Toward the Low Sun ends a seven-year silence for Australia's
Dirty Three. During that time, violinist
Warren Ellis has been part of the Bad Seeds,
Nick Cave's film scoring partner, and an integral part of
Grinderman. Drummer
Jim White has played with
Chan Marshall,
Bonny "Prince" Billy, and
Nina Nastasia. Guitarist
Mick Turner released a solo album and established himself as a painter. Toward the Low Sun is simultaneously a look at their collective past and the future appearing on the horizon. Opener "Furnace Skies" is an urgent showcase of the band's wealth of ideas -- even if they all rush out at once -- with
White's drums furiously clamoring in circular motions accompanied by a nasty, distorted bass (guitar) ostinato.
Ellis' violin, and organ and
Turner's guitar layer themselves on top. Insane but focused, its controlled chaos is reminiscent of the wildness on
Horse Stories.
Turner and
Ellis alternate on organ and piano throughout the album. The latter instrument plays a skeletal yet melodically haunting role in "Sometimes I Forget You're Gone."
White's drums rail in skittering intensity as
Turner solos expressionistically 'round the edges, creating a space for
Ellis' violin. The effect is comforting, and even mournful, while sounding dangerously over the rails.
Dirty Three's ability to imaginatively stretch time in their harmonic and rhythmic invention with a variety of dynamic, textural, and timbral strategies has always set them apart and made them sound fresh. Sparser, slower tunes such as the beautiful "Moon on the Land" and "Rain Song" are allowed to whisper themselves into being, hovering and following a melodic trajectory that evokes elements of high-lonesome folk music, blues, and even imagined landscapes via creative use of sonorities. On "That Was Was," rockist urgency is its own crashing endgame. When propelled by
Turner's gorgeous chord voicings and
White's fragmented, 4/4 beat, the distortion
Ellis employs on his violin with country-blues phrasing is pure passion. "Rising Below" is slow building its tension, but it eventually reveals the band at its squalling, ship-tossed-about-in-the-storm best. Closer "You Greet Her Ghost" begins with
White's rolling tom-toms and
Turner's idiosyncratic fingerpicked chords.
Ellis plays around a melody rather than asserting one. Eventually, the listener discovers the melody exists between
Turner and
Ellis, with
White as the bridge. Toward the Low Sun is crushing in its sadness, unrelenting in its sweetness and pure aural emotion. It's the measure of proof of how powerful and original
Dirty Three are at their best. ~ Thom Jurek