For Australia's Dirty Three, good music, like the best lovin', is a slow-motion affair. Violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White play with such taut adagio sensuality on Ocean Songs, their fourth album, that at times the music seems to freeze in midrapture. Ellis' violin – which has the raw, wizened tone of a bone-tired saloon singer – can hold a single note...

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...