[This post originally appeared on Team Tinnitus]

world by daniel

e*rock by daniel

dirty projectors by daniel

I’m super late on this so let me just say this: sometimes you go to a show and you don’t really know what you’re gonna see, and sometimes you end up with your mouth open going “holy sheezus, what IS this?” and proceed to be totally enthralled for (almost) the entire set (my attention span is flimsy). Dirty Projectors did that for me. I’d been prepared for greatness, but like any jaded person-who-goes-to-hella-shows I wasn’t totally buying it.

So I was floored. The music was alien and fascinating; the video gave me chills. The sound is totally unique: a mix of vintage crooner vibes, afropop sunny funk, and Bjork-ian epic weirdness. The band was huge and pumped: upright bass, drums, female backround singers (!!!), synth, other things I forget. It was ambitious and successful.

At one point the singers were holding out a tone and all of sudden they snapped their heads back like rag dolls and slid the notes UP. That was the coolest thing I’ve seen at a show in a long time. That ruled!

Other notes:

• Wind Up Bird was INTENSE. One guy sitting on the floor with his laptop playing beautiful ambient music that slowly morphed into primal scream/drone therapy. That should’ve been my first clue. He later appeared in the Dirty Ps.
• I thought I’d seen World before but I think I was wrong. They were totally good too. At one point the video was projecting a disembodied head onto Honey’s sternum. It looked like she had a tiny, evil second head. TRIP.
• E*rock‘s new jamz are awesome. Totally spazzy dance stuff that hits on this exciting emerging intersection between weird electro stuff and house. The first track had a barking MC sample that built the beat up until you were begging for more of that clipped funky beatness, and then you got it, and it was rad. I hope that gets pressed on vinyl, cuz I’d totally spin that shit.
• DJ Hot Air Balloon aka DJ Totally Cutie played the entirety of R.Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” and it was suitably epic. He also played lotsa chopped ‘n’ screwed Houston rap. He was totally a cutie.