NPR Music to stream Dirty Projectors new album prior to release

NPR Music is streaming the entire new album from the Dirty Projectors ahead of its release date, beginning June 1 at 11:59PM (ET). The album, Bitte Orca, is being made available for free, on-demand listening a full week before it arrives in stores as part of the site’s “Exclusive First Listen” series.

Dave Longstreth formed Dirty Projectors in 2002, and the group now also counts Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Brian McComber as principal members. The band has a well-earned reputation for dismantling standard melodic forms and chord structures and rearranging the elements until they no longer resemble the kinds of songs most people are used to hearing. Bitte Orca is their fifth studio album; NPR Music calls the record “awe-inspiringly executed and marked by sparkling imagination.”

Complete track listings and album information are available at NPR Music, where there are also extensive archives of concerts, interviews and reviews of Dirty Projectors, including the band’s set during NPR Music’s SXSW showcase. Dirty Projectors also performed with David Byrne during the recent Dark Was the Night Concert in New York City; that entire concert is streaming now at NPR Music.

NPR Music introduced its “Exclusive First Listen” series last year with Bob Dylan’s 2-CD set Tell Tale Signs. The series is now one of the site’s most popular features, and has offered pre-release streams of albums from artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Dan Deacon and St. Vincent. The series will next feature the upcoming album from the trailblazing electronic music artist Moby.The “Exclusive First Listen” series is one feature of NPR Music, a free, multimedia music discovery Web site at www.npr.org/music

The site offers content from NPR and 12 NPR Member public radio stations, including live performances, studio sessions, first listens to new albums, interviews, reviews and blogs. The site’s continuously expanding sections are dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz/blues, world and urban music. NPR Music culls from NPR’s and the stations’ extensive music archives to present thousands of features; more than 250 new features are added to the site every month.