Dirty Three (AU)

About

Also known as: The Dirty Three

Warren Ellis attaching a guitar pick up to his violin with a rubber band at their very first gig pretty much tells you everything about what Dirty Three are going for. The Melbourne trio, built around Ellis on violin and keyboards, Mick Turner on guitar and Mick Turner on guitar and Jim White on drums, makes sprawling, improvisational instrumental rock that sits somewhere between post rock intensity and slowcore atmosphere. Their 1996 album Horse Stories landed in Rolling Stone's top three albums of the year, and Ocean Songs two years later pushed even further into rapturous, landscape wide territory, earning a spot in the book 100 Best Australian Albums. Over the decades the three have scattered across different cities, Turner staying in Melbourne, White in New York, Ellis in Paris, yet they keep pulling back together. Their seventh album Cinder, released in late 2005, was the first to feature any vocals at all, from Cat Power's Chan Marshall and Sally Timms of The Mekons, though only on two of nineteen tracks. Even that small concession to the human voice felt like a radical move for a band that has always let the instruments do the heavy talking.