It might not be the next big thing, but instrumental rock is making a comeback. From the dub-inflected rhythms of Tortoise and Ui to the DIY chamber music of Rachel's and the techno-ambient sounds of Drain, many bands with avant-punk pedigrees are breaking free from rock's vocal conventions to create new, wordless hybrids.

The problem with a lot of the so-called post-rock bands, though, is that they just don't actually rock. Dirty Three rock. On their third and best album so far, the Melbourne, Australia, trio – violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White – moves through some of the grittiest, most mesmerizing music you'll hear this year, bending simple, melodic themes into turbulent improvisations that stretch across a vast sonic and emotional terrain. Over a backdrop of muscular, tug-of-war rhythms and subtle waves of guitar distortion, Ellis' vividly demented violin drives the band from a Gypsy funeral march in "I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me" to a forlorn country groove in "Sue's Last Ride" to the instrumental brawling of "Red."

In one of Horse Stories' best numbers, "At the Bar," Ellis moves from a melancholic lament to a high, mangled wail, his violin straining against the spare beat as if he's teetering on the thin line between self-examination and self-annihilation. It is a staggering performance – and one that doesn't need lyrics to convey the despair and debauchery already resonant in the band's playing.

If Dirty Three mine the dark places of the mind, the Arizona-based trio Scenic – co-founded by guitarist Bruce Licher, a former member of the art-noise band Savage Republic – finds inspiration in the grandeur of physical space. Acquatica, the group's second album, is full of shimmering instrumentals that evoke the majesty and desolation of the high Mojave Desert. "The Tones of Peloponnesus," the first track, is just howling wind and chiming guitar.

The rest of Acquatica moves in exquisite shifts from the rich guitar textures and muted trumpet of "Ionia" to the percussive, lounge-core-style groove of "All Fish Go to Heaven" to more atmospheric, synth-driven excursions such as "Isle of Caldra." With the album's fauxexotica song titles and the group's armory of colorful, non-Western-pop instruments – including Asian wood flute, bouzouki, claves and African tongue drum – Scenic sometimes lapse into ambient blandness. At their best, though, Scenic use lush orchestration to enrich their vision of the desert as a raw, vivid place, creating music that leaves the vocals and guitar solos behind but possesses a spiritual immediacy that is rock & roll to the core.

For more information, write to Touch and Go Records, PO Box 25520, Chicago, IL 60625; and World Domination Recordings, PO Box 8097, Universal City Station, North Hollywood, CA 91618-8097. (RS 746)

JASON FINE