As explained in my post last month, I’m breathless that the Dirty Three are prepping their first album in seven years. And, today, the trio has something to show from it.
“Rising Below” features the same attention to recording detail as their last “Cinder” did, with a close miking of the hollow kick drums, textures of the violin and the stoked, narrative guitar lines mumbling through the tubes. Drummer Jim White carries the thing as the mid-toned instruments go and have their own says, several takes and dubs eventually merging into a tension-filled series of ebbs. I’m hot for it, I want more.
And there will be more, when “Toward the Low Sun” bows on Feb. 28 through Drag City.
Jim White, Warren Ellis and Mick Turner have been collaborating with various other musicians in these handful of years past, including Cat Power and Drag City labelmate Will Oldham. The instrumental band, of course, stands beautifully on its own, but they did integrate vocalists Chan Marshall and the Mekons’ Sally Timms into the mix on 2005’s “Cinder.” Were they to add a new singer to “Sun,” I think Bonnie “Prince” Billy would make it rise. Think about, guys.