Apparently, Dave Longstreth isn’t handling the separation from his long-time partner Amber Coffman too well. He seems so battered that he didn’t even want to release his new material under the name of Dirty Projectors After having moved to Los Angeles and having left the band concept behind, Rick Rubin could at least convince him to keep the band’s name when recording the album. As replacement for his colleague and in addition to the star producer, Dave Longstreth took on board illustrious guests such as Solange Knowles Tyondai Braxton or Dawn Richard. In addition, he channelled the Dirty Projectors sound into strictly electronical lines. This new approach led to the fact that the self-titled and self-labelled »break-up«-record is as ambitious, as unusual and as unwieldly as hardly ever before. Hence, this alien-r’n’b or future hybrid pop will be quite challenging to both fans and novices. The kind of acoustic and optimistic pop-moments, as known and appreciated from »Swing Lo Magellan« 2012, will be as hard to find as needles in a haysteck. However, they are there – and attentive ears will find them hidden between chopped up beats, exuberant samples and the inevitable use of auto-tune. Hence, »Dirty Projectors« isn’t going easy on its listeners, but to properly explore it is all the more worth it.
Black Country, New Road
Forever Howlong
Ninja Tune