Melbourne's finest
Daniel Edwards | Canberra, Australia | 04/26/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I remember buying this in 1994, when the Dirty Three were an up and coming Melbourne band. But, even before picking up a Slint LP a couple of years later, you could tell this was something different, a landmark not just within the smoke filled pubs within which they would feverishly play. Their whirling dervish live routine excited you like nothing else of the Melbourne scene: Warren Ellis foaming at the mouth as spun around in circles, lost in his own trance as he fiddled amidst a burning Rome. This LP best captures the exhiliration of these concerts, a record at once beautiful and exciting. Not until Godspeed's 'Slow Riot' has any other band come close to the chaotic brilliance of 'The Dirty Equation': a thick, harsh squall that weaves in and out of your head, a six minute rush you'll want to listen to again and again. Treated by an increasingly conservative Australian youth radio as little more than a curiosity it is sad that they eventually had to move overseas to find true appreciation: but, hey, listen to this and you know they deserve it all."
Simply one of the Great Albums of the Decade
Daniel Edwards | 12/09/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've been spellbound by this band ever since I stumbled apon them trying to get out of the rain at a local music festival. The same words seem to appear over and over again when describing The Dirty Three "sweeping" "intense" "tragic" "beautiful" "sad" etc so I won't go to much except to say that Indian Love Song is the most rocking and intense song they've done, and Everythings fucked the saddest and most beautiful. As fantastic as the albums that followed it are, this is the one that still moves me the most. What do they say about the first cut being the deepest. A truly indespensible record."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1