Dirty Three try out six sonically cohesive pieces for their rewarding “Love Changes Everything” (ALBUM REVIEW)

The latest album from Dirty Three, Love changes everything on Drag City Records is the experienced trio’s first in 12 years. The trio mixes their avant-garde sounds into a sonic whole.

The Melbourne, Australia-based band, consisting of Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White, has been around since 1992. They use a sparse instrumental combination of guitar, drums and viola/violin/piano/synthesizer/loops/percussion for their sound, as the production is rarely overloaded and the tracks remain consistently clean.

The six works featured here have no names, only numbers, suggesting a coherent work. But the “songs” are only sometimes connected, as the band allows each work to be part of a whole or stand alone. Some of the forays are more successful than others, as the band searches for their common sound as a unit.

Opener “Love Changes Everything I” starts with noisy fuzz tones as strange drum fills and guitar melodies jump in, eventually joining with pumping drums and ending just when things get interesting. “Love Changes Everything II” is a complete change of gear, with piano and sweeping synths coloring the track, which ends up plodding along dully for too long without any lasting impact.

Better is “Love Changes Everything III,” which feels like slowly waking up on a summer morning to giggling percussion, vibrating strings and piano. “Love Changes Everything IV” flows smoothly throughout, as the melody is languid and charming. “Love Changes Everything V” is the most abrasive, as the clacking turns to feedback and repetition, becoming increasingly bold and edgy along the way.

Dirty Three have clearly saved the best for last, as “Love Changes Everything VI” is the album’s highlight. The ten-minute-plus excursion begins with buzzing strings and beautiful piano sounds that slowly bring the track to life, as the cinematic excursion swells proudly and culminates in a well-deserved finale.

Love changes everything won’t change everything, but the artistic excursion will find fans among adventurous audiophiles as Dirty Three weave and build their own sound world.