Melodiously off-beat. That’s the oxymoron that describes the 8^th LP, Bitte Orca, released by Dirty Projectors in June of 2009. Leadman Dave Longstreth is not so lead in this album, lending his hauntingly boyish voice to only a couple songs, and letting Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, both lead vocals, to couple up, spice up, and accompanies his solos with flair and a descant unworldly pitch. Although this experimental rock group hasn’t been too prominent on the mainstream music radar, this nine track wonder is definitely the bands strongest work to date. It pushes the traditional pop rock envelope with a classical twist and all of the reverence of R&B.  A timeless doo wop indie feel penetrates songs like “Fluorescent Half Dome” and you can be lulled into a head bumping rhythm with the beats behind “Stillness in the Move”.

The sound is a little unorthodox, even with the popularity of Passion Pit and My Morning Jacket, and  the eccentric sounds swims in your brain like an unsolved puzzle . The jingle-jangle of faster paced songs are thrown into balance by slow ballads like “Two Doves”, a sugary love-song  that is so folk and so innocent it sweeps you into submission. The timbre of the female vocals, so toned and pitch perfect, off-set Longstreth’s cries to create a complement that puts all references of a Talking Heads wanna-be group to shame.

The integrity of the groups lyrics remain, uttered in a delightfully cyclical nature, timeless stories un-fold into your eardrums.  Traditional ideas of purpose and existentialist banter take the forefront of this album with lines like, “tears of laughter did pervade/your ambivalent behavior/where was your diamond engaged?” and, “I think you are more than a terrified witness/behind the arbitrary line/can it ask a question?/can it sing a melody?/can it be interpreted? And is it more than what the eye can see?” are reminders of why the drawn out thoughts keep us captivated.

So here it is in a nutshell; this album is the epitome of understated delight. Addictive in the refined way that only an exceptional experimental rock group can be. Longstreth is a song-smith, reigning in songs with more conventional trappings right when they are about to fall off the fragile edge between the plateau of music and the abyss of noise beneath. The 2010 release of their next LP, Ascending Melody, is much anticipated and holds within it the ability to finally vault this much deserving group into the public notoriety they deserve (which will hopefully not toll on their sound).

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