The Dirty Projectors got caught up in a storm of magic and longing with the arbitrary polyphonic silhouettes of this colorful carnivorous cacophony. Before there were the Projectors, there was Yale student Dave Longstreth, who recorded 'The Graceful Fallen Mango' on a four track with his brother Jake. For his second album 'The Glad Fact', he adopted the Dirty Projectors moniker while still playing all of the instruments. 'Morning Better Last!' compiled three albums he had distributed as cassettes. 'Slaves' Graves and Ballads' combined two distinct EP's, one recorded with The Orchestral Society for the Preservation of the Orchestra and the other solo acoustic. A concept album about Don Henley, 'The Getty Address' brought more than twenty-five musicians into the fold. 'Rise Above' was a re-imagining of the songs of Black Flag's 'Damaged'.
'Bitte Orca' was produced by David Longstreth and recorded by Robbie Moncrieff at the Yale Union in Portland, OR with additional production by Nicolas Vernhes at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, NY; drums recorded by Brian Mcomber and David Longstreth at Flavorzone in Brooklyn, NY; and additional vocal recording at the Type Foundry in Portland, OR. The sessions featured David Longstreth on vocals and guitar, Amber Coffman on vocals and guitar, Haley Dekle on vocals, Nat Baldwin on bass, Olga Bell on vocals and keyboards, and Michael Johnson on drums; with string quartet director Jordan Dykstra on viola; Anna Fritz on cello and cornet; and Caleb Russell and Andrew Todd on violin.
Longstreth reveals: "I guess what I want to do, and what we want to do, is try to make music that feels good, and feels expressive-- even as it does so in a new vocabulary...The word 'bitte' is just a German word for 'please' and "orca" is the carnivorous whale. And I guess you know, there's not really a literal meaning to draw out of the phrase. But I like the way the words sound together. I feel like there's some kind of sense just in the relation between the two. Sort of like, 'please please me' or something. There's a part that's sort of gentle, and supple, and then there's a part that's barbed, and demanding. 'Bitte' is a polite word, but it's sharp...I don't like to think of one thing as more important than another. But I love the voice. It's crazy what you can do with a human voice, or a couple of human voices. It's so basic and it's so direct... I felt like with the music from 'Bitte Orca'-- whereas 'Rise Above' felt very black and white, this music felt very about colors, and their interaction. So it felt like the way to do that would be to explode the band a little bit, in particular writing for the girls and a lot of the polyphonic vocal writing. I built the album around all our voices, and their voices, and so to really pull that off, it's great to have Haley in there as well...One of my ideas for the album was to start sort of as a gift or homage to each one, to try to explode their temperaments into individual numbers. I was trying to widen the temperament of the band a little bit, to be Dirty Projectors but also have these new, different sort of flowers within the bouquet of the sound, or something...I like the idea of making their personalities in song very distinct from each other. There's definitely an element of symmetry or balance I was going for... In the past I've always just sort of been writing music and figuring out how to make it happen sort of as I wrote it, like, 'Okay, here's this melody, would this sound cool broken up across two different guitars, or would it sound cool with a flute and an oboe, would it sound cool as two voices weaving in and out, or...' I've always responded to this suggestion of the music itself. Whereas with this album, from the get-go I was like, 'I'm writing for us. There's this group of personalities, this band.' So it's totally different."
'Bitte Orca' was a breakthrough success for the band, going to number sixty-five on the US Billboard 200 and number twelve on the independent album chart.
http://dirtyprojectors.net/
"Cannibal Resource" - 3:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YPnzcB-Fs
"Temecula Sunrise" - 5:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZaSKecFR-Y
"Stillness Is the Move" - 5:14 (Longstreth, Amber Coffman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMPF6lpM0XM
"Two Doves" - 3:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Jhk_CNMj8
"Useful Chamber" - 6:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUcCLRaggo
"No Intention" - 4:17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5jQtP5FtBQ
'Bitte Orca'
full album:
All songs written and composed by David Longstreth, except where noted.
1. "Cannibal Resource" 3:55
2. "Temecula Sunrise" 5:05
3. "The Bride" 2:49
4. "Stillness Is the Move" David Longstreth/Amber Coffman 5:14
5. "Two Doves" 3:42
6. "Useful Chamber" 6:28
7. "No Intention" 4:17
8. "Remade Horizon" 3:55
9. "Fluorescent Half Dome" 5:45
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