Dirty Three

Horse Stories Though they're a small band--with only three members, that is--Australia's Dirty Three play music about big things. Are these songs really, as the title suggests, horse stories? (For that matter, was Ocean Songs really about the sea?) Well, the tunes don't gallop, or even canter....	Ocean Songs On Ocean Songs, guitarist Mick Turner strums in grand and mournful sweeps while violinist Warren Ellis draws a rough, heart-pulling bow. On top, David Grubbs bumps lonely on his tom while keeping time with scratchy snare whispers and flickering tips and taps on the cymbals. It's ...	She Has No Strings Apollo The esoteric wistfulness of Australian instrumentalists Dirty Three once again shines on She Has No Strings Apollo, though something's changed for the trio. Here their melancholic sensibilities aren't subjected to chaotic outbursts, as in the past. Anchored by drummer Jim White's...	Cinder Unlike past recordings where the band tried to capture their live potential, this time they thought about how they might perform the songs later. As such, the tracks on "Cinder" are much shorter, trimmed down, and classic in composition. Sally Timms (Mekons) and Chan Marshall added guest vocals.	Whatever You Love, You Are It is remarkably easy to get washed into the turbulent sea by Dirty Three's gorgeously shambolic instrumental gusts. Compressing gently strummed guitars, sweeping violin, and hints of percussion into forms that suggest everything from mournful Celtic airs to stirring Baltic melod...
Sad & Dangerous	In the Fishtank Low are well-practiced in the art of using less to inspire more. Their minimal indie-rock melodies create somber moods with sparse instrumentation. Every chord, staggered drum beat, or note from front woman Mimi Parker's voice hangs in the air with the importance of a slow-motion...	The Flying Club Cup Beirut's second LP purportedly takes inspiration from French chanson of yesteryear (as opposed to the Balkan folk of yesteryear). Bandleader Zach Condon has found a new home in Paris, and a new muse as well, quickly absorbing fodder from the likes of Francois Hardy or Jacques Bre...	Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn	Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven Canada's Godspeed You Black Emperor raise the ante on their already ambitious orchestral rock by releasing a double CD of material as their second full-length album. The group combines the drums and guitar of typical rock-band instrumentation with horns and strings to create a mu...

Melbourne's finest
I remember buying this in 1994, when the Dirty Three were an up and coming Melbourne band. But, even before picking up a Slint LP a couple of years later, you could tell this was something different, a landmark not just within the smoke filled pubs within which they would feverishly play. Their whirling dervish live routine excited you like nothing else of the Melbourne scene: Warren Ellis foaming at the mouth as spun around in circles, lost in his own trance as he fiddled amidst a burning Rome. This LP best captures the exhiliration of these concerts, a record at once beautiful and exciting. Not until Godspeed's 'Slow Riot' has any other band come close to the chaotic brilliance of 'The Dirty Equation': a thick, harsh squall that weaves in and out of your head, a six minute rush you'll want to listen to again and again. Treated by an increasingly conservative Australian youth radio as little more than a curiosity it is sad that they eventually had to move overseas to find true appreciation: but, hey, listen to this and you know they deserve it all.

Simply one of the Great Albums of the Decade
I've been spellbound by this band ever since I stumbled apon them trying to get out of the rain at a local music festival. The same words seem to appear over and over again when describing The Dirty Three "sweeping" "intense" "tragic" "beautiful" "sad" etc so I won't go to much except to say that Indian Love Song is the most rocking and intense song they've done, and Everythings fucked the saddest and most beautiful. As fantastic as the albums that followed it are, this is the one that still moves me the most. What do they say about the first cut being the deepest. A truly indespensible record.