Clinic: Internal Wrangler (Domino)
Clinic come from Liverpool, but the Mersey sound this is not. As an antidote to the hippy cods-wallop of Cast, however, the foursome of Ade Blackburn, Hartley, Brian Campbell and Carl Turney offer an unusual tonic altogether. Here's a band who like to put the humble recorder to the forefront, using it to stunning effect on The Return Of Evil Bill, and who enjoy subverting the Spector sound, as on the sad, twisted Distortions. Blackburn sings like Brian Molko on mescaline, while Hartley soaks the band's strange, stomping, country-Krautrock in washes of whacked-out keyboards. It's trashy voodoo rock 'n' roll, Jim, but not as we know it.
Dirty Three: Whatever You Love, You Are (Bella Union)
There are some truly awesome instruments in rock, such as Jimi Hendrix's guitar. Add to the illustrious list the violin of Warren Ellis, which can ravish the senses at 50 paces, and let the seductive sounds of Dirty Three's latest opus engulf you like a stormy, instrumental sea. The follow-up to 1998's Ocean Songs follows the same course, Ellis fiddling while guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White weave around his plaintive strains. It's another lush, lugubrious trip through traditional and classical styles, the trio gliding serenely through dark echoes of Debussy, then whipping up a dusty swirl of psychedelic folk. There are just six tunes in all, including the glistening Some Summers They Drop Like Flies and the glissando-laden I Offered It Up To The Stars & The Night Sky, but the trick is in the trio's ability to create a reflective, spiritual tone throughout.
