Dirtmusic - Dirtmusic
by John Clarkson
published: 7 / 1 / 2008

Label:
Glitterhouse Records
Format: CD
intro
Fine in moments, but somehwat lacking in spark blues/folk on debut album from Dirt Music, which includes the Walkabouts Chris Eckman, former Birthday Party and Bad Seeds guitarist Hugo Race one-time Come and Codeine member Chris Brokaw
Dirt Music features Chris Eckman, the vocalist and guitarist with the Walkabouts ; Hugo Race, the former Birthday Party and Bad Seeds guitarist and now the leader of True Spirit, and solo artist and one-time Come and Codeine member Chris Brokaw. The musically heavyweight trio went into a studio in Prague last year to record an album of blues/folk songs using as their name suggests largely roots-based instruments and have since toured together. Each have contributed four tracks to their twelve track eponymous debut album, singing on their own songs and providing guitars, organ, percussion and Brokaw also drums to their own and each other's tunes. It is an album, as might be expected, of some very fine moments. As he has also shown in his recent solo career, Brokaw proves equally at home these days writing breezy instrumentals such as opener 'Erica Moody' as well as more narrative and harmony-driven pieces on the ambient folk of his compositions. Hugo Race provides growling vocals and spooky atmospherics on the brooding and sinister-beautiful psychedelia of 'Still Running', while Chris Eckman comes up with the album's highlight track , the seven minute rip-roaring , distorted jug country blues of 'Ballad for a Dream'. Yet, despite this, 'Dirt Music' often lacks spark, coming across sometimes as somewhat languid. It is all a little too dreamy in sound and laid back in delivery for its own good, too regularly simply drifting along when Eckman, Race and Brokaw, as they have shown they can do on 'Ballad for a Dream', really need to be pumping up the pace. While 'Dirt Music' never sounds less than beautiful, collectively there is a too much of a sameness to too many of its tracks and, with a running time of what turns into a lengthy hour ,it is simply too long. Any project collating together musicians of such a calibre as Chris Eckman, Hugo Race and Chris Brokaw is always going to be worth searching out . They have each individually been involved in creating some of the best alternative rock music of the last 20 years, but 'Dirt Music', while scatteringly impressive, is as a result of that something of a disappointment.
Track Listing:-
1 Erica Moody2 The Other Side
3 Sun City Casino
4 Face of Evil
5 The Returning
6 Still Running
7 Summer Days
8 Ballad of a Dream
9 No Sorrow More
10 Panther Hunting
11 Wasted On
12 Morning Dew
Label Links:-
http://label.glitterhouse.com/https://www.facebook.com/GlitterhouseRecords
https://twitter.com/glitterhouserec
https://www.youtube.com/user/GlitterhouseTV
most viewed articles
current edition
Spear Of Destiny - InterviewRobert Forster - Interview
Fiona Hutchings - Interview
When Rivers Meet - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every Song
Brian Wilson - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Pistol Daisys - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Nils Petter Molvaer - El Molino, Barcelona, 24/4/2025
Credits - ARC, Liverpool, 17/5.2025
Gary Numan - Berserker
most viewed reviews
current edition
Peter Doolan - I Am a Tree Rooted to the Spot and a Snake Moves Around Me,in a CircleGarbage - Let All That We Imagine Be The Light
Little Simz - Lotus
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
John McKay - Sixes and #Sevens
Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
Vinny Peculiar - Things Too Long Left Unsaid
HAIM - I Quit
Eddie Chacon - Lay Low
Only Child - Holy Ghosts
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart