Bitte Orca

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Bitte Orca
DirtyProjectors-BitteOrca.jpg
Studio album by Dirty Projectors
Released June 9, 2009
Genre
Length 41:08
Label Domino
Dirty Projectors chronology
Rise Above
(2007)Rise Above2007		 Bitte Orca
(2009)		 Mount Wittenberg Orca
(2010)Mount Wittenberg Orca2010

Bitte Orca is a studio album by American experimental rock band Dirty Projectors, released on June 9, 2009 on Domino Records. The word "bitte" is a German word for "please," and "orca" is another name for a killer whale. Frontman Dave Longstreth states that he liked the way the words sound together.[1] Longstreth notes that the music contained within the album "felt very [much] about colors, and their interaction,"[1] and that the music was written with the notion of the band, as a whole, in mind.[1]

Two of the album's tracks, "Temecula Sunrise" and "Cannibal Resource", appeared on the subsequent EP release, Temecula Sunrise, alongside two new songs.[2]

The album peaked at #65 on the Billboard 200 and #12 on the Independent Albums chart.[3] As of April 4, 2012, the album has sold 85,000 copies in the U.S.[4]

Artwork

The album's artwork was designed by Rob Carmichael, who runs Catsup Plate Records and has created art for artists such as Animal Collective and Atlas Sound, with direction from Dave Longstreth. Carmichael believed "in some ways the idea was to evoke old-school European paintings and the female form." The artwork also strongly resembles their 2004 release, Slaves' Graves and Ballads, but features band members Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian. Regarding their role on this album, Longstreth states: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

One of my ideas for the album was to start, sort of, as a gift or homage to each one, to try to explode their temperaments into individual numbers. I was trying to widen the temperament of the band a little bit, to be Dirty Projectors but also have these new, different sort of flowers within the bouquet of the sound.

The photoshoot that spawned the photo utilized in the artwork also produced the photo featured on the back (consisting of Longstreth facing Friedrich Nietzsche). [1]

Release

Bitte Orca is Dirty Projectors' first album for Domino Records. The album was released on five different formats: digital download; compact disc; limited edition two-CD, which contains the original album plus the five-track "Stillness is the Move" single; vinyl LP; and a limited edition cassette.[5][6] All hard copy releases included a free digital download of the album. An expanded edition of the album was released September 28, 2010, featuring a bonus disc consisting of b-sides, an acoustic set recorded at New York's Other Music and a cover of Bob Dylan's "As I Went Out One Morning."

The album leaked to the internet two months before its official release.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 85/100[7]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[8]
The A.V. Club A[9]
Entertainment Weekly A–[10]
The Guardian 4/5 stars[11]
MSN Music B+[12]
NME 8/10[13]
Pitchfork Media 9.2/10[14]
Rolling Stone 3/5 stars[15]
Slant Magazine 5/5 stars[16]
Spin 8/10[17]

Press

Reviewing the version of Bitte Orca which leaked onto the internet two months before its official release date, Stereogum called the album "stunning" and "pay-off for joining Dave Longstreth on his years of recorded self-discovery."[18] Prefix called the album "a breakthrough, which filters their left-field avant aesthetics through more conventional song structures."[19]

Pitchfork Media awarded the album a 9.2 upon initial release, calling it "a testament to the leaps and bounds Longstreth has made as a songsmith and Dirty Projectors have made as a band."[14] Pitchfork eventually ranked Bitte Orca at number 2 on its 2009 "Best Of" list, and 56 on its list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s, as well as naming the track 'Stillness Is the Move' the second best track of 2009.[20] Rolling Stone ranked the same track at 85 in its 100 Best Songs of the Decade.

TIME Magazine listed the album as the "Number 2 Album of 2009" in the article "The Top 10 Everything of 2009", with writer Josh Tyrangiel noting: "The job of a music critic is essentially to describe music. For the past few years, the job of Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth has been to make the critic's job undoable." [21]

Rhapsody ranked it #25 on their list of the best albums of 2009.[22]

Review aggregator website AnyDecentMusic? correlated 19 reviews resulting in an ADM Rating of 8.0.[23]

The album was also included in the 2011 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Musicians

Commenting on the notion of "genre", Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear discussed Bitte Orca:[24] <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

Someone was asking me about what I was listening to and I was saying "Oh, Dirty Projectors, I love the new album," and they were like, "Well what kind of music is it?" and I just stopped dead in my tracks and literally didn't know how to describe it. At first I was embarrassed because I didn't know how to describe it, but then I was like, this is what's so amazing about a lot of music now. There are so many different things and there's so much going on and 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? So I find it hard lately to label things as indie or pop or folk or give it some sort of categorization.

Videos

The music video from the first single from the album "Stillness is the Move" was directed by Matthew Lessner.[25]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by David Longstreth, except where noted. 

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Cannibal Resource"     3:55
2. "Temecula Sunrise"     5:05
3. "The Bride"     2:49
4. "Stillness Is the Move"   David Longstreth/Amber Coffman 5:14
5. "Two Doves"     3:42
6. "Useful Chamber"     6:28
7. "No Intention"     4:17
8. "Remade Horizon"     3:55
9. "Fluorescent Half Dome"     5:45
Total length:
 41:08

Personnel

The following people contributed to Bitte Orca:[26]

Band

Additional musicians

  • Jordan Dykstra - string quartet director, viola ("Stillness is the Move", "Two Doves", "Remade Horizon", "Fluorescent Half Dome")
  • Caleb Russell - violin ("Stillness is the Move", "Two Doves", "Remade Horizon", "Fluorescent Half Dome")
  • Andrew Todd - violin ("Stillness is the Move", "Two Doves", "Remade Horizon", "Fluorescent Half Dome")
  • Anna Fritz - cello ("Stillness is the Move", "Two Doves", "Remade Horizon", "Fluorescent Half Dome")

Recording personnel

  • David Longstreth - producer, mixing, drum recording,
  • Robby Moncrieff - recording engineer
  • Nicolas Vernhes - additional production, mixing
  • Brian McOmber - drum recording
  • Joe Lambert - mastering

Artwork

  • Jason Frank Rothenberg - original cover photograph
  • Rob Carmichael - album layout

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/300989/dirty+projectors/chart
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Stereogum article: "Premature Evaluation: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca"
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Pitchfork Media list: "The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 100-51"
  21. ↑ TIME Magazine list: "The Top 10 Everything of 2009" "[1]"
  22. ↑ The 25 Best Albums of 2009 Referenced July 31, 2010
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Bitte Orca liner notes.
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