Albums by this artist

Whatever You Love, You Are (2000)

Horse Stories (1996)

Dirty Three

Whatever You Love, You Are

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

Dirty Three Whatever You Love, You Are Touch & Go, 2000 RiYL: American minimalism, Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke/Gastr Del Sol

Following the EP UFKUKO, the soundtrack for the movie "Praise," and intense activity as Nick Cave's side musicians, the Dirty Three's Whatever You Love, You Are finally returns to the austere chamber music of the trio's last proper album, Ocean Songs. The six extended instrumental tracks reveal a much stronger classical influence than before, possibly a result of the band being involved in several avant-garde musical events.

"Some Summers They Drop Like Flys" develops at a funereal pace that echoes traditional gypsy and klezmer music, (halfway between The Doors' "The End" and the Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs") while violin and guitar soar in an acrobatic counterpoint worthy of Bach and Vivaldi. The cadence of "I Really Should've Gone Out Last Night" borrows its slow elegance from Renaissance madrigals, the violin's dirge is basically a sonata whose tones have been stretched in long drones reminiscent of Tibetan music.

"I Offered It Up To The Stars" is perhaps the group's most ambitious composition so far. The short (drum-less) interlude openly flirts with minimalism and Arvo Pärt, while the second movement opens with spare, dissonant tones over a bleak background of martial percussions. Finally, the violin unfolds a bluesy tune and the drums drive the rhythm to a forceful crescendo. The effect is not unlike the music on Pink Floyd's early psychedelic opus A Saucerful Of Secrets.

The cinematic quality of the Dirty Three's music is on full display with "Some Things I Just Don't Want To Know," the ideal soundtrack for vast desert lands: tender melodies, lazy tones, casual percussions, a sense of solitude and infinite. "Lullabye For Christie" closes the album on a lighter, romantic note.

Despite the renewed classical influence on the disc, the roots of these tracks remain planted in country and folk music. There is an instrinsic roughness in the way they are played (the timbres, the tempos, the drumming) -- in opposition to the crisp choice of sounds that characterizes today's avant-garde composer -- that sets the Dirty Three firmly in the "popular" field. They exhale rock and roll, blues-rock, folk-rock, acid-rock, punk-rock, new wave, and so forth. Indeed, they embody the history of rock music, but they just project it on a different screen.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.