Warren Ellis, Mick Turner, and Jim White take aslightly different slant on Cinder, restricting themselves to shorter times for each piece. The distinctivesound of Dirty Three remains intact but they sound rejuvenated. This is a definite strong contender for album of the year.
Tough and Go
Ellis’ violin is still the central voice of the band, singing lyricsthat no voice can sing; Turner’s guitar work is the same reservedtumbleweed picking that complements the violin so well; and as usual I amastounded at how good a drummer Jim White is: his quirky offbeats andexpressive playing takes the Dirty Three to places no ordinary drummercould reach.
Some guest musicians have been drafted to expand thegroup’s sonic palette. When “Doris” begins I thought that DirtyThree were covering U2 until the bagpipes (provided by Mark Soul)kicked in. The sound of the pipes pushes the band back into morefamiliar sounding territory. More interestingly, Chan Marshall lendsher vocals to “Great Waves,” allowing Ellis’s violin playing to sit inthe background. Her voice suits the Dirty Three’s style, as shetaps into the melancholy and romanticism that they do so well.
At first Cinder feels a little too accessible for DirtyThree. Normally I feel that I have to work a little to get into one oftheir albums and becauseof that I fear it won’t have such long lasting appeal as the likes of Ocean Songs or Whatever You Love You Are.Thankfully after repeated listens and sittings it still sounds impeccable.Sometimes I wish that some of the songs were longer but that happensall the time with Dirty Three and me. What shines most out of thisalbum is the band’s (Ellis in particular) love for Irish traditionalgroups like the Bothy Band and Planxty, Ellis has taken up the bazoukiand mandolin in recent years and obviously has been paying attention toAndy Irvine and Donal Lunny. Despite the influence, Cinderstill very much sounds like three men from Australia playing theirhearts out.
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