David Longstreth takes Dirty Projectors down the less traveled path

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By Chris Parker-

Dirty Projectors with Atlas Sound. $12-$14. 9 p.m. Fri., July 17. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.-

Some artists spend their careers forging a unique identity that will sell, while others are more consumed with all the different veins they can explore no matter how confounding it might be for their audience. Count Dirty Projectors among the latter. Originally nothing more than a moniker for David Longstreth’s adventurous compositions, since the release of 2007’s Rise Above it’s become a band entity, and the inspiration for his most readily endearing batch of music, Bitte Orca.-

Since Longstreth began releasing music in 2002, he’s employed a variety of musicians in blending elements of electro-pop, R&B, baroque strings and woodwinds, African rhythms and samples into wildly eclectic vocal-driven efforts. A modest underground hum grew to a buzz with the release of Rise Above, a cover of Black Flag’s seminal release written from memory, and recast as avant-indietronica with mechanistic beats and angelic harmonies.