Bitte Orca

Offbeat elitist hipster-pop doesn't get much more up its own arse than this.

I can usually be objective and I understand that just because I don't like a thing that someone somewhere might love it. Perhaps it's just not for me. This album, however, made me angry. It's so bad. So so bad. I can't even figure out what they're trying to do here. There's no cohesion, no atmosphere, no point. Awful stuff.

It's like Captain Beefheart pop

I don't really get it. The album manages to be good, interesting, bad, and bland. Unfortunately, none of good parts are very interesting and all of the interesting parts are bad. The very best of the album sounds like it belongs on a better album.

Life too short for this shit

OK, this was probably the strangest album yet. I have no idea how to start describing it. But I definitely really liked it a lot - without being able to describe why either. I have already saved the album to listen to it again another time. But first I'll just go straight ahead and listen to something else by Dirty Projectors. Update: I then spent the rest of the day listening to radio playlists based on Dirty Projectors and loved it all the way. Even though I still don't really know what kind of music this is.

Please, killer whale? That is all this reviewer needed to confirm that this album is lost, befuddling, and an object lesson in being a waste of time. Perhaps this album is for musicians, or math-rockers inclined to scramble the brain for no reason other than they can. The pretentiousness that seems to ooze from this album and its compositions is infuriating to where the ears wanted to vomit. With all respect and seriousness, if a listener has to search for an album's intention or motivation, this qualifies as meaningless drivel. Art, such as the one seeming to be promoted here, is meant to challenge and inspire, hopefully to remain begrudgingly respected. This album is just crap, an inspiration for insult and dismissal. If that is the reaction aimed for, then spot on it is. If a band wants to experiment and play chords at random, then re-arrange all that into something that makes enough sense to get a record label to distribute their drivel, then this was it. Every member seems to do their own thing, and they are bad at it. The band is not without some semblance of talent, the whole thing just feels wasted, as though the mindless mashing of chords as a child was praised by over-supportive parents who then paid for a recording session that then was just trendy enough to be looked at as some sort of priceless abstract determined to be refreshingly different. Yes, it is different. Yes, it is not the usual fare one can expect from the so-called mainstream, but at least there we can hear music that is infuriating for better reasons for sounding too good and formulaic. This album is so bad it makes one want to defend pop and mainstream, and that is a bad thing.

Release the hounds

Bitte Orca? More like Bitte More-ca! I need more colorful, playful, quirky albums like this and much less stale, bland britpop. 8/10

What an absolutely infuriating listen with pretentiousness and dissonance in overflow. Absolute low-point is the useless hiphop beat in the middle of 'Useful Chamber' with equally useless spoken words(?).

A great deal of this record is a guy singing in falsetto while two female voices do a weird "vocal hocketing" thing that I learned about today. Dirty Projectors is one of those art pop bands that think switching obscure time signatures in the middle of a song makes them worthy. Technical acumen is nice, but they occassionally forget to make the music listenable at the same time. Best track: Two Doves

sounds very generic, hard to understand why it made the list. maybe I am missing something.

I hate millennials

Like a bad open mic night - a new song starts every 15 seconds with no connection to the previous 15 seconds

I got slightly into Dirty Projectors around the time this was released. I don't listen to whole lot of indie rock anymore, and didn't even have a FLAC copy of this - so I guess it has been years since I revisited it. Damn, it's still good. I love the abstract songwriting and idiosyncratic delivery. I love the way layered voices are used, and I love how the music is crisp and precise, but carries a big sense of possibility, like they might go off in another direction any moment. Can't think of anything I would change about this, so 5/5.

thought it was pretty cool

Reading the reviews I thought this was going to be pretentious rubbish, but it was actually enjoyable.

Pretty tripped out actually and I ended up listening to a handful of the songs more than once

I wish I’d discovered this album outside of this project, as one day is not enough to really rate and digest it. However, I think this is still a pretty clear 5 here; I love this creative and experimental indie.

Longstreth's voice sounds a bit strained on the first few cuts, but the compositions are intricate and the backing harmonies are delightful in stereo. Temecula Sunrise underlines the suburban angst with interjected "yeah"s. There's a prog-folk feel to first three songs, and they start in roughly the same way: minimal instrumentation and male vocals opening into movements and soundscapes. Stillness Is The Move is the proof that this is not the formula. It establishes that fact with its vamp. The sequencing continues to flow thanks to the string section linkage, until No Intention breaks the flow with a hint of a different kind of project altogether. The album ends with Longstreth in a halfway point between his early, more forced vocals and the more comfortable timbre of the couple preceding tracks. This time, he enters after an organ, and the song and album come to a close as the ideas on it come to fruition. I didn't expect something this accessible when I saw Trout Mask Replica comparisons, but this project earns it when its title is realized in lyrics.

Somehow all the songs sound the same , except they don’t.

If you can’t do one genre amazingly why don’t you do several poorly.

What a college a capella group would sound like if they started a band.

Bitte, no more.

Pretty art pop/rock. A bit meandering and it often feels like random harmonies and notes for the sake of it.

Oh goody, more pretentious hipster bullshit.

Indie with a capital I. Not my thing.

What on earth was this?

I fucking love this, and I totally understand why you might not. The reviewer who commented "Captain Beefheart pop" is absolutely correct, but not in the derogatory way they probably meant. I think David Longstreth is a kind of technical genius, a worthy heir of weird complex '80s pop (Talking Heads, Scritti Politti..?), writing songs that look good on paper and striving to make them sound good on record. Here, "Temecula Sunrise" is a great example; their best songs are characterized by pleasing guitar filigree, odd phrasings and exploding off-kilter choruses, all of which is right up my alley. Perhaps "Swing Lo Magellan" is better (certainly more accessible), give it a spin. I'm happy to discover they have a new album out just this month, ooh!

Noticed one of the songs form 2k13 lol but really enjoyed the album!

Mellow melodies, soft voices, a good indie album

This is a great experimental indie album, reminds me of Discovery. A big fan of some of the strange cadences and the colorful sound.

Loved it when I was 14, still love it now.

Reeeally nice. It reminds me of tune yards a lot

Great band. Saw this album played in person in Dallas. Still love it.

7/10 This album is so aggressively 2009 I had to check if it had “BEST NEW MUSIC” by p4k and was like “yea” when I saw the 9.2 on the screen. Very nice album overall even if it didn’t go far enough in a lot of areas, it’s among the better “Avant-Pop” records of the late 2000s. This would hit the best if I had thick rimmed glasses, a flannel, timbs, and a handle bar mustache in a craft beer bar after voting for Obama.

I really liked this album. I discovered this band relatively recently and liked their album with Bjork. I think the way the use the male and female voices is interesting

A lovely album. I can't put my finger on what is so unique about them, but they just seem to have a way of composing and writing that is unexpected, unusual, and appealing to me.

Pretty nice.

Def a twee quality that's aged poorly but overall a fun art pop album. I'd give it 3.5 but I can see why the pitchfork crowd swooned over it back in the day. The band is pretty sick, some wild polyrhythms and harmonies

I’d like to rate this higher due to degree of difficulty, but I believe the complexity and overwrought construction of the songs is self-inflected and affected. At times there are great moments, but they feel accidental.

Don’t tell the indie kids, but I think David Longstreth is a massive Steve Howe (Yes) fan. He laces Howe-isms in his guitar playing through out the record. If you don’t believe me, listen to the title track or “Temecula Sunrise”, if you’ve heard a few Steve Howe solos or enjoy Yes, it’ll hit you hard. Honestly, it’s pretty amazing, like if you dropped Steve Howe into Stereolab and it somehow worked. Ok, enough trying manipulate the generator into giving me a Yes record to review. (Serious about the Steve Howe thing, though). Bitte Orca separates itself from a lot of 2000/10’s indie rock with its complex, layered arrangements. It’s a daunting listen at first, but when it clicks, it’ll likely leave you wanting more. RIYL: “Point” by Cornelius, Steve Howe’s work in Yes.

This is quite an attention grabbing bizarre album. This is almost a live 'jamming' session album, I couldn't really describe the genre, wiki calls it 'experimental rock' - experimental is right, rock - not so much, it's more modern classical folk singer-songwriter jazz? Anyway - there's lots of surprisingly elements, off key measures, tempo changes or skips - it could ALMOST be background easy listening music except for the injected surprise elements draw your attention back constantly. Unfortunately, not a fan of the singers - who sounds like a less controlled 'Mika' - high pitched, shaky, something I guess you need to get to like. I can understand the ideas behind the album, though it's not really to my personal taste.

Le nom du groupe annonçait la couleur toutefois je ne m'attendais pas du tout à cette horrible expérience visuelle. L'album est en effet projeté sur une toile blanche à l'aide de deux appareils qu'on devine à peine sortis de la cave. Les images sont de cet fait d'une qualité des plus médiocres la faute à une large couche de poussière et de toiles d'araignées recouvrant les deux objectifs. À fuir.

This is the sound of a Wes Anderson movie with all the fun bits edited out. (Still gets a 2 for at least enjoying itself, Si.)

I'm guessing that this band's opinion of itself is much higher than my opinion of them. Maybe I'm not hip because I didn't find this oddity enjoyable. With such a rich world of music to choose from where does the author find this crap? This album does not belong on the list.

Hm. I suppose I should be as appreciative of getting this album as I was the previous one (Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief"), as I can't say I particularly enjoyed either album but also had never heard of them before this project, and in Fairport Convention's case it felt like a missing puzzle piece in my very vague sense of British music genre histories. But I'm struggling to feel appreciative of much of anything in "Bitte Orca", except perhaps that it's not an overly long album, a rarity among the 21st-century entries. (I vaguely hoped that the video for "Stillness is the move" might be a highlight, but all I can say is that it will likely reinforce any existing feelings towards the band, for good or (in my case) bad.) I *did* enjoy reading this reflection in the Wikipedia entry (by Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear): "Bitte Orca is so distinctly Dirty Projectors that I didn't even know how to begin to describe what genre it is, you know? What would one categorize it as?" I agree completely, although he had a much more positive take on that than I do. Uncharitably, I would probably categorize this album (and possibly the band) as more than a bit pretentious, disappointingly jarring, and as far as I can tell very happily living in a musical cul-de-sac. Although a bit of a mystery why it got included in the first place, I'm not at all surprised to discover that this album only made it into one edition of this project's book (2011 edition).

Quirky? Pretentious? Discordant? These are a few words that popped into my head when I listened to this album. In general, I like music that sounds good, and this does not, for the most part. But is it bad in a good way? Maybe.

I remember getting this album when it came out. I had heard “Stillness is the Move” at an Urban Outfitters probably. I remember getting it and being incredibly disappointed at the presence of this dude. It gave me the impression of an annoying perv and his two teenage wives starting a band. There are some good parts, but you don’t get to enjoy them for very long before it totally changes on you. I found it annoying by the end of the listen and it was mostly that guys fault. And ugh that awful jangly guitar! No. To put them in the context of the time it felt like they were trying to do a Captain Beefheart spin on Grizzly Bear’s music. NO Anyway I listened to it for the first time since then today and I feel basically the same. I did forget that I liked Two Doves, very Nico and that guy sat that one out too which was a nice reprieve.

I had an impression that on they recorded songs and then on the stage of mixing&mastering someone removed some instruments from some songs, distorted tempo randomly and mixed together random songs oO But i guess it's "music for musicians" , so never mind :)

2009 was a year of music I really don't like, and this is no exception to the rule. The way he switches into falsetto mid line is pissing me off. This sucks. One of the only albums I've really debated just not listening to the whole thing.

Some of the worst, self indulgent crap I've ever heard. The worst part, is that sonically this album sounds FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. There are a smattering of good ideas in there too, they just forgot to put them together in any kind of meaningful way. Plus it's a stupid album name, with an arguably as stupid band name. Would give zero if I could.

Very Yoko Ono-ish background vocals on the opening track, which at first were off-putting to me. But I decided to give it a shot and go deeper with an open mind. But no, I ended up absolutely, viscerally hating it. This is honestly one of the worst albums I have ever heard in my life. It can be characterized in one word: noise. Self-indulgent noise. I just don't get it at all. This album is the equivalent of an Ohio transplant who moved to Brooklyn to "discover" Crown Heights and now refuses to shop anywhere but Buffalo Exchange for his clothes. If you know, you know. Oddly mixed as everything is LOUD. All the sounds are competing with one another. It's an inharmonious, cacophonous disaster that should not be listened to with headphones lest you want to blow your hearing. The singer sounds like he's doing a half-rate Tiny Tim impression, the background singers shout over him, there are random claps interspersed everywhere, the music often changes key and time signature, and almost every song starts out slower and then has a "drop the beat" moment. It's just a mess. I bet when they were making this album, they were like "Fuck yeah! This sounds cool!" and nobody wanted to say otherwise. Because it truly doesn't. Offbeat hipster nonsense that is way too far up its own ass. Awful album. Right in the trash.

The first album to cause me physical pain. After the first 2 songs I had to take a break, I felt like I was having knives shoved into my ears, I made it half way through the album and I regret not stopping sooner. Was not worth the migraines. 5/112

Why is there a cat screaming in the first song? He was horribly out of tune in the bride. Why is this on the list?

Awful. Not even music.

This was bad. Felt like a punishment. Would vote this off the list.

It's just a horrible mess of crap songs, badly played, badly sung. it was basically unlistenable. To call this hipster pop is an insult to hipster pop.

Pretty much unlistenable the worst album I've ever heard.

What a disaster. No songs, just a guy pretending to have talent.

This sounds like the kind of horrible jangly trash that dicks who work in record stores like to recommend just because it's obscure. Some music deserves obscurity.

I've loved this album for years. Still one of my go-tos for the spring vibe. I dunno why but it's always been an album I tend to listen to around this time of year.

I really enjoyed this album. I know Jeff has been a huge fan of this artist for years but they were never really on my radar. I love that they have a similar musical complexity to Vampire Weekend but without the preppy New England vibe. The songs all felt really vibrant and different from one another without sacrificing cohesiveness.

Really liked this, can tell it's a new york type band but that didn't put me off too much!

Ok, so, I have a bit of a tendency to be flippant in my reviews, so sue me. There's 1001 albums, 1078 if you include the ones removed in future book revisions, which you obviously do because this album is one of them. I'm not gonna write a book report for each one, I work 12 hours shifts suck me dry. However, man oh man do I love the Dirty Projectors. I discovered them through Swing Lo Magellan, an album I definitely own on vinyl, their follow up to this album, and this is just more experimental, complicated, noisy then that was. Amber Coffman and David Longstreth have fascinating voices and the compositions are so chaotic without being obnoxious. The structures of the songs are so visible, even if they look Escherian. I loved this album all the way through, with it's off time fuzz guitar, wails and random key changes it really is an absolute banger. 5 out of 5 bought this album on vinyl the instant I finished it.

This was one of my favorite albums in college and I still play it whenever I'm reminded of it. I've heard it countless times. Every grace note and off-kilter vocal inflection is etched into my memory. The music is full of wonderful details, and I love rediscovering all of them when I put this on. The music is so colorful. That's probably why it's stuck with me for 15+ years. Right from the opening notes of "Cannibal Resource," the effect on the guitar has a neon quality to my ears. And those bursts of back up vocals add splashes of color and feeling. It's gorgeous and vibrant music. "Temecula Sunrise" and "The Bride" could almost be Led Zeppelin songs. The mix of soft, pastoral acoustic guitar with hard rock drums feels like an update of Zeppelin in folk-rock mode. And I love how "The Bride" slowly builds up to a pretty heavy riff. "Stillness Is the Move" is a great song. Those colorful guitar tones are there again, but this time on a track that sounds like a 90s R&B jam. There's a strange, special combination of sounds on this song you can't find anywhere else. You just have to put the song on again to get this specific feeling. (By the way, if you like Amber Coffman's vocals on this album, I'm a big fan of her 2017 solo album "City of No Reply." Another great album.) "Useful Chamber" is epic. The release that hits when the music reaches the climax is so powerful. I guess a lot of this music could be described as prog-rock, but it's also very pop-minded and more playful than most prog-rock. A lot of that playfulness comes from frontman David Longstreth, whose vocals stretch in strange ways, like a more rubbery David Byrne. (I love the way he sings "Gaaaatoraaade" on "Temecula Sunrise.") Another example of that childlike playfulness comes on "Remade Horizon" at 2:35 with those chopped up, chirping vocals. Such a fun, wild, inventive album.

понравилось, вайбово. напомнило кинг гизард и gotye

Very interesting listen. Was not familiar with beforehand but really enjoyed

'And what hits the spot, yeah, like Gatorade?'; 'Please don't defend a silver lining / Around the halo of what is already shining'; 'Maybe you meant no intention.' Hard to describe, sure, but not hard to feel. Lyrically is where this album has every opportunity to break down, but it never does, saved not only by the stunningly balanced instrumentation, but by the words themselves, which are authentically poetic, drifting enuf into outer space for me to want to do the work to ground them, a challenge that pays off in the end. Longstreth can sing all he wants about a 'fluorescent half dome' and I'll trust that there is, indeed, intention behind it. And not that intention is all what matters when the music is sheer pleasure - guilty if anything.

This is quite quirky, and I like how experimental it is.

This album offers a precise glimmering slice of what so many have tried to offer before. Those of us with ears hungry for something different have often chased after those flawed gems loving them for their brave imperfections. On Bitte Orca you can hear your pick of past exemplars, I have mine but you'll have your own I imagine. I almost don't want to let slip the things I hear. I don't want to narrow the view of this wonderful kaleidoscope. So, just know that x, y, and z or foo, bar and baz are all experimentally sliding around inside an idiosyncratic chamber of delights — a full range of feelings available if you care to spend the time with these Dirty Projectors.

This is one of the weirdest albums I've heard in a while and I loved every second of it. I wanna listen to more of the Dirty Projectors now!

Kind of catchy

Since this album got loads of hate I feel like I should defend it a bit. I had never heard it before and it offered some of the originality I was desperate for when I started doing this album thing. I thought the production was really interesting and the sparse playing was unlike anything I’ve heard recently. Some of the instrumental sections were really cool, like around 2:30 of remade horizon for example. The only thing I didn’t really like about it was the male vocal melodies, they were a bit meandering and didn’t support the music well. Overall though I will definitely be listening again. For originality, and how much I liked it on the first listen it gets a 5. I like how the top review described it as ‘up its own arse’, I mean that’s purely a prejudice of the listener. I’ve criticised this list a lot, and seemingly it cannot win as there is always someone criticising the album choice, with the exceptions of the Beatles and pink Floyd, but I have to give it credit for showing me something a bit different and interesting.

Never hear of this band. This is great. I don’t have words to describe it. I hear so many influences coming together and it all sounds and feels so fresh. “The bride” is a great track. At 5:40 in “useful projector” I love the fuzz sounds. Seriously I love this album.

One of my favorite albums of someone I’ve never heard of

Loved it

People may describe this as pretentious, hipster trash, and I can understand why, and maybe it's true. It's definitely a bit wanky and a younger me would have probably hated it. But I think sometimes the question is very very simple. "Did I enjoy listening to this album?" The answer is yes! I really like the abstract songwriting and peculiar delivery. I like the colourful sound. I like the way the layered voices are used and the vocals themselves are very fun and pleasant to listen to. I like that the music is crisp and precise. The music can feel a bit meandering at times, with random harmonies and notes for the sake of it, but I actually like the randomness, like they might go off in another direction at any moment. Have I become a hipster now? Maybe, but I don't care, I loved this.

Really cool. Very strange. This is the first modern one to show up for me here that was never on my radar. Never heard of this group. Loved it.

One of the easiest 5s I could give. I already love this album. It took me many listens back in the day to get into this one, but I've loved it ever since. Actually, every Dirty Projectors album from this one onward has taken me a few listens to get into, but they grow on me every time. I highly recommend the follow-up to this one: Swing Lo Magellan

never even heard of this one beforehand, ended up scratching itches i forgot i had...harmonic and melodic construction that is theoretically extremely spicy but delivered in a swirling sweet way. thought a lot about like, oil paints, mixing and unmixing in impossible ways to make impossible colors. fun to navigate, even more fun to fail to navigate. there are parts of my ears that can only rly be filled by songwriting like this...perhaps there is hope for me yet that i have not undergone full normieification after finding myself drifting towards more conventional and digestable music for a couple years. wish i had the proper words to capture this record's aesthetic experience, but rly thats just motivation to eventually return to it until i do!

Maybe the 5 stars is for nostalgia, but I don’t care. Seeing Dirty Projectors in Berlin was beautiful.

Não conheço, terei que ouvir.

So chill

A wonderful work that expands artistic pop exploring the ordinary in an extraordinary way. The music is complex but still infectous. Love it.

LOVED!

Love this album, I listened to this album so much back in the day. Stillness in the Move is still one of my all time favorite songs.

Bright and lush art pop with math rock instrumentation, chaotic punk energy, and a fun operatic vocalist (and angelic back vocals), that all reminds me of Animal Collective, tUnE-yArDs, Bjork, and to an extent Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes. This record has the edge over its competitors for its accessibility. Despite how chaotic and messy it is, it doesn't come off as too pretentious or inconsistent, with easily recognizable pop hooks, and some simple tracks (like "Two Doves") that people can relate to. With a dense album like this, it benefits from only being 41 minutes. Each track is distinguishable with their own tricks that never get old. The track order is also optimized for your listening. - "Cannibal Resource" eases you into the record like a sunrise. - "Temecula Sunrise" follows that up with mild melodies that occasionally step out of the comfort zone, to help you understand what you're getting into. - "The Bride" and "Two Doves" are 2 of the simplest tracks, which help keep you listening without a sensory overload. - "Stillness is the Move" is the mega hit that comfortably utilizes what the record has taught us to create a triumphant pop hit. - "Useful Chamber" is the most technologically advanced track, and suitably placed so far in the record. It's a lot to take in but very impressive, and I appreciate the slow and quiet pace to help digest the 6.5 minute length. - "No Intention" and "Remade Horizon" are some fun art pop tracks. More chaotic than earlier tracks, and not as memorable, but they're still fantastic and deserving to be on the record. I just felt the impact has slowed down or become exhausting by the time of "No Intention". - "Fluorescent Half Dome" is a satisfying appropriate closer. Fitting with the themes, it's atmosphere and ethereal while soft and slow. Nothing crazy, but it was an appropriate finish. 5 of the 9 tracks are beyond incredible. The other 4 are fantastic too but just not as strong. Nevertheless, it's a highly innovative and influential record that knows what it's doing, able to pull in all kinds of audiences. For those recognitions, it is a landmark of the 2000s indie scene.

Isn't life under the sun just a crazy, crazy dream? Surprised this has such a low average because I think it's brilliant! A very nice blend of experimental and catchy. I particularly like the wonky sounding guitar riffs and vocal melodies. Standout tracks: Cannibal Resource, Temecula Sunrise, Stillness is this Move, Useful Chamber, Fluorescent Half Dome

Boy oh boy did I love this album. I had no idea anything like this existed. The time signatures are wild, the tempo changes are wild. Having access to multiple lead singers really helps break up the album. The only song I favorited my first time through was Stillness is the move, but the second time I added Cannibal Resource, Temecula Sunrise, Remade Horizon and Two Doves.

This was nice. Has some ups and downs but overall enjoyed a lot

This one caught me off guard, great album all the way. I really like the funky rhythms with the starts and stops and how they fill the space but it still seems sparse, if that makes sense. Every instrument from vocals, guitar, to percussion seems to have a unique spin on it that makes you listen a little more closely.

р а з Ъ ё БББББ

Such a good album. Experimental yet very listenable and catchy with BANGERS!!!

I am a sucker for interesting vocal harmonies, and this manages to be cool and pretty and diverse and fun and fascinating and just all around awesome.

So original, great fun, catchy and edgy. Brilliant

Lush, complicated, fresh

Stillness is the Move is one of my favourite songs, but I’ve never listened to the other songs on this album. I really like the unique sound of the whole album, I’ll definitely be revisiting this album. 5/5

One of my favorite indie rock albums of all time. 2009 the GOAT year. The guitar and vocal harmonies on this one are chef’s kiss.

The mix is crisp and creates nice separation while bringing elements forward as punctuation or focal points. Strings, electronics, and acoustic guitar all work together. The harmonized backup vocals are inventive and unique. Lots of flavor of world music African guitar and beats. Vampire Weekend influence for obvious reasons (roots in Ali Farka Touré?). Vocals have similarities to Jeff Buckley, or is that just me?