Dirty Projectors gave music fans a post-holiday gift to celebrate a new decade today: two free songs, both unreleased, available as either a 7” vinyl single or a free download, depending on your particular audio predilection. Both songs, “Ascending Melody” and “Emblem of the World,” come from the same sessions that produced the Projectors’ indie-rock masterpiece Bitte Orca, which was universally hailed as one of the best albums of 2009 by critics and real people alike.

Oddly, these new songs are the equal of anything on Bitte Orca – testament that when it comes to talent, its overflowing in the Dirty Projectors’ camp. “Ascending Melody” is a track that resembles Bitte Orca’s hit “Stillness Is The Move” a bit, built on playful guitar funk and, above all, the soaring, soulful females harmonies of Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle, and Angel Deradoorian (not for nothing did Solange Knowles do a stellar R&B cover of “Stillness,” and she could probably do damage to this, too). “Ascending Memory,” with its spoken ad-libs and loping rhythm,  does what Dirty Projectors do best: create a ramshackle, immediate performance of something that is clearly complex, intricate and formed in the expansive brain of DP leader Dave Longhstreth. Longstreth’s vocals take the lead on the b-side “Emblem of the World,” which may be an even greater achievement. A chiming, spectral guitar line, disembodied keyboards and a distorted snare crack that sounds like a gun shot that could’ve come off a Diplo mixtape provide the fulcrum for Longstreth’s sensitive, building vocals; all the elements come together to create a stunning jewel-box of a song. Its sprawling arrangement is itself an adventure, a journey—then again, with songs as good as this, we’ll follow Dirty Projectors anywhere.