Dirty Projectors are an awesome live group. In some ways, they plunder the same ’80s bands everyone else is plundering (Talking Heads, Paul Simon). But they’ve decided to advance rather than stagnate in the genre, and David Longstreth is a very original songwriter. Once beautiful riffs and grooves are established he breaks them down, and once hooky melodies are ingrained on our basilar membranes he adds lovely superfluous notes that unaccountably make the melodies both odder and better.
Arrangement-wise, Dirty Projectors are anchored around expert guitar twiddling and falsetto crooning from an ecstatic-looking Longstreth. Their most crowd-levelling weapon, however is the assembled vocal technique of guitarist Amber Coffman, keyboard/guitar/bassist Angel Deradoorian and new member Haley Dekle (these vocals are usually used for backing vocal effect, although sometimes in the case of songs like ‘Stillness is the Move’ Coffman takes forceful centre stage). Using deceptively simple textural tricks (going from harsh to soft, or from ‘ah’ vowels to ‘oh’ vowels), the glissandos and slides usually reserved for brass instruments, and alternating stereophonic melodies and arpeggios, this trio are essentially borrowing from the extended techniques of contemporary classical music.
In the context of indie-rock, however, it’s like Longstreth has discovered a completely new musical instrument. And by Jaysus does he put it to good use. Indeed, all other backing vocals seem shit by comparison, and all repentant sometime vocalists in the audience know it. In another five years, when everyone is copying this innovation, we’ll possibly be wondering what all the fuss was about. But right now, in the year 2009, witnessing it live is still quite an experience.