Dirty Three
She Has No Strings Apollo

LA RECENSIONE

It has been 11 years since Warren Ellis, the founder of this Australian trio, decided to attach a guitar pickup to his violin, giving it an electric sound with reverb.
With the support of Mick Turner's guitar and Jim White's drums, Ellis and the Dirty Three created unheard sounds, a sort of cross between rock, blues, folk, and chamber music.

Even in this seventh chapter, the three instruments revive this formula: each follows its own style and they chase each other in creating that unique, crepuscular, and full of melancholy sound that characterizes the Melbourne trio.
There is no voice. The one who "speaks" is Ellis’s violin, whose virtuosity sings sad and poignant visions: “for our music the most important thing is the sadness,” say the Dirty Three. And listening to them, you can't disagree.
Just listen to the notes of the initial “Alice Wading,” gothic and emotional, before Ellis's arpeggio frenzy takes over. Or the decadent piano notes in “Long way to go with no punch,” over which the violin plays a beautiful game of call and response. Even when the rhythm increases and the violin's timbre becomes stronger, as in the seductive “No stranger than that” or in the controlled distortions of “Rude (and then some slight return)”, the atmosphere breathed is poignant and dense with intense suggestions.

Perhaps we are not at the level of the previous “Ocean songs” or “Whatever you love, you are,” but without a doubt, this is a good affirmation of their unique style and their innate ability to make music that moves and elevates the most intimate and visceral moods.