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.

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.

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

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(?).

Life too short for this shit

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

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

Release the hounds

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.

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

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

What on earth was this?

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

Indie with a capital I. Not my thing.

I hate millennials

Bitte, no more.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

I listened to this a lot when it came out. It didn't sound like anything i was listening to at the time. I loved it then and i love it now.

crazy good alternative album just a 10/10 for creativity alone actually amazing

Awesome album! Very unique, vocals are different but fit the feel very well. Loved it.

I couldn’t get into the earlier Dirty Projectors releases, but Bitte Orca was one of my favorite releases of 2009. The songs were more conventional in structure than past works but maintained the eclectic playfulness that Dirty Projectors was known for. While there is a lot going on throughout the release, it somehow is all grounded. Well done.

I listed to it many times in a row.

Try it, you'll like it!

Saw Two Doves come down from the heavens when I was listening to this during a Temecula Sunrise.

Interesting, creative, fresh.

I listened twice, couldn't pin down my thoughts fully but it got my attention and I enjoyed it! :)

Even after multiple listens, I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Bitte Orca. It’s an album that defies easy categorization, much like its abstract, enigmatic title. Back in 2009, when publications were showering it with praise, it completely passed me by—and perhaps that was for the best. A younger version of me would have been utterly baffled by its eclecticism. Emerging from the fertile ground of late 2000s indie rock, where eclecticism and experimentation flourished, Bitte Orca sits at the intersection of the genre’s most adventurous tendencies. Sharing a lineage with the freak folk movement and the artful experimentation of contemporaries like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors carved out their own niche. While many bands leaned heavily into lush atmospherics or pastoral tones, Bitte Orca combines fragmented rhythms, avant-garde arrangements, and unexpected pop hooks. The record’s standout moments belong to Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, whose stunning vocal performances inject warmth and humanity into the controlled chaos. Coffman shines on “Stillness Is the Move,” a left-field R&B-infused gem that’s both ethereal and infectious, while Deradoorian’s delicate “Two Doves” offers a haunting, chamber-pop respite. Even when supporting with harmonies, their voices serve as the glue that keeps Dave Longstreth’s most fragmented compositions grounded. Other highlights include “Cannibal Resource,” which bursts open with intricate guitar lines and layered harmonies, and “Temecula Sunrise,” a striking blend of catchy hooks and off-kilter rhythms that feel simultaneously intimate and expansive. Meanwhile, “Useful Chamber” is the album’s sprawling centrepiece, balancing delicate melodies with sudden, explosive outbursts—a perfect microcosm of Bitte Orca’s daring unpredictability. Thematically, Bitte Orca resists easy interpretation, much like its music. There’s a sense of searching—both in its restless musical exploration and in its lyrics, which touch on fleeting connections, modern anxieties, and existential musings. Tracks subjects hint at domesticity and consumerism, but with an abstract approach that’s more evocative than prescriptive. This thematic ambiguity mirrors the album’s unpredictable structure, inviting listeners to make their own interpretations rather than offering clear answers. That said, not every moment works seamlessly. Tracks sometimes veer into territory that feels more like an intellectual exercise than an emotional experience, where the sheer density of ideas can overshadow the impact. While bold, moments like these can feel more like a test of endurance than an immersive listen. It’s amusing to think some fans of Dirty Projectors’ earlier, rawer work found Bitte Orca to be a step toward accessibility. Sure, these songs flirt with pop structures, but they remain deeply rooted in experimentalism. For someone who prides themselves on an eclectic music taste, I still found this album a challenge—its abstract twists and turns are engaging but not always easy to follow. Ultimately, Bitte Orca is as enigmatic as it is ambitious. Whether it leaves you mesmerized or scratching your head, its fearless creativity is worthy of praise. Did/Do I own this release? No Does this release belong on the list? It might be a little bit too out there for this kind of list Would this release make my personal list? Probably not Will I be listening to it again? I'd like to come back to this in a few months to see if my thoughts have changed.

Fun, colorful and poppy. I liked it

Not sure why but I kind of like this album. It's not my genre of music to listen to but somehow it works.

Amazing what a pop appeal this brainy, guitar-driven and pristine avantgarde Soul-Pop holds.

Interesting

Dig the energy and vocals of this one. It's a great upbeat listen. 4.5

I'll admit tos record takes a while to wither get going, or grow on you, or both. But this ends up being a near masterpiece for me. None of these ideas and sounds seem like they would make good music, but they do. That tells me that this writer is on another level

7/10

Beautiful if off beat melodies. Arrangements that surprise and delight. Sweet if unconventional harmonies. Songs that surprise and confound and demand one's attention and investment of time. Pop music of unique craft. For me it reminds me of Grizzly Bear and Vampire Weekend as contempories. Pet Sounds and Forever Changes also seem like influences. A unique and beautiful album worthy of attention. 4 stars

I remember hearing this album a few years back but don't remember much about it aside from the fact that I didn't find it very memorable. Funnily enough, it sounds like something I would've dug back then, only to have it grow off me over the years...but with this most recent listen, it seems to have had the opposite effect. That's to say...I really enjoyed my time with it this time around. I've always been a sucker for music that sounds genuinely unique and this album fits that bill - I mean just the genre "Math-pop" is not one I see thrown around all that often. Calling it incohesive would be an understatement - at times it sounds like various patches of sound being swirled around some hipster's room, clashing seemingly at random. It almost feels incomplete, like the various tracks on each song are actually from very different songs. The at-times incomprehensible mix of wayward percussive patterns and fidgety vocal harmonies makes everything feel very tribal. But it didn't take very long for the stuttering nature of the music and backing harmonies to latch itself onto my pattern-recognition sensors or whatever. I'd say I enjoyed most of what this "cerebral" sound had to offer but I found the best songs to be the two more "streamlined" ones featuring the artists on this album cover. 'Stillness Is The Move' with Amber Coffman still maintains that strange indietronica sound, but it sounds infinitely more cohesive than anything that came before it. It's like the perfect 2000s indie-pop song fusing the sounds of guys like LCD Soundsystem and Animal Collective. The following 'Two Doves' with Deradoorian goes in a baroque direction with these mesmerizing sweeping string sections - and snuggly fitting vocals. So you have these two perfect indie-folk and pop songs and then everything else is just...kind of hit or miss. I mean there are plenty of interesting sounds to gawk at here in a "Wow that sounds cool!" kind of way, but in terms of actual songs I see myself returning to? There aren't too many. But eh, I'd still say the sum of those milder parts just sounds way too cool for me to care.

I am very familiar with this album (and the band) so am probably biased. Unpopular opinion: they're so good at what they do that they're actually hard to like. I think they provide something very different in terms of sound, vocals, rhythm, and tempo and this is definitely their most accessible album by a mile. I've honestly found it to be one of the most divisive recommendations I can give. They range from being wildly inventive to almost unlistenable (sometimes in the same song) and I love them for it. You either like the off-step time signatures and THAT voice or you hate them. But please consider the Zeppelin-inspired swirl and burst of Useful Chamber (2:42 will have you seeing sound) or Nico's These Days remake on Two Doves before totally writing them off. The layering, the abstract song-smithing, the fact that they could go off in a completely different direction two seconds later all makes them what they are. I feel like each song can stand alone, bright, colorful, triumphant. I wouldn't change a thing, Bitte More-ca! High 4.15.

Pretty alright

This is such a strange and beautiful album and I would definitely listen again. The female vocals are just hauntingly beautiful, and Stillness is the Move will always be a banger.

Sounds great, liked it a lot, but minus one point for then being forgettable after it was over.

Interesting music. Odd rhythms and good melodies. Vocals are nice, too.

I liked this. I'm a fan of Vampire Weekend and DP reminded me of them.