Eating/sf is featuring a recipe today for turkey cutlets with brussels sprouts and dried cranberries. It is a savory dish with hints of sweetness courtesy of the dried cranberries. Kasey describes it as a recipe you might want to check out if you are missing Thanksgiving already. So with the concept of “missing things” in mind, today I’m posting my review of Dirty Projectors‘ Bitte Orca. It is an album that I just never found the right pairing for, but which I found to be one of the year’s best releases: it just barely didn’t make my Top Ten of 2009. Featuring deep and thumping percussion, guitar riffs that alternate between shimmering and off-kilter and roaring, and co-ed vocals that call to mind the Talking Heads and Bjork, Bitte Orca is a captivating and engaging album that rewards repeated listens.
Brooklyn-based Dirty Projectors is an experimental-indie band consisting of Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, Brian McOmber, Nat Baldwin, Haley Dekle and fronted by David Longstreth. Although I was aware that they had received some critical praise on their prior albums, Dirty Projectors really first came to my attention after the release of their “Hyperballad” cover on Stereogum’s tribute to Bjork and later when I heard their phenomenal collaboration with David Byrne on the fantastic Dark Was the Night compilation. Based on the strength of those two tracks, I was eagerly awaiting the release of Bitte Orca, and was not let down upon its release. Album opener “Cannibal Resource” opens with intermittent blipping bass lines and a skitchy guitar before blossoming forward with Longstreth’s vocals and backing vocals formed with half-sounds, handclaps and a stuttery percussion line. The following track, “Temecula Sunrise,” opens with straight-forward acoustic guitar and lovely vocals before sputtering off into Deerhoof-esque guitar rhythms and fractured bass lines. If you enjoy an album that is layered, beautifully composed, and challenging yet rewarding: you’ll love this one. Pick up the LP at Insound.
Head back to eating/sf to read the recipe for the turkey cutlets with brussels sprouts and dried cranberries (adapted from the recent issue of Bon Appetit).