Post-rockers continue their anything-goes approach to instrumental music.

In an interview with Pitchfork Media in 2007, Dave Longstreth, chief songwriter, guitarist and one of the many vocalists in Dirty Projectors, mentioned that his favourite musical instrument was the human voice. Understandably then, the vocals on Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors’ latest and greatest album, are as compositionally crucial as guitar progressions or beats and Longstreth often saves the most complex moments for his instrument of choice.

On “Useful Chamber,” a modulated vocal harmony originally echoes then sings circles around an earlier synth melody. On “Stillness is the Move,” vocalist Amber Coffman goes all the way with the ’90s Mariah Carey flirtations that popped up in 2007’s Rise Above. And on “Remade Horizon,” the band tosses out an intricately weaved multi-part harmony, tears it apart and then builds it up again, piece by piece.

Bitte Orca isn’t all vocals, though. Lightning-quick, treble-heavy West African guitar arpeggios carry much of the album, with shuffling R&B beats carrying the momentum. It’s all packaged beautifully in pristinely clear but never stifling production.

Well before its release, Bitte Orca was already being lauded as a best-of-2009 candidate and it’s entirely deserving of such high praise. Dirty Projectors has long been technically masterful, but it has never been this listenable.