DIRTY THREE Horse Stories 1996

Discogs


Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny 

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 group's 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 trio's 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 1996's 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 Power's 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 Cave's 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. 

Tracklist  

1	1000 Miles	4:40
2	Sue's Last Ride	7:22
3	Hope	4:53
4	I Remember A Time When You Used To Love Me	6:11
5	At The Bar	6:39
6	Red	3:54
7	Warren's Lament	8:44
8	Horse	5:38
9	I Knew It Would Come To This	8:38

MICK TURNER Tren Phantasma 1997

by request

Discogs

Artist Biography by Heather Phares

Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner began a solo career in 1997 with the release of Tren Phantasma, a collection of improvised four-track recordings featuring the contemplative guitar style he used with his group the Dirty Three. The following year, Turner and his bandmate Jim White played live as the Tren Brothers, carrying the album's aesthetic into a concert setting with an arsenal of loop pedals and understated percussion. Several of these dates were opening spots for Cat Power, with whom the duo collaborated on the 1998 album Moon Pix. Turner and White also recorded a 7" for Secretly Canadian Records that year, and followed it with 1999's Marlan Rosa, released by Drag City. In summer 2002, Turner released the Seven Angels EP, a limited-edition set issued by Three Lobed Records. Later that year, his third album Moth arrived. In 2005, an extremely limited CD-R live EP, entitled Don't Tell the Driver, was issued by Turner's King Crab label. In 2007, a Tren Brothers rarities collection, The Blue Trees, appeared. Between that year and 2012 he appeared on records by Clare Bowditch & the Feeding Set and Guy Blackman, as well as on a split 7" between the Tren Brothers and Bridezilla. In 2013, a compilation of his earliest recordings with Jim White in the band Venom P. Stinger was released by Drag City, followed by a brief reunion tour and the release of his next full-length solo effort, Don't Tell the Driver, in November. Though it bore the same title as the 2005 EP, they weren't related in any way. The full-length album had been composed and recorded intermittently between 2009 and 2012 at Big Moth studios in Australia.

I HATE THE 90S Volume 9

1. STEREOLAB Brakhage
2. CERTAIN DISTANT SUNS Play
3. FLAT DUO JETS My Life, My Love
4. HALF JAPANESE True Believers
5. SMALL 23 Mona Skips Breakfast
6. SEAWEED Recall
7. GODHEADSILO Skyward in Triumph
8. BASEHEAD Split Personality
9. THE EARTHMEN Figure 8
10. DIRTY THREE Horse
11. THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Sometimes Always
12. THE FALL Last Chance to Turn Around
13. SEEFEEL Polyfusion
14. TRANS AM Enforcer
15. AIR MIAMI You Sweet Little Heartbreaker
16. U.S. MAPLE Letter to ZZ Top
17. SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE 47
18. JUNE OF '44 Modern Hereditary Dance Steps
19. DEATHSTAR Spineless
20. THE ORB No Fun
21. COMMON RIDER Classics of Love
22. THE PEECHEES The Restart
23. BARDO POND Lull

LOW and DIRTY THREE In the Fishtank 7 2001

review

[+] by Thom Jurek

In late 1999, the Dutch label KonKurrent invited Minneapolis band Low into an in-house studio to record one of the label's near-legendary In the Fishtank sessions; bands have two days to record between 20-30 minutes of all new material of their choosing. Also touring at the time were Low's pals, the Australian instrumental dynamos the Dirty Three. Low invited them in, and in the same collaborative spirit as another In the Fishtank session involving Tortoise and the Ex, this half-hour session is the document. What is truly amazing about this hookup is how natural these two bands sound playing with one another. Low has been striking out lately, playing different kinds of material while keeping its signature slower-than-slow approach to songwriting. the Dirty Three has taken a more melodic and dynamically restrained tack since their landmark Ocean Songs recording of a few years back. Of the six songs recorded here, none is more successful that the nearly ten-minute cover of Neil Young's "Down By the River." Mick Turner's trademark guitar style opens the work with lots of brush and cymbal work. It's unrecognizable for the first five minutes; it's just an opening shimmering drone with guitar strings wafting in and out of the atmospherics before Low's Mimi begins singing the verse and Alan teams with Turner to entwine guitars. And when Warren Ellis' violins slip into the middle of the stream, the eerie effect is complete, and the trancelike motion of the song takes hold and won't let go until silence takes over. The other five tracks are sensual Low originals full of longing and resplendent minimalism. The D3 hold their place in the Low mix, painting it out over a vaster, more colorful expanse, creating more space in their trademark suffocating mix. Alan and Mimi croon together, singing like lovers rather than as bandmates on "Invitation Day." Mimi's vocal and Turner's guitar playing sound enmeshed on "When I Called Upon Your Seed." Drummer Jim White is also a perfect foil for Low; his off-time washes of brush and muted rimshots split the notion of time in two, making the vocal and the tune's time signature two separate entities in a sea awash with the driftwood of the other instruments. Alan's harmonium and organ and Turner take the tune out with Ellis' haltingly shimmering strings. He opens "Cody," however, with the most lonesome, forlorn fiddle line this side of Hank Williams' "Six More Miles to the Graveyard," though it echoes Fartein Valen more than country music. This is really The D3 with Low lending textural ambience and structural balance. It's full of a haunted, hunted beauty that only The D3 can muster up, and it is enhanced by the addition of Zak Sally's bass playing. The disc closes with "Lordy," featuring Low's Alan (providing banjo accompaniment) and Mimi in a gospel-drenched duet before The D3 kick in full-tilt with sawing violin from Ellis tearing the tune apart from the inside; Turner plays slide and counters him to keep in it in a blues mode as White and Mimi duke it out on the trap kits. Turner's scree ends just as the banjo re-enters and Alan forlornly pleads for his soul to be saved as the track just falls apart before ending properly. This is a studio collaboration that works. It's half an hour of music made from the heart of goodwill and the desire by six musicians to do nothing more than play together to see what happens. What resulted is some of the best material either unit has produced.

read more