Pitchfork

For the accompanying CD to the latest issue of art and culture magazine Esopus, a disparate group of musicians was asked to write songs based on dreams, transcribed and submitted by the magazine's subscribers. Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors is no stranger to the idea of prompts, and this one is far less ridiculous than the ones he's come up with himself (not to take away from the consistently stunning results, of course.) It's surprising (but hardly disappointing) that this, compared to most of the Dirty Projectors oeuvre, is so straightforward and sparse. "One Kill" leans on its light electronic beat and not much else, with a stingy application of some cleanly-picked guitar even more explicitly influenced by African highlife than much of the band's recent album. And yet, Longstreth's vocals, which float in and out of the track surreptitiously while muffled and multi-tracked, are the most dream-like texture of this aptly ethereal short. The heavy thud of drum machine in the final moments even jars you like the first rays of sunlight coming through your eyelids. (Full disclosure: Pitchfork writer Mike Powell was the guest editor for the Esopus CD).