Deradoorian: "A Beautiful Woman"

Hope you didn’t forget about Deradoorian. Yes, six years have passed since the acrobatic singer and muscular bassist Angel Deradoorian appeared on her last Dirty Projectors LP, 2009’s Bitte Orca. Her solo output since has been slim and somewhat insignificant, too. But let’s consider “A Beautiful Woman”—the opening cut from her debut solo LP, The Expanding Flower Planet—her firm, knowing handshake upon reentering a crowded room.

For this three-minute stunner, Deradoorian immediately shapes a trance, with a repetitive bassline that lopes and leers crawling around a circular beat. The rhythmic section pauses but never really changes, as Deradoorian keeps the stunning but simple mix of vintage soul-jazz and classic krautrock constant. It’s a mantra, a beckoning bliss state.

The instrumental insistence also highlights just how much she’s able to accomplish as a singer. In the verses, she commands a narcotic monotone, suggestive of the spells Al Cisneros casts in Om. But in the chorus, she slides up and down, her clarion soprano dipping toward contralto allure. Coming out of one chorus near the end, Deradoorian manipulates her voice, building an instantaneous choir of one before slipping into the pointillist antiphony that was a hallmark of her time in the Dirty Projectors. Alone, Deeradorian sings in multitudes. For a song about perseverance, it’s a poignant moment, as much a proclamation of self-reliance as it is a reminder of just how missed Deeradorian’s voice has been.

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