Thread: Favorite Albums
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Old 2012.01.26, 09:26 PM   #59
Tokyo Jihad
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#9: Bitte Orca

By late 2009, I was a long way from the comfortable rut I had for much the first decade of the new century. I was out of school, I had met my future fiancé (as of the time of this writing), and became adept at cooking my own meals (as in, not using a microwave.) With all these extra duties there was little opportunity for music listening. My musical sphere was as small as it had been in those ten years. Most of the bands I was into, 90’s holdovers, were putting out music that was decidedly “passed their prime.” I was no longer DJ-ing on the radio, and by that time the mainstream long since left me on the banks. About the only time I could “get my freak on” was in 3-5 song bursts in the car. (Is “get your freak on” still a thing?) I was ready for something new – and I had a fail proof plan. My hallowed tomes, the December “best of year” lists were trickling out, and it was only a matter of time for me to strike gold. One December night, I sat down to crawl through the lists, determined to find something to listen to, something new.

2009 was an interesting year for music. The de-facto big release that year was Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion. I didn’t know too much about Animal Collective at the time, but I was fairly sure I wasn’t up to that level yet. On Pitchfork’s end of year list, behind MPP at number 2, was an album that had also caught my eye on Amazon’s list, The Dirty Projector’s Bitte Orca. It was time to dig deeper. I queued up the first track, “Cannibal Resource.” I sat there stunned.

What was I hearing? The song was amazing! It was schizophrenic, but everything stayed on the track. It was different from almost every other kind of music I listened to, but still had a tasty, crunchy guitar riff, like ones I was ever fond of. David Longstreth and the two backup singers each seemingly try to drown the other out. It was delicious. I turn next to the catchy single “Stillness is the Move” and following “Two Doves,” two contrasting songs each fronted by backup singers Amber Coffman and Angel Deeradorian. As I soared on the pair of tracks, I charged into the rest of the album…and into a wall.

Bitte Orca became the soundtrack of my 2010. The songs and sounds were present at every corner of that year because I would not let it go. I couldn’t dig every track, and for a long time I would listen for the three aforementioned tracks, but each pass I made I was picking up little tiny hooks from the rest of the songs and couldn’t quite put it away. The herky-jerky guitar refrain in “The Bride,” the circular pattern in “No Intention,” the noisy break down in “Useful Chamber,” and the noisier bridge that follows; yes, the album was slowly, very slowly revealing itself to me.
Slowly I understood the David Longstreth approach to music making. The maddening thing was that there were verses and choruses, which always seem to be the first things to go in music that’s left of center, but how each segment was constructed, how each instrument “worked” was spastic and almost hyperactive. One bar to the next, his guitar would jump from one serviceable hook the next, almost disregarding if the syncopations matched. The drums, the singing, both switch from hot to cold at the stop of a dime.

Up to that point, the most experimental record in my possession was The Soft Bulletin, which is structurally crazy-straightforward in comparison; most of my go-to music was still plainly Oasis or The Beatles. Bitte Orca was a huge leap for me. The album intrigued me, mystified me so, that when I finally could wrap my feeble mind around it I felt that I had conquered it. As it was the first “challenging” album I consumed, I wanted to conquer more. Bitte Orca opened a whole new world of possibilities for me. Soon, I’d give Arcade Fire another shot, and Embryonic. I’d listen to that Neutral Milk Hotel album I’d heard so much about; Animal Collective and Merriweather Post Pavilion no longer seemed so imposing (though, it still was when I got to it.) I was even ready try the Kanye album that was topping all the 2010 best of lists. None of these albums, and experiences, would I have approached without conquering Bitte Orca.

The truth is, I don’t know how much of an impact Bitte Orca really had on the world at large. For one, we’re still pretty close to its release; but even so likely not much of one, not with the likes of Merriweather Post anyway. It did launch The Dirty Projectors definitively to “indie stars” status and most people agree that it is a very good album. But in the world of my own, it is huge; it is a sign post album. In my head there is a “Before Bitte Orca” timeline and an “After Bitte Orca” timeline. Each segment is warranted, I don’t regret spending more time listening to straightforward records like The Man Who or Maybe you’ve Been Brainwashed too… (both of which are still awesome records) rather than listening to things like F#A# infinity or Endtroducing… But one also doesn’t normally start on the harder levels, and Bitte Orca was my gatekeeper that opened up the next level of my “musical journey.” All these new exciting musical possibilities have caused me to carve out more time in my adult schedule for them, even if my car is still my favorite venue for grooving to Bitte Orca.
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Last edited by Tokyo Jihad : 2012.03.06 at 05:13 AM.
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