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“You guys are the least hateful crowd I think we’ve ever played to.”
They were the words that came out of Dirty Projectors frontman Dave Longstreth’s mouth after their rousing set at the Hi-Fi on Tuesday night. His words speak volumes about the change their music has undergone in the last two years. Up until the release of their fifth album last year (the wonderful Bitte Orca) there was plenty to hate about Dirty Projectors. Essentially a one man band, Longstreth’s output during the early 2000’s was all over the shop. Listeners were persistently confused by his obtuse, hyper-literate lyrics and quavering falsetto. By his unexpected rhythm changes and dense, idiosyncratic instrumentation. While technically brilliant and melodically interesting, it was not what you would call accessible. At all. Resolutely experimental, they were strictly for the consumption of music nerds and the hippest of hipsters. Nobody really liked them that much. And then along came Bitte Orca to change everybody’s minds. The songs on the album are bright, bursting with energy and ideas, as was their performance on Tuesday night. The whole set was a coronation of sorts, and as a smiling Longstreth walked off the stage to thunderous applause it wasn’t as the precocious fragile songwriter who had confounded and confused over the past decade: it was as the new king of indie pop.

Pikelet was the perfect way to get the night started. Another practitioner of off-kilter pop, Pikelet is the sweet tasting pseudonym of multi-instrumentalist Evelyn Morris. She has been an ever-present on the Melbourne music scene for the past few years, crafting otherworldly and at times downright amazing music and it seems she is finally starting to get the recognition she deserves. Melbourne missed her last year as she toured around the world with artists like Devendra Banhart, Kaki King and Fryda Hyvonen to name a few. She is back on home-soil now thankfully and she has not lost any of her skill or charm in transit. As well as her usual array of guitars, keyboards and loop pedals she was joined onstage by a three piece backing band and it really fleshed out her songs, gave them a fuller quality, like on the lilting psychedelic Weakest Link. Her sophomore album Stem has just been released to rave reviews and all I can say is, it’s about time.

Dirty Projectors set was a perfect distillation of their recent musical output; melodic, skilful and completely unexpected. After a pretty, murmuring build up in Ascending Melody the set really kicked off with Knotty Pine. Originally performed with David Byrne, the track is a shot of adrenaline built around a sprightly piano riff and the smooth harmonies of Longstreth and vocalist/guitarist Amber Coffman. Coffman and the rest of the backing band (notably the stunning Angel Deradoorian) complemented Longstreth’s sweet voice and spindly guitar perfectly throughout the set.

The voices of the three female whirled and climbed around Longstreth’s sweet falsetto, performing some of the most technical harmonies ever dreamed up. The choral section of set closer When The World Comes To An End has to be heard to be believed. Who needs auto tune when you can sing like that.

The band are capable of a sweeter turn too, like on the gospel style Bob Dylan cover I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine or the achingly beautiful Two Doves, which though it rips off the Nico classic These Days, is still a wonderful example of a modern torch song.

That’s not to say that there weren’t a few missteps however. Cannibal Resource tested the ear’s patience with a few minutes of histrionic harmonies and guitar dissonance and Fucked For Life was pretty much filling in time.

The rest of the set was mesmerising however and killer album tracks Temecula Sunrise and Stillness Is The Move were just as good as you would expect them to be. The former begins with this cascading guitar riff which must go down as the coolest of 2009 before exploding into wailing vocals and crunching chords. It’s light years away from the slinking, almost funky sexiness of Stillness which pits Coffman’s clear majestic voice over a repeated guitar arpeggio. The most exciting thing about these songs in particular was that Dirty Projectors are no longer a one man show; they are a fully fledged proper band. If these guys keep on going this way then Dave Longstreth will never see a hateful face again.