange’s (Beyonce’s Little Sister) Cover of Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca Highlight “Stillness is the Move,” Which is as Awesome as It Sounds – Elsewhere, Remember When Jay Z Went With Solange to Go See Grizzly Bear? That Was Cool [Pitchfork]

compiled by Max Sebela

FRESH BAKED
in NYC
Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
2009 | Domino
A

Were Bitte Orca reduced to only its first thirty-five seconds, it’d still be one of the finest albums of the year. Opener “Cannibal Resource” stutters to life with ringing guitars, tangled in a magisterial phrase that feels immediately canonical. It segues masterfully into a jagged, stomping verse, and Dave Longstreth’s broken-bell delivery of what is unquestionably one of the finest album-opening lyrics ever conceived: “Look around at everyone/ Everyone’s alive and waiting.” And then the ladies enter: soaring, squawking, and riotous, they deliver the album’s first and finest, impeccably interwoven, wordless harmony. It’s an incredible start to an album; it’s a battle cry, a statement of purpose, a synopsis of what’s to come.

Bitte Orca is consistently revelatory and complex throughout. Its finest songs are maniacally composed pop symphonies that consistently and unexpectedly change and manipulate genre, tone, and rhythm: “Temecula Sunrise” begins as a fractured folk song yet somehow evolves into tumbling crashes and lunatic electric guitar lines; the inspired “Useful Chamber” is comprised of equal parts delicately finger picked acoustic folk, hip hop, R&B, choral music, chugging distorted guitars, and that same tumbling, crashing and sinewy guitar shredding that previously asserted itself on “Temecula Sunrise.”  Neither of these songs can be logically explained. And, often, the changes in tone are so abrupt that it’s difficult to keep up. But they’re flawlessly and seamlessly conceived. Whereas they might have felt like patchwork, like fragments pieced clumsily together, they instead feel organic and spontaneous, like living documents.
More on Dirty Projectors | Bitte Orca

IN THE TUBE
The Dirty Projectors’ new album Bitte Orca is really good. A lot of people have been saying that and now I’m saying it too: it’s really good. Right now – now – I’m thinking of how to review it and of what nice things I might want to say. I’m going to give it an A probably. Maybe an A-, but probably an A. Check in later in the week to find out!

But for now, here’s a performance of “Remade Horizon” that I think is pretty remarkable.  First up, of course, are some incredibly inspired female harmonies (though Bitte Orca’s version doesn’t start with these harmonies): a couple them with Dave Longstreth’s spidery guitar lines and you’ve a hell of an introduction to the band’s maniacally and meticulously composed pop songs. And, from here, the album only gets better, elegantly employing elements from any and all genres, from symphonic to soul. Bitte Orca, as a whole, is consistently challenging and revelatory, comprised of seemingly fractured melodies and compositions that show their flawless design after repeated listening. Between realizing last week how sadistic was my refusal to appreciate Grizzly Bear (I cannot overstate how good Veckatimest is) and now this eye opening with Bitte Orca (I’ve never heard the Dirty Projectors as their devoted hear them; this album convinced me), June is going to be a tough music month to beat for me. Although the Bowerbirds’ forthcoming Upper Air is straight A+. God. I’m just giving away the endings to all sorts of reviews today.

by Chris Kiehne

DAILY NEWS PICKS

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compiled by Elana Jacobs