Albums by this artist

Whatever You Love, You Are (2000)

Horse Stories (1996)

Dirty Three

Horse Stories

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» MARK T.R. DONOHUE | STAFF WRITER

Dirty Three Horse Stories Touch & Go, 1996 RiYL: Gastr Del Sol, June of 44, Slint

I named Horse Stories my #8 record of the '90s, and after listening to it again, I think I aimed too low. Stories' greatness is connected to the reason I've held off on writing about it so long. There is very little that can be written about the Dirty Three. The Three themselves realize this, their albums are sparely packaged and the songs bear just enough title to set the stage.

But as soon as "1000 Miles" begins -- all light rimshots, slack guitar, and violin harmonics -- words like "spare" or "stark" are the furthest thing from the listener's mind. Actually, words themselves don't really enter in to listening to Horse Stories. Although Jim White, Mick Turner, and Warren Ellis use nothing more complicated than makeshift drumkit, beat-up old guitar, and well-worn violin to transmit them, the melodies and pictures in these musicians' heads are on par with the greatest art of the 20th century. And I am not even kidding.

"At The Bar" is a tale of loneliness told all in the empty spaces between the notes of Turner's arching slow arpeggios, as White's drums tap and rattle like rain on a tin roof. "Red" runs through all of the emotions that could possibly be associated with the titular color -- love, rage, blood, war -- and back again. "Horse" is simply four notes and one strummed chord for most of its length, but as Ellis's violin becomes more and more exultant, Turner's genius becomes more apparent. The Dirty Three simply are made to play with each other -- no player could color in Turner's spaces as Ellis does, no percussionist could drive the duo's interplay as does White.

The Dirty Three are a very literal instrumental band. Put on "A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work" by Tortoise, and a listener gets an interesting instrumental song with an amusing, unrelated title. Put on "I Remember A Time When Once You Used To Love Me" by the Three, and you're hearing vivid heartbreak, as distilled into drawn-out violin notes and suspended guitar chords. "Hope" -- perhaps the album's greatest song -- meditates on perhaps humankind's most vital emotion.

One of the best albums ever made. Of any kind. You heard me.

MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.