Dirty Three - Singles & EPs

	Dirty Three & Low Obvious is obvious EP Year: 1997 Country: Australia/USA Genre: Rock Label: Touch & Go
Tracklist: 1. Obvious Is Obvious (Instrumental Version) 2. No Need - Performed By Low
Review: Release Date: 03/11/1997 Split Cd-sigle with the band Low. The Dirty Three play the Kim Salmon song "Obvious Is Obvious". Limited edition. Touch and Go Records, TG183 CD

	Dirty Three Sharks EP Year: 1998 Country: Australia Genre: Rock Label: Anchor & Hope
Tracklist: 1. Obvious is obvious 2. Two am 3. Rope 4. Running scared
Review: This four-song recording was released as a limited-edition CD on the band's tour in support of their 1998 Touch and Go release, Ocean Songs. It continues in the threesome's tradition of beautiful, melancholic violin passages that manage to tell stories of lost souls and create violent visuals. This is exemplified well on "Two A.M.," where Mick Turner's distorted guitar and Warren Ellis' plucked violin start a slow dance, while drummer Jim White adds abrupt tambourine. Together, the band sounds like a shackled pirate making his way to the gangplank of a swaying ship. The music builds during a voiceless chorus and creates the sound of a fierce storm with gale winds. The violin finally breaks free with a short repeated violin solo as to signify a parting of the storm clouds. Other numbers feature march-like tempos ("Rope") and a special guest appearance by the band's good friend Nick Cave. The trio, along with Cave, reinvent the Roy Orbison classic "Running Scared," recorded live at Brisbane, Australia's the Zoo. It acts as a foretelling of Ellis' future with Cave's Bad Seeds three years later on the album No More Shall We Part. This EP is a lost treasure that should be dug up if found. (AMG)

	Dirty Three Ufkuko EP Year: 1998 Country: Australia Genre: Rock Label: Bella Union
Tracklist: To Aster! Mihelkos Arm Cast Adrift Three Wheels Wish I Could
Review: The five-track EP Ufkuko features the three songs from the bonus disc that accompanied the first 2,000 U.S. copies of Ocean Songs, as well as two previously unavailable numbers. It won't win any new fans, but needless to say, it's essential for the converted.

	Dirty Three Lowlands Year: 2000 Country: Australia Genre: Rock Label: Anchor & Hope
Tracklist: 1 Cottonhead 2 Country Song 3 Kangaroo 4 Lowlands 5 Three Mile Creek 6 Wheels 7 Time After 8 Irish Red (Live)
Review: Lowlands is something of an anomalous treat from Dirty Three. The songs, which were recorded in three European capitols between 1998 and 1999, are a selection of outtakes from the Whatever You Love, You Are sessions in London, two songs produced for radio broadcast in Dublin, and a handful of tunes recorded in Paris. The collection was originally sold only as a tour souvenir, but (at press time) was still available for purchase through the band's official website. And fans of the band are advised to seek the disc out -- for all practical purposes, it's a continuance of their trend toward outsider folk ambience and houses some remarkable songs that otherwise would never have seen the light of day. The band does mix it up a bit here and there, twisting their accustomed formula by supplanting Warren Ellis' violin with melodica, to great effect, on the standout "Three Mile Creek," and revving up the end of the disc with the tumultuous "Time After" and live track "Irish Red," all three of which sport some of the trio's most memorable melodies. Lowlands' relatively low profile may not make it the ideal introduction to Dirty Three's shambolic, celestial music. But, as rough-and-tumble odds-and-ends discs go, it works beautifully as a snapshot of the versatile group's evocative spontaneity. ~ Bryan Carroll, All Music Guide

	Dirty Three & Low In the fishtank EP Year: 2001 Country: Australia/USA Genre: Rock Label: Konkurrent
Tracklist: I hear goodnight Down by the river [Neil Young cover] Invitation day When I called upon your seed Cody Lordy
Review: Am I alone here in thinking that the phrase "In the Fishtank" sounds, I dunno, maybe something like a euphemism for some weird childhood punishment? The cover art to this album-- the seventh installment in a series of EPs produced by placing handpicked bands in the eponymous studio for spontaneous two-day recording sessions-- doesn't really allay the creepiness. We see a pair of deceptively cute, speckled fish (maybe gobies, or drobies, or gillies) floating on a deceptively tranquil aqua backdrop. Eerily, the fish don't seem that far removed from those flashy tropical fighting fish that rip their tankmates' fins off. It doesn't help that the label putting out these records is named "Konkurrent" (as in, "the diabolical Konkurrent corporation"). It also doesn't help that the K's signify not only evil but blatant foreign-ness. It's not too much of a leap to imagine these Konkurrent folk hijacking unsuspecting bands on tour in the Netherlands and whisking them off to their Amsterdam drug-fortress to breed an indie rock master race. I'm also a bit wary because the last time they paired two bands together "in the fishtank," it was the unlikely combination of Tortoise and avant-punkers the Ex, a union whose musical offspring didn't graduate much beyond "interesting." It's encouraging to see that the bands seem to at least make some sense together this time; both Low and Dirty Three work in broad, deliberate strokes at virtually nonexistent tempos. Also, we learn in the liner notes that Herr Doktor Konkurrent didn't arrange this match himself; Low actually invited their Aussie mates to play with them. With this, however, the question becomes not one of compatibility but of musical interest: will the pairing challenge two admittedly great bands to do anything new? From the opening seconds of the first track, "I Hear. Goodnight," it's easy to see what roles the bands' members have taken; Low's Alan Sparhawk plays a measured, delicate counterpoint to Mick Turner's woozy, stumbling guitarwork, while Jim White's pointillist drums keep the song anchored to some vague sense of tempo. It's amazing how "bandlike" the group sounds-- Zak Sally fills in as the bassist Dirty Three never had, while Warren Ellis becomes the violinist Low fantasize about in their Mormon-style wet dreams. Mimi Parker enters with something like an apocalyptic lullaby ("I hear the windows shake/ I hear the silence break/ I hear the moon turn to blood") that quietly breaks down into the chorus before Ellis lifts it up again with a swelling, wistful solo. Interesting, for sure, and as pretty as anything either group has done before. The next track, an inverted version of Neil Young's "Down by the River," is just as solid, with a long, formless, quietly chaotic opening that gradually takes shape into Parker's icy rendition of Young's confessional lyrics. Even in this soup, Sparhawk's guitar meanderings sound both distinct from Turner's string-popping feedback swoops, and perfectly complementary. In the next song, "Invitation Day," things start to get brilliant. Parker, Sparhawk, and Sally trace out a silvery, descending modal melody, which Dirty Three proceeds to prick at with plucked violin and drunken strumming. Before you know it, the bands seem to merge, and once again, lift the song up to heaven. With the addition of White's drums and a droning church organ, "When I Called Upon Your Seed" sounds more country than anything Low has ever done, even as it threatens to turn into a D3-esque slow-motion sea chantey. "Cody" seems to be a bit of a step backward, sounding like little more than a Dirty Three tune with a bassline. However, the EP's sixth and final track, "Lordy," follows through on its rootsy impulses; Sparhawk actually takes up the banjo and whips up a sincere Gospel vocal fury as Parker propels the song with surprisingly intense drumming. Ellis and Turner get caught up in the rapture as well, churning out an echoed, noisy jubilance that thrashes in waves around the baptismal flame. This track alone makes what could have been a nothing more than one-off EP worth it; it's like seeing those fighting fish at the pet store suddenly starting to rip shit up together. And, like any other pleasant surprise, it's deeply frustrating to know that this is a one-time-only deal. The possibilities apparent in this collaboration deserve to be developed in ways that the format just can't provide. But it's at least as satisfying to see this one end the way it does, with a pile of torn scales slowly starting to gather on the bottom of the tank. (Pitchfork)

	Dirty Three A Strange Holiday Year: 2003 Country: Australia Genre: Rock/Post-rock Label: Anchor & Hope
Tracklist: Summer's lost heart Somewhere else, someplace good A strange holiday Xmas song Au revoir petit chat
Review: Recorded with Adam Rhodes and mixed by Matt Voigt at Sing Sing studios, Melbourne (Australia) in 1999. Tracks 1-4 originally on 'Praise' soundtrack album.

	Dirty Three Great waves Year: 2005 Country: Australia Genre: Post-rock Label: Bella Union
Tracklist: 1) Great Waves 2) Lisa's Mountain
Review: Dirty Three introduce vocals for the first time ever in the form of the new single Great Waves featuring none other than the quite brilliant Cat Power on vocals. ---------- Australia's Dirty Three make what sounds like modern Chamber Music, albeit rubbed clean of the fusty core which that may suggest and replaced with a gorgeous heart of Celtic lustre that can't help but bring a shine to your eyes. Featuring the vocal talent of Chan Marshall (which is somehow both tacitly mournful yet utterly uplifting) 'Great Waves' is an old fashioned love song buoyed by rich and expansive instrumentation, whilst 'Lisa's Mountain' is a swelling viola-led piece that could calm the most tempestuous of seas. (Bookmat)

More info:
Band's web / Bella Union / Touch & Go / Complete discography