Dirty Three ‎– Horse Stories

I don’t think there’s any sense in covering up how mental we all are here about the Aussie improv trio Dirty Three. Made up of three musicians (Jim White, Mick Turner, and Warren Ellis) the band have now notched up an incredibly lengthy catalogue of albums and ‘Horse Stories’ was their third, coming out originally over ten years ago in 1996. It’s fantastic to see Bella Union giving this the re-issue treatment it deserves too as it’s a real classic from a band who have had a consistently remarkable flow of releases since their conception. Using the seemingly sparse combination of violin, drums and bass the three proceed to totally re-write the book of instrumental rock music – you might be thinking Tortoise at this point and to be quite honest that’s a fair comparison. The two bands both have roots in jazz and free rock, but where Tortoise go for the widescreen, Dirty Three have always been out taking shelter from the hot sun in a barn somewhere, fusing down-home folk music with post-rock, Americana and whatever else comes to hand. They’ve got the skills too, each of the players are totally at ease with their chosen instrument, and to hear them playing together and improvising in this way is truly quite inspirational.