IT’S ten years since experimental art-rockers Dirty Projectors began, created from songwriter David Longstreth’s Yale University project.
A thinking man’s band, Dirty Projectors have been obscure with their offerings – notably with 2007’s Rise Above, which heard Longstreth attempt to remember and reinterpret Black Flag’s Damaged despite not hearing it for 15 years. Swing Lo Magellan is noticeably more simple, with a focus on direct, melody-driven songs.
The title track is a gentle, warm, acoustic reflection on the night sky, while Gun Has No Trigger is instrumentally bare and led by soulful and powerful vocals. While the imperfect-sounding tracks convey an overarching and quite beautiful sense of rural serenity, more cerebral references are never too far away – love song Dance For You is influenced by composer Ligeti, Longstreth said, and About To Die is a chipper number about existential dread.
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