Artist:     DM3

Album:     West of Anywhere

Label:     Alive Records

Release Date:     11/13/2015

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Hailed Down Under as on the cutting edge of Australia’s New Wave and Power Pop scene as it emerged in the 1990s, DM3 took an unabashedly enthusiastic approach to their craft, manifest in three albums released between 1993 and 1999. They made a mighty noise for a three-piece, and 20 years later, their stature is still as heightened as ever. Still, in this country they remain largely unknown, having had very little exposure here either on record on onstage. Consequently, West of Anywhere provides opportunity to either catch up or get reacquainted, given the fact that it compiles the band’s best works from their three albums: One Time, Two Times, Three Red Light, Road to Rome and Rippled Soul.

The assistance of producer Mitch Easter on the first two efforts certainly had something to do with their easily engaging post punk sound, and, in fact, on songs such as “One Times, Two Times Devastated,” “Please Don’t Lie”  and “Blue Thing,” they rock with both passion and purpose. Unlike others of their ilk, DM3 can take a serious turn on occasion, as the more melodic “Something Heavy” and the convincingly Beatlesque “Take It All” seem to suggest. Accordingly, DM3 are still together and making more music, so West of Anywhere is not the final word, but merely a primer on the treasures that are left to explore.

-Lee Zimmerman