Dirty Projectors – Rise Above – 15th October 2007
Music. It’s all been done hasn’t it? All genres covered? All styles exploited? All concepts concepted? Evidently not as David Longstreth, the man behind Dirty Projectors, gives us ‘Rise Above’; an album that all encompasses every definition of the word niche there has ever been. See, what David has done is made a cover album… from memory. He’s taken the ‘seminal’ (according to the press release that is) Black Flag album ‘Damaged’ from 1981 and re done it as he remembers it. Baring in mind he hasn’t heard this album since his adolescence the result is weirdly brilliant. It goes from being pleasant, to rather good, to horrifically abrasive; sometimes all in the same track, but it does leave you wanting to listen on just to find out where the hell the record is going next. I suppose you could call this ‘musical art’ if there is such a thing. He’s basically made a selfish album that is only going to be bought by those who either knew the original or by those who appreciate things a bit left of centre now and again. So there you go, if you fall into one of those two categories then go try it out! If you like Radio One and Hard-Fi however then please avoid it like the plague. It’ll just confuse you.
3/5
