OCEAN SONGS

Having purchased this on the recommendation of the Post Rock collaborators here on PA, I must admit to being quite bored. The three musicians--a strumming electric guitar player, a violinist that gets stuck on repeating some very simply, almost folk/nursery rhyme-familiar melody lines, and a brush drummer who, at times, seems to drift in and out of the same universe as the string players- -at times feel as if they are not even in the same room much less playing the same song (especially with regards to tempo). Now if this were King Crimson or Oceansize or Tool--all of whom love to use polyrhythms in their songs purposely--that would be different. Maybe, like me, the pace is so slow, so boring, that they're taking turns nodding off. Narcoleptics! Songs 2 and 5, in particular, go way off track--and it doesn't sound good, so I don't think it's really intentional. Plus, there isn't enough variety in the music in which to display these musicians' skill. Only enough to put me to sleep. Five to ten times. I'm going to have to give this one one star--for completionists only (though what this album's addition could possibly 'complete' I am unsure.)

Another intriguing lo-fi post-rock piece from Dirty Three, the followup to Horse Stories continues the band's masterful evocation of a unique atmosphere - a collection of threadbare and sparse pieces which put the listener of mind of comfortable but worn-out clothes or ramshackle fishermen's pubs on isolated and windswept coast. We're not talking yo-ho-ho sea shanties here, but there's something about the way the album is structured, with its quiet lulls and occasional stormy exclamations, which suggests to me the cycle of the tides and the rolling waves of the open sea. Once again, Warren Ellis and his compatriots have a winner on their hands.