Dirty Projectors

It took them half a dozen albums to get there, but Dirty Projectors finally seemed to hit the big time with 2009's Bitte Orca, a record that managed to fuse West African guitars, drum machines and complex vocal counterpoint and make it seem like the most natural combination imaginable. The indie brainiacs return to the fray this July with their follow-up, Swing Lo Magellan, a more ragged and lyrically dark collection of songs that frontman Dave Longstreth conceived during a concentrated songwriting session in upstate New York. After a string of dates in the US over the summer, they'll be heading to Japan for their first proper tour of the country, starting with a gig here in Tokyo.