Dirty Three New LP in 2012
Legendary instrumental trio Dirty Three will boldly break cover in March 2012 with a remarkable new album, “Toward The Low Sun”, on Bella Union records, plus an intensive live schedule of headline shows and festival appearances. Toward The Low Sun is the product of the most ceaselessly creative period of the band’s career.
In the 6 year’s since the release of their previous album “Cinder”, Jim White, Mick Turner and Warren Ellis have been relentlessly creating music in different permutations and locations around the globe. The artists they have performed and recorded with is testament to the high regard in which they are held.
Warren resides in Paris, though is regularly to be found touring with the Bad Seeds and Grinderman or working with Nick Cave on soundtracks for such films as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Proposition and The Road. Jim is based out of Brooklyn but endlessly tours the world, recording and/or performing with Cat Power, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nina Nastasia and PJ Harvey, whilst Mick lives in Melbourne where he has developed a fine reputation as a visual artist and released the Blue Trees album alongside the occasional Tren Brothers release.
However, even amidst this frantic activity and incessant creativity a return to the mothership was inevitable. “Toward the Low Sun” is a cacophonyic explosion of influences and attitude that has the energy and urgency of a first release. There is an energy and a raw excitement evident from the first electrifying opening moments through to the album’s finale. In Warren’s words, “Dirty Three has always been about the way we play together and feed off each other. We wanted this one to be a return to the more improvised and instinctive approach of the earlier recordings”. And indeed Toward The Low Sun sounds like a first ever recording, a punk avant-garde art-jazz record! And for all their incredible music of the past, the Dirty Three have never seemed more relevant. Live they remain a force unto themselves.
Don’t shade your eyes… Look Toward the Low Sun and you will know once again the burn of the Dirty Three!
Last Live Shows Of 2011
Shed Seven
Liverpool Academy 1, 5 December 2011
The band has been around for a while and still manages to attract large crowds wherever they play. I’ve not been a fan and have never witnessed a live performance until this event. Hell, I don’t even possess one of their recordings, but I am curious…
Shed Seven are a band from York, England who formed in 1990 and are famed for their no nonsense good-time tunes and live shows. Their popularity peaked in the mid-1990’s during the britpop boom with their most popular songs, including Chasing Rainbows, Going for Gold, Getting Better and Disco Down, all reaching the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.
The band split in December 2003, but not before a farewell tour which culminated in a final hometown show. The split was amicable and came about due to disagreements with their record company about their musical direction. In 2005, they released a posthumous collection of demos for what would have been their fifth studio album. whilst the band members themselves began their own separate projects, including frontman Rick Witter, who went on to form Rick Witter and The Dukes .
However, in 2007 the band reunited for what was to become a sell out tour of the UK, and their most successful to date. The re-formed line up included all of the original members, including both of their former guitarists, Joe Johnson and Paul Banks. Although the 2007 tour was intended as a one-off reunion, the band remained together and were seen performing at several UK festivals during the summer of 2008. It was announced in mid-2009, shortly before a one-off headlining performance at the Tartan Heart Festival, that the band would again undergo a tour during December 2009 - they also revealed that they had been working on new songs, though none of these were played during the 2009 tour. The band classed their 18 date 2009 tour as ‘their most successful and enjoyable so far’.
First up was the singer/songwriter, ex-band frontman Chris Helme who went down well with the audience through his his banter, excellent voice and, for me, surprisingly good songs. Helme’s short performance seemed effortless, natural, sincere and deceptively skilled. Even when he forgot his lyrics it didn’t seem to matter - he told the audience and then just started again to loud cheers.
Then it was Shed Seven’s tuurn to impress and I was not disapponted with the band’s performance in front of a near sell-out audience of twenty, thirty and forty-somethings. The guys made it look deceptively easy during their tight-as-a-drum, all-the-hits performance. Witter was in his element chatting comfortably with a crowd whose reponse to songs just made him happier and more talkative. Was it my cup of tea? Song-wise not really but the crowd loved it (with singalong after singalong) and the guys provided a faultless performance deserving of high praise.
SETLIST
Parallel Lines, Where Have You Been Tonight, Bully Boy, Magic Streets, Devil In Your Shoes, Speakeasy, She Left Me On Friday, Ocean Pie, Ladyman, Falling From The Sky, Dolphin, Going For Gold, Out By Your Side, On Standby, Disco Down, High Hopes, Getting Better, Panic, Chasing Rainbows.
Best Albums of 2011
So what makes a great album? Well, let me put it this way: Every record featured in our list displays a passion for music, distinction, intelligence and often communicates the most heartfelt messages. Through strong melody, performances and production they also provide full accessibility to anyone who cares to listen. These are records that can be played very many times and will stand the test of time. I’m reminded of the absolute dedication and passion to produce the best by the young chefs which appear on Masterchef - compare this with the motives (and talents) of X-Factor contestants, their mentors and most of the acts that dominate the airwaves.
When the BBC revealed its latest annual financials, which I went through with a fine-tooth comb, I was staggered to see that in a year when budgets were being cut throughout Britain that BBC radio’s spending increased substantially from already very high levels. I will be reporting in full what I found shortly but it seems to be that BBC radio is immune to the most senior management scrutiny and continues (wrongly) to be the most significant influence on what radio listeners hear and buy; to generally dumb down the quality of music that is broadcast while favouring the financially-healthy few.
The Radio 1 playlist is densely populated with the same names, week-in, week-out, for 52 weeks of the year. It very rarely manages to find something new of quality which is not backed by huge marketing budgets, live-lounge favours and ‘exclusives’. It’s criminal. As a result of this ongoing undue influence and ignorence of the best the charts - single and album - have been dominated by the most mediocre music I’ve heard in many years. It’s as if the very worst and most patronising of Top Of The Pops years has comeback to haunt us - with a vengeance.
I admit I was feeling quite depressed over what is happening to music here in the UK underlined when I recieved a few wonderful albums which were ‘rewarded’ with little of no media coverage or airplay. Shakenstir is not beholden to anyone - it takes no money and is not influenced by hype or coolness or the Pied Piper. We only feature the best and, unlike the BBC, do not descriminate between signed and unsigned. There is only one criteria and it’s so simple: great music from wherever it comes.
Generally, it’s not been as good an album release year as 2009 and 2010 but there have been some real gems that have stood out in the crowd. Have we heard them all? No, and more’s the pity because if it’s great it will always appear on Shake online and radio. Sadly, many great acts and much music still remains undiscovered, deeply buried musical wonders, while so much shit floats. All the more reason to check out our pages for the very best… Starting with the #1 album of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, fanfare please!
David J Roch SKIN + BONES (DRAM Music)
Genre Americana, Melodramatic, Singer-Songwriter
Members David J. Roch but also from time to time joined by
Chris Basford - Drums
Duncan Vaughan - Brass
Andrew Malcolm - Guitar
Reuben Marshall - Bass
Gina Walters - Vocals
Hometown Sheffield
Record label Dram and Sony ATV
Biography: Well for every story there must be a beginning except in David J. Roch’s case the beginning took shape and was formed from the end of another story. Dealing with subject matters ranging from loss, love, religion, death and relationships he holds more in common with poets from a bygone era than that of today’s singer-songwriters. Upon first listen this can prove to be quite a dark moody beguiling affair it comes then as no surprise then that David works as an undertaker and deals with both death and loss on a daily basis. .
The task of controlling and channelling these tunes, ideas and music was given to Grinderman & Bad Seeds drummer, Jim Sclavunos, a gentleman who himself is not afraid to push limits and boundaries. Working with David he helped to forge a sound which firmly placed his vocal at the forefront, utilizing David’s ethereal falsetto whilst also letting it grapple with deep baritone undercurrents. Whether playing solo or with his full band David’s vocal will swoop, soar and intertwine itself around everything in it’s path.
“A remarkable new singer/songwriter from Sheffield possessing an almost supernatural vocal range, David J Roch releases his debut album Skin and Bones through Dram Records on the 4th April. Produced by Jim Sclavunos (of Grinderman and Nick Cave + The Bad Seeds), David J Roch’s debut album offers a collection of darkly romantic compositions of epic sweep. Whether set against a backdrop of lush orchestration, stark electronic ambience or thrumming crescendos, Roch’s voice compels and mesmerizes as it leaps from sonorous baritone to soaring falsetto. David’s stirring vocal style resonates with echoes of both Tim and Jeff Buckley or Nick Drake, also bringing to mind singers well outside the folk milieu such as Matt Berninger (The National) or Antony Hegarty. But it is jazz chanteuses Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday that David cites as his personal inspirations, while lyrically he feels a kinship with poets as timeless as William Blake or as contemporary as Simon Armitage.”
http://www.myspace.com/davidjroch
http://www.twitter.com/davidjroch
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