We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list for emerging artists (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record store personnel, DJs, and our writers and readers).
Dave Longstreath has a reputation of being difficult to reach for an interview (although he did concede one to The Deli back in 2006) . I’d suggest nailing jello to a wall would be an easier task than getting the Dirty Projectors front man to sit down for a one-on-one chat. The few who have managed to snag him find him incredibly guarded, giving short, snappy answers. “The band are not doing interviews right now,” the e-mail from the bands PR people when approached about this piece. That’s in contrast to the non-reply one usually expects when an artist isn’t interested, so maybe the point they’re making is deliberate. Point being that there are few bands in the world right now hotter than Dirty Projectors. They can afford to blow off the odd piece of promo, right?
Their 2007 release Rise Above, an album of songs by the band Blag Flag performed from memory, broke down a lot of walls for Longstreath and the revolving door of musicians he calls Dirty Projectors. High concept perhaps, but it brought critical success and a sizeable fan base to a band that had begun as a solo project from their main man’s freshman dorm room at Yale. The record combined the band’s experimental leanings with influences that ranged all over the map from Chicago soul to Nigerian afrobeat. In that respect, they can be thanked for paving the way for a certain Vampire Weekend.
Still, there was a certain feeling on the release of 2009’s Bitta Orcha that this is what the Brooklyn band’s seven year career had been building towards. Now signed to indie powerhouse label Domino, the album was a significant move away from their more experimental leanings and towards a more absorbable sound. What emerged was one of the most important art-pop albums in years. In essence Longstreath learned to put his own eccentricities to one side (2005’s The Getty Address was a concept album about musician Don Henley for example) and inject some playfulness to his sound.
Take the album’s most box-office moment and first single ‘Stillness is the Move’. It’s one of those rare moments in Dirty Projector’s back catalogue that sounds like a solo release. A magnetic riff dripping with African influence, some kitchen sink drumming and a soulful groove, it was easy to predict this one would be a breakout success. It’s perhaps a testament to the quality of Bitta Orcha then that it wasn’t left behind by the juggernaut success of its most potent song. There’s the nimble acoustic picks of the sickly sweet ‘Two Doves’, the psychedelic shrieks on ‘The Bride’ or the sprawling digirock-opus ‘Useful Chamber’, this was a record studded with highlights. A bona fide breakthrough made by the band.
Longstreath may continue to cut somewhat of an enigmatic figure. “It’s like I’m gradually putting something together where anything belongs, and it works,” said Longstreath in a rare interview, ironically given to Interview magazine. “I find a way to unify the different music I’ve written under a larger thing," he added. If this “larger thing” continues to grow into a stunning, vibrant collection of such fine records then his fans won’t mind remaining at arm’s length. – Dean Van Ngyuen