Dirty Three: Toward the Low Sun – review

It's 20 years since instrumental post-rock trio Dirty Three formed in Melbourne. Between them, violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White have played with some of rock's most revered acts, from Nick Cave to PJ Harvey, from Cat Power to Will Oldham; but working together without a songwriter's vision to realise, they tend towards a more sprawling, improvisational mode. This eighth album is certainly that – the fiery opener Furnace Skies approaches free-jazz territory in its spiral of flickering drum-rolls and circular bass rumbles, with Ellis and Turner painting in fleeting half-riffs and brief suggestions of melodies on top. Things calm to a folkier, more ordered sound for Moon on the Land, the violin picking out pretty, mournful lead lines, before their noisy side returns on album highlight That Was Was, a beautiful quasi-psych-rock workout. A few ponderous moments aside, Toward the Low Sun is a thing of many sophisticated, evocative pleasures, and, six years after their last album, a very welcome return.