What was certainly the most anticipated record of my 2009 is finally here. But because we live in the future, I’ve had a chance to spend a lot of time with Bitte Orca over the past few weeks and it’s been an interesting experience.

My initial reaction went something like this: “WHY ISN’T THIS EXACTLY LIKE THE LAST RECORD? WAH WAH WAAAAH. I’M SUCH AN EMPTY PERSON.” But idle times found the album on repeat and before I knew it, it hit me. This is a phenomenal accomplishment for Dirty Projectors.

The reviews I’ve read thus far are right. Dirty Projectors have managed to make a record that’s every bit as challenging as their last (the stellar Rise Above) while doing something they’ve never done before: become accessible. As someone who has written many shitty songs in his life, this is absolutely maddening to me. It doesn’t make sense. The way the off-time noodling, the vocal stabs, the sporadic bass hits, and the seemingly random drum lines fit into something immensely sing-along-able is a total mystery.

It also makes me incredibly happy. I love this record.

Annie Clark, the phenomenal guitar/multi-instrumentalist who named her debut record after an Arrested Development catchphrase, is better known as St. Vincent.

She is also known as the woman I’ll be seeing perform on Wednesday while surrounded by countless other lonely, pining slobs.

Here she is on a bed in France:

In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls. The videos can be played simultaneously — the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders.

For me, more interestingly than adjusting levels is varying each clip’s starting points. I’ve done three go-rounds with this so far and each have been absolutely beautiful. I love bringing in the bass towards the middle and dropping the vocal track right before it. And the horns always round things out.

Bonus:

And:

I think part of me has been unconsciously trying to recapture that. I’ve made a point to go record shopping every single weekend over the last month and pad my safer music purchases with a couple of “I’m not so sure about these.” And I’ve pretty much failed miserably. In my collection now resides unlistenable drone, tons of schreeeeeching sounds, and just a bunch of nonsense.

So perhaps it was a last ditch effort that led me to the World Music section of the store and found me thumbing through compilations merely marked “African.” A $9 LP found its way into my pile based on this handwritten description:

The styles of music featured on this LP are R&B, highlife, and dry guitar music.

And now, I’m obsessed. The LP is entitled Love is Love and comes from the well-respected (a fact I’m just now learning) Mississippi Records label. It’s a collection of music mostly recorded between 1955 and 1972, though it all sounds quite a bit older than that. And it is absolutely gorgeous. Take a listen:

S.E. Rogers, “Toomus Meremereh Nor Good”

I’ve since learned that Mississippi released another collection of similar music, entitled Lipa Kodi Ya City Council, and it’s also stellar. S.E. Rogers appears again (though he’s called S.E. Rogie this time around) with another beautiful track:

S.E. Rogie, “Do Me Justice”

Sadly, Lipa Kodi Ya City Council is out of print and unavailable anywhere as far as I can tell. But I made another wonderful discovery in reading the small, handwritten text found all along the back of Love is Love:

We hope to release 3 more compilations of this type of music over the next two years. Unfortunately, due to our distaste for mass production & our limited budget, these future releases will also be of an exceptionally limited edition. Please record this LP & all others in this series onto cassette tape or digital files for any of your friends who you think may enjoy it. We need to stop sending rockets to the moon, & start taking care of each other here on Earth.

So, enjoy!
Download Lipa Kodi Ya City Council
Download Love is Love

I just wasn’t prepared for how REAL things get at the end of this “behind the scenes.” Too much tweakin! Not enough turning the camera off! And who gets to keep the Bedazzler in the break up?

Okay, seriously? Just look at that picture for a second. Then listen to her. And then remember that she’s also in Dirty Projectors. What’s next? You’ll tell me she loves peanut butter, Arrested Development, Sam Cooke, and wants to play “That’s What You Get” on Rock Band (she’ll sing)?

The world can be so cruel to me.

Deradoorian‘s Mind Draft is out on 05/05 on Lovepump United. The song above is called, “You Carry the Deed.”

via fluxtumblr

You can (and should) grab the entire thing here.