Since the release of their latest album in June, the Dirty Projectors have collaborated with David Byrne and Björk, made guest appearances on US late night television shows, and been dubbed by New York magazines – most unhelpfully – as the definitive Brooklyn sound. Yet such public recognition has come to frontman and composer David Longstreth with surprisingly little artistic compromise; Bitte Orca might be more easily labelled “pop” than the artsy concept album Rise Above (2007), a recreation of Black Flag’s 1981 Damaged – but this is pop seen through a decidedly dirty lens.

Like their dress sense (thick woolly jumpers for boys, tights and brogues for girls), the Dirty Projectors’ music has a studiously funky style. Longstreth’s on-stage manner – self-effacing, just a little stiff – is less like a rock star than a music teacher, constantly challenging his fellow band members to reach higher planes of musical complexity.