Dirty Three | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Melancholy instrumental trio Dirty Three formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1992, led by classically trained violinist Warren Ellis, who began writing and performing music for art openings and plays and also tenured in the groups Blackeyed Susans, Paranoid, and the Nursing Mothers. After enlisting Blackeyed Susans guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White -- veterans of Melbourne bands including the Sick Things, the Moodists, Fungus Brain, and Venom P. Stinger -- Ellis formed Dirty Three; at the groups debut performance, he used a rubber band to attach a guitar pickup to his violin, giving the instrument a distorted, feedback-drenched feel far removed from its original sound. Recorded as a demo, the trios debut Sad & Dangerous appeared in 1994; subsequent tours in support of Pavement, Sonic Youth, and John Cale helped win Dirty Three a deal with the Touch & Go label, which issued a 1995 eponymous effort and 1996s acclaimed Horse Stories. In 1998, Dirty Three resurfaced with Ocean Songs; Whatever You Love, You Are followed two years later. Celebrating their tenth anniversary, Dirty Three headed back into the studio. Initially, the trio had recorded songs for a follow-up to Whatever You Love, You Are in early 2001; however, the songs were scrapped. White went on to tour with Smog and Will Oldham. Turner founded his own label, King Crab Records, and worked with Marquis de Tren. Ellis joined his fellow mates Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds for a monumental world tour in spring 2002. Somewhere amidst all this activity, Dirty Three reconvened with producer Fabrice Laureau, chief of Prohibited Records, who recorded part of the soundtrack to Amelie. Together, he and Dirty Three arrived with the enigmatic, dark album She Has No Strings Apollo in February 2003. Cinder, which features appearances by Cat Powers Chan Marshall and Sally Timms from the Mekons, followed two years later. Following the release of Cinder, all three bandmembers concentrated on various solo projects for the next six years. White moved to Brooklyn from Chicago; he recorded and toured with PJ Harvey, Nina Nastasia, Marshall, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Ellis joined the Bad Seeds full-time, and was a member of a Bad Seeds off-shoot band, the short-lived Grinderman. He also became Nick Caves film-scoring partner. Turner issued a solo album, and focused on his career as a successful visual artist. Dirty Three secretly began working on another album in 2011 and emerged with Toward the Low Sun, their debut for Drag City, in early 2012. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 15 Title: Dirty Three Released: 1994 Tracks: 7 Duration: 49:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Indian Love Song (10:11) 2 Better Go Home Now (03:42) 3 Odd Couple (05:09) 4 Kims Dirt (11:48) 5 Everythings Fucked (05:32) 6 The Last Night (06:55) 7 Dirty Equation (06:02) |
| Dirty Three : Allmusic album Review : There have been many attempts to integrate instrumentation, other than the guitar, bass, and drums format, into so-called rock music. Many bands have gone through an Eastern or psychedelic phase, adding strings, tabla, or some other seemingly eccentric instrument to their sound. For the most part, bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and others make these new instruments sound out of place in a rock setting. But the Dirty Three -- an aptly-named Australian drum, guitar, and violin trio -- create an hour of music on this self-titled album that takes the experiments of their predecessors and coalesces them into a beautiful whole. Violinist Warren Ellis is a magician -- the sounds he coaxes out of the instrument range from conventional melody to washed-out feedback noise. On "Indian Love Song" Ellis starts off with a gentle plucking of the strings, but midway though this ten minute drone hes on another planet, wailing away in a Pete Townshend meets Thurston Moore vein. This album does not follow a strict melody-cacophony structure though. Mick Turner plays along perfectly with Ellis, crafting subtle guitar lines that complement his counterpart. All the while drummer Jim White uses a keen selection of shells, tambourines, and God knows what else to keep a beat. The band seems equally assured in playing quiet pastoral passages ("Kims Dirt") and ferocious rock ("Everythings Fucked"). Their music is cinematic -- moving at varying paces through different emotions. Where most bands have come up short in both creativity and execution, the Dirty Three have it right. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 15 Title: Sad & Dangerous Released: 1995-03-20 Tracks: 10 Duration: 1:02:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Kims Dirt (10:38) 2 Killy Kundane (07:05) 3 Jaguar (05:03) 4 Devil in the Hole (04:16) 5 Jims Dog (06:25) 6 Short Break (03:09) 7 Turk Reprise (03:47) 8 You Were a Bum Dream (05:03) 9 Warrens Waltz (07:06) 10 Turk (10:05) |
| Sad & Dangerous : Allmusic album Review : On their debut, Dirty Three seems to be working out future ideas. Most of the songs are quite lengthy, and some of the more repetitive numbers are often hurt by this ("Kims Dirt," "Turk Reprise"). As a result of the bands experimentation, however, we see a different side of the group not witnessed on later efforts. For instance, Warren Ellis sets down his violin to play bass on "Jims Dog," a song that seems like it would fit perfectly on a film-noir detective movie soundtrack. One of the greatest moments on the record arrives in the form of "Turk," appropriately the last song and the biggest epic. Here, Dirty Three emits dark Eastern melodies that build until they finally climax into a shrieking, stuttered middle section. In the end, there are two sides to the material on the album: pure emotional feeling and meandering filler. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 15 Title: Horse Stories Released: 1996-09-09 Tracks: 9 Duration: 56:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 1000 Miles (04:40) 2 Sues Last Ride (07:22) 3 Hope (04:53) 4 I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me (06:11) 5 At the Bar (06:39) 6 Red (03:54) 7 Warrens Lament (08:44) 8 Horse (05:38) 9 I Knew It Would Come to This (08:38) |
| Horse Stories : Allmusic album Review : Dirty Three have a gift for creating unforgettably emotive instrumental soundscapes, and Horse Stories demonstrates this to great effect. The versatility of Warren Ellis violin playing is what drives Horse Stories, but although the violin is the focal point, Mick Turners guitar and Jim Whites drumming are vital elements in making Dirty Threes sound so compelling. The tracks here are widely varied, from slow, languid pieces like "1000 Miles" and "At the Bar" and wild dances like "Red" and "I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me" to stunningly beautiful tracks like the aptly titled "Hope." It is fitting that Horse Stories helped Dirty Three reach a wider audience than they had with their earlier efforts, as it was an album that saw them reach new heights in creativity. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 15 Title: Sharks EP Released: 1998 Tracks: 4 Duration: 18:22 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Obvious Is Obvious (04:36) 2 Two Am (05:27) 3 Rope (05:58) 4 Running Scared (feat. Nick Cave) (02:20) |
 | Album: 5 of 15 Title: A Strange Holiday Released: 1998 Tracks: 5 Duration: 22:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Summers Lost Heart (02:54) 2 Somewhere Else, Someplace Good (04:21) 3 A Strange Holiday (05:21) 4 Xmas Song (01:36) 5 Au Revoir Petit Chat (08:24) |
 | Album: 6 of 15 Title: Ocean Songs Released: 1998-03-31 Tracks: 10 Duration: 1:06:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Sirena (04:06) 2 The Restless Waves (05:09) 3 Distant Shore (05:50) 4 Authentic Celestial Music (10:04) 5 Backwards Voyager (04:34) 6 Last Horse on the Sand (04:52) 7 Sea Above, Sky Below (06:04) 8 Black Tide (04:35) 9 Deep Waters (16:27) 10 Ends of the Earth (05:11) |
| Ocean Songs : Allmusic album Review : The Dirty Threes fourth venture into long-play territory is easily their most controversial, and a decided change in direction. While the bands previous recordings -- Sad & Dangerous, Dirty Three, and Horse Stories -- have all, in some way, attempted to capture the trios live show, where slow, winding patterns and riffs become a swirling churning blast of emotional cacophony for both musicians and listeners, Ocean Songs takes a very different tack to achieve an end that is similar, but more focused. There is an aesthetic at work on Ocean Songs, from the cover through to the last note of the original recordings (early issues of the CD came with a second CD with three bonus tracks, all of which have surfaced elsewhere), the purpose of which is held in the somewhat mysterious title. The music is what makes it so. Are D3 playing songs inspired by or seemingly "created" from the ocean? Or are they paying homage to the ocean? The music here keeps all tempos reigned in and all instrumental flurries to a minimum, creating the feeling of waves lapping and pouring into and out of one another. Its as if the D3 were on a vessel, playing to the ocean itself. There are hints in guitarist Mick Turners gorgeous cover painting, which shows a tranquil mermaid on one side, a near tidal wave over a red boat on the back sleeve, and both in deep blue against a light blue background, seemingly under the ocean. On the tentative opener, "Sirena," Warren Ellis plays two- and three-notes lines, held interminably against Turners pastoral and minimal guitar flourishes while Jim Whites rhythmic constructs glisten and shimmer through the middle, offering it all more room to drift rather than create a frame. On "Distant Shore," a tune built on three chords and a fragment, Ellis puts the albums tentative nature forth in the elegantly twisting lilt of his violin, creating a melody that is simply a chant, as Turner and White slip around his center, creating a view of the shore and the ground, mirage-like and ephemeral, and presented through a watery prism, as mournful, left behind, turned away from. The centerpiece of the album -- from which there is no return, either to "traditional" D3 form or to anything else considered rock music -- is "Authentic Celestial Music." Ellis, for the first time, overdubs his violin, creating a series of drones and overlapping melodies. Turner plays its straight, creating a chord structure that follows the dynamic changes in Ellis minimal style, from one melody to the next, with no more than 12 notes total. White relies on his tom toms and a muted snare, almost leaving his cymbals out of the mix entirely until over halfway through the tunes nearly 11 minutes. Here is a new kind of intensity for the D3, one built in unison and not in any kind of rock counterpoint. A dynamic range is built upon slowly, with repeated phrases and rhythms masking the turbulence underneath, mirroring it even, and holding some degree of it in, where previously the dials would have been in the red. This is not to say there isnt drama or tension -- far from it. Its just that it does not get released through catharsis; instead, it merely goes quiet. When "Backwards Voyager" ushers in the second half of the album, it is clear that listeners are in the aftermath of a storm. A dangerous calm is created by Whites whispering snare, and deepened by Turners generous open-tuned chords, plucked and gently strummed, as Ellis just hovers elegaically in the background, moving the band into a lulling, shimmering space where everything floats in open, empty, poetic, and lyric space. D3 move eventually from this gorgeous, mournful, and some what sad space into the heart of beauty itself, meditating on this new terrain, one which extends far beyond anything they conceived of exploring as a band on previous albums. Loss, desire, remembrance, solitude, and the tenuous benevolence of nature are all emotional frames explored in tracks like "Last Horse on the Sand," the densely mysterious "Sky Above, Sea Below," and "Black Ride." The disc ends with "Ends of the Earth," with Ellis taking up the piano as well as his violin, and Turner playing a gorgeous yet simple lyric line that evokes the shimmering horizon, endlessly out of reach, just over the next curve in the earth. Ellis, whose chords underlie his fragile song, also layers his violin just above Whites brushed snare that haunts Turners guitar. In the middle of the tunes five-minute span, one can see into the depths of the ocean itself, and hear it speak its secret truths while revealing its hidden, flowing body. Its a song than ends in a small, shimmering whisper about things to come, things that are, and things that will never be. On Ocean Songs, the Dirty Three have expanded themselves immeasurably as a band by holding themselves in to listen, and have made some of the most haunting, poetically profound, and emotionally honest music ever to come out of the "rock" world. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 15 Title: Ufkuko Released: 1998-11-23 Tracks: 5 Duration: 28:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 To Aster! (03:09) 2 Mihelkos Arm (03:56) 3 Cast Adrift (04:49) 4 Three Wheels (07:35) 5 Wish I Could (08:49) |
 | Album: 8 of 15 Title: Lowlands Released: 2000 Tracks: 8 Duration: 38:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Cottonhead (04:53) 2 Country Song (04:07) 3 Kangaroo (05:02) 4 Lowlands (05:51) 5 Three Mile Creek (04:10) 6 Wheels (04:16) 7 Time After (06:23) 8 Irish Red (03:44) |
 | Album: 9 of 15 Title: Whatever You Love, You Are Released: 2000-03-07 Tracks: 6 Duration: 48:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Some Summers They Drop Like Flys (06:20) 2 I Really Shouldve Gone Out Last Night (06:52) 3 I Offered It Up to the Stars & the Night Sky (13:37) 4 Some Things I Just Dont Want to Know (06:07) 5 Stellar (07:29) 6 Lullabye for Christie (07:45) |
| Whatever You Love, You Are : Allmusic album Review : The Dirty Three have created their own brand of violin-infused rock and carry this torch of innovation even further with Whatever You Love, You Are. There are some characteristic Dirty Three moments on this album; the final song "Lullaby for Christie" would have fit in perfectly on their first self-titled album. The song swoons and breaks with a delicate yet powerful melody. There are some key explorations on this album that, even if they dont always succeed, depict a band that is far from comfortable with the status quo. "I Offered It up to the Stars and the Night Sky" experiments with overlapping violin tracks and ends up sounding more like a chamber work by Steve Reich than the Dirty Three. Although its not the albums most listenable song, it sounds incredibly different than anything else the band has done. Another new direction for the band is in terms of production; much of the album contains overdubs and has a much smoother, but not always better, sound. Perhaps the only aspect of Whatever You Love that is lacking is the rough "live" sound that the other albums have had. The production takes away from some of the bands spontaneity but also allows it to refine the subtleties of their sound. Hopefully, with time, the Dirty Three will be able to fuse their rough-edged sound with technological advancements to achieve a perfect synthesis. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 15 Title: In the Fishtank, Volume 7 Released: 2001-05-22 Tracks: 6 Duration: 30:09 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 I Hear... Goodnight (03:10) 2 Down by the River (09:37) 3 Invitation Day (05:00) 4 When I Called Upon Your Seed (03:55) 5 Cody (04:06) 6 Lordy (04:20) |
 | Album: 11 of 15 Title: She Has No Strings Apollo Released: 2003-02-18 Tracks: 7 Duration: 47:17 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Alice Wading (08:23) 2 She Has No Strings (08:40) 3 Long Way to Go With No Punch (04:56) 4 No Stranger Than That (07:11) 5 Sister Let Them Try and Follow (05:17) 6 She Lifted the Net (04:16) 7 Rude (and Then Some Slight Return) (08:31) |
| She Has No Strings Apollo : Allmusic album Review : On She Has No Strings Apollo, the Dirty Three again offer up the sounds of their hearts and inner landscapes to the skies and whoevers listening. The bands tendency to start a song quiet, loose, and lovely and then slowly sweat it into a faster, intensified crescendo is familiar by now, but somehow remains vividly evocative. The emotional road from heartbreak and regret, expressed through beating music with wailing violin ("Alice Wading"), to feeling lost, heard in a songs slow unraveling ("She Lifted the Net"), and back again is part of humanitys oldest story, and is a tale that violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White are good at telling. If you are a fan of the Dirty Threes past expressions, youll be moved by their sound again as they relay new wordless tales of woe, sadness, and things past. Worth noting: The quieter, reflective pieces like "Long Way to Go With No Punch" deliver moments of reprieve, and bass guitar (played by Turner) is heard for the first time on a Dirty Three album since 1994s Sad & Dangerous. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 15 Title: Cinder Released: 2005-10-11 Tracks: 19 Duration: 1:10:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Ever Since (04:48) 2 She Passed Through (03:26) 3 Amy (02:48) 4 Sad Sexy (03:23) 5 Cinders (03:02) 6 Doris (03:26) 7 Flutter (06:36) 8 The Zither Player (05:01) 9 It Happened (02:14) 10 Great Waves (03:28) 11 Dream Evie (02:43) 12 Too Soon, Too Late (03:29) 13 This Night (03:56) 14 Rain On (03:39) 15 Ember (02:38) 16 Michèle (03:23) 17 Feral (04:10) 18 Last Dance (04:16) 19 In Fall (03:54) |
| Cinder : Allmusic album Review : Australias Dirty Three have covered a lot of ground over their ten-year career, and always as a trio: violinist Warren Ellis (also a prominent member of Nick Caves Bad Seeds), guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White (the latter two are also known as the Tren Brothers). The band have continually re-examined their sound, and looked for different textures and dynamics while retaining their original instrumentation. Not this time. This is the Dirty Three as you have never heard them before. Their sound is unmistakable, but their creation process has changed significantly. For starters, the record was not done live in a studio. Secondly, the band employs a greater range of instruments. Ellis adds viola, bouzouki, piano, and mandolin to his cache, and Turner plays organ and bass as well as guitar. There are also two vocal tracks on the set, Sally Timms of the Mekons appears on "Feral," and Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) wrote the lyrics to, and sings, "Great Waves." Mark Soul also plays bagpipes on "Doris." What it all amounts to is the most adventurous recording in bands catalog. And the experiment pays off in spades. There are 19 tracks here, most of them under four minutes and all but two under five. In other words, Cinder captures the Dirty Three at their tightest, most expansive, yet most "song"-oriented album ever. It opens with Whites cymbal and snare slowly and purposely announcing "Ever Since," before Turners signature electric guitar and Ellis on bouzouki slip in unobtrusively and the melody asserts itself before Ellis violin finds a melody in the weave and plays in, through, and around, evoking distance, melancholy, and the hint of real sorrow. The tune gains in intensity, but only enough to assert tension that goes unresolved before the band takes it down another notch on "She Passed Through." Its even slower, more meandering, yet more melodic and the shift of mood and dynamic is prescient. The recording becomes almost lushly romantic through "Amy" and "Sad Sexy," where the volume rises, the dynamic thickens, and the pace quickens. But its still only a glimpse. The chaos begins to assert itself in the title track, which is simply an intro, a way of entering into "Doris," which quite literally explodes with Turner playing power chords in a way he hasnt since Horse Stories. "The Zither Player" also moves into hard-driven rock, albeit textured by Ellis bouzouki. Marshalls vocal on "Great Waves," graced by Turners guitar, is moody, drenched in gorgeous erotic poetry and kissed by the slow, unhurried, gradually unfolding drama that is an homage to eros. The dreaminess begins anew here and carries on throughout the rest of the disc. Timms vocal on "Feral" is wordless, drifting, and spiritual like an inebriated angel trying to find a song in her memory as the band conjures that ghost above and around her voice. The elegiac "In Fall" takes Cinder out, purposeful, droning, whispering. The Dirty Three dont go at things. They look at them softly, through clouded gazes, and move around them. This has always been true. On Cinder, they engage a song itself in this way, in their way, by not trying to find its musical body, the place where it defines itself, but instead but they seek relentlessly, through investigation and elegant articulation of the journey, its spidery, impure, constantly desiring heart and find it, in all its wounded, pulsing beauty. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 15 Title: Live! At Meredith Released: 2006-06 Tracks: 7 Duration: 1:16:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Indian Love Song (12:19) 2 Some Summers (They Drop Like Flies) (09:27) 3 She Has No Strings (10:10) 4 Hope (07:26) 5 Alice Wading (13:46) 6 Everything Is Fucked (07:19) 7 Deep Waters (15:39) |
 | Album: 14 of 15 Title: Ulterior Motives Released: 2012 Tracks: 7 Duration: 59:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Better Go Home Now (radio version) (04:08) 2 Sues Last Ride (demo) (05:22) 3 The Last Night (demo) (05:42) 4 Rope (05:58) 5 Everything Is Pretty Much Fucked (demo) (07:20) 6 Indian Love Song (demo) (12:42) 7 Deep Waters (demo) (18:21) |
 | Album: 15 of 15 Title: Toward the Low Sun Released: 2012-02-24 Tracks: 9 Duration: 41:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Furnace Skies (04:43) 2 Sometimes I Forget Youve Gone (03:46) 3 Moon on the Land (04:50) 4 Rising Below (05:46) 5 The Pier (04:52) 6 Rain Song (03:49) 7 That Was Was (04:01) 8 Ashen Snow (05:12) 9 You Greet Her Ghost (04:50) |
| Toward the Low Sun : Allmusic album Review : Toward the Low Sun ends a seven-year silence for Australias Dirty Three. During that time, violinist Warren Ellis has been part of the Bad Seeds, Nick Caves film scoring partner, and an integral part of Grinderman. Drummer Jim White has played with Chan Marshall, Bonny "Prince" Billy, and Nina Nastasia. Guitarist Mick Turner released a solo album and established himself as a painter. Toward the Low Sun is simultaneously a look at their collective past and the future appearing on the horizon. Opener "Furnace Skies" is an urgent showcase of the bands wealth of ideas -- even if they all rush out at once -- with Whites drums furiously clamoring in circular motions accompanied by a nasty, distorted bass (guitar) ostinato. Ellis violin, and organ and Turners guitar layer themselves on top. Insane but focused, its controlled chaos is reminiscent of the wildness on Horse Stories. Turner and Ellis alternate on organ and piano throughout the album. The latter instrument plays a skeletal yet melodically haunting role in "Sometimes I Forget Youre Gone." Whites drums rail in skittering intensity as Turner solos expressionistically round the edges, creating a space for Ellis violin. The effect is comforting, and even mournful, while sounding dangerously over the rails. Dirty Threes ability to imaginatively stretch time in their harmonic and rhythmic invention with a variety of dynamic, textural, and timbral strategies has always set them apart and made them sound fresh. Sparser, slower tunes such as the beautiful "Moon on the Land" and "Rain Song" are allowed to whisper themselves into being, hovering and following a melodic trajectory that evokes elements of high-lonesome folk music, blues, and even imagined landscapes via creative use of sonorities. On "That Was Was," rockist urgency is its own crashing endgame. When propelled by Turners gorgeous chord voicings and Whites fragmented, 4/4 beat, the distortion Ellis employs on his violin with country-blues phrasing is pure passion. "Rising Below" is slow building its tension, but it eventually reveals the band at its squalling, ship-tossed-about-in-the-storm best. Closer "You Greet Her Ghost" begins with Whites rolling tom-toms and Turners idiosyncratic fingerpicked chords. Ellis plays around a melody rather than asserting one. Eventually, the listener discovers the melody exists between Turner and Ellis, with White as the bridge. Toward the Low Sun is crushing in its sadness, unrelenting in its sweetness and pure aural emotion. Its the measure of proof of how powerful and original Dirty Three are at their best. | ||