Hello, time for our final visit to the Necks discography.
Today's artists are often compared to German krautrock legends Faust and Can, labelled as post, trance, hypno or ambient jazz, they have released more than twenty albums and their sound is an enduring hammer that smashes jazz lethargy. The Australian export trio is an example of three decades lasting virtuosity without limits, whose poetics captivates a wide audience. Tony Buck (drums), Lloyd Swanton (double bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano) – they all belong to the cream of international improvisers. Their impromptu compositions draw on the minimal music tradition and their concerts are often structured around a simple, recurrent melody, gradually reworked in a complex and hypnotic monumentality. They transform ambient chamber sound into a wall of a 'supernatural' intensity A word of warning is called for here "people who "get it" usually become devoted fans"... ......N-Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Necks are a virtually unclassifiable piano trio from Sydney Australia. Neither jazz nor rock, this deceptive unit has kept to a single line of conduct -- whether recording or performing -- throughout its career. Pianist (and sometimes organist) Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck usually commence their shows and recording sessions by playing a single, basic, melodic, and rhythmic vamp or figure, that over an extended period of time -- usually an hour or so -- gradually transforms its shape without ever completely discarding it, amid microscopic tonal, dynamic, electronic, and textural changes, as well as similarly minimal harmonic variations are gradually introduced into the music. By the time any particular piece reaches its nadir, the listener will have been transported to very different head and heart spaces as the music evolves into something else entirely -- though all of its root layers are ever present. Some critics have compared them to Krautrock groups like Can and Faust. Others find similarities in the works of minimalist composers like LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, even Philip Glass. No matter, the Necks exist on a terrain uniquely their own. Whether it is in the gentle, trance-like grooves of 1995's Sex, (issued in the U.S. on the now-defunct, new age-leaning Private Music label, before the group used electronics), the undulating exchange of synth and piano passages in 2003's Drive By, the quaking space rock of the following year's Hanging Gardens, or the dark, brooding, elegantly fractured -- and occasionally explosive -- interludes on 2015's Vertigo, the Necks never remain (quite) static as they shapeshift all through and around the piano trio format. Over the past three decades, their reputation has spread across the globe as a band that only fits comfortably in its own category.
The Necks were formed in 1987 in Sydney by founding mainstays Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. In 1983 Abrahams (ex-Laughing Clowns) on keyboards and Swanton on bass guitar were founders of the Benders, a jazz group, with Dale Barlow and Jason Morphett on saxophones, and Louis Burdett on drums; which disbanded in 1985. Abrahams had formed the Sparklers in 1985, a dance pop band, with Bill Bilson on drums (ex-Sunnyboys), Gerard Corben on guitar (ex-Lime Spiders), Ernie Finckh on guitar, Melanie Oxley on lead vocals (ex-Sweet Nothing), and her older brother Peter Oxley on bass guitar (ex-Sunnyboys). Abrahams left in 1987 before that group's first album, Persuasion (October 1988). Buck had been a member of a number of groups: Great White Noise (1983), Women and Children First, Tango Bravo and Pardon Me Boys; prior to forming the Necks. In 1986 Swanton had been a member of Dynamic Hepnotics.
The original lineup of pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck has remained stable, even though they all lead busy and highly divergent careers. Abrahams is an acclaimed session keyboardist who has released a couple of solo piano albums, written music for film and television, and toured the world in 1993 with the rock group Midnight Oil. Swanton is a much in-demand session jazz bassist and a regular on the jazz festival circuit. He has played in the Benders and the Catholics, and accompanied Stephen Cummings and Sting. Buck spends most of his time in avant-garde circles, with multiple collaborations and projects. His best-known engagements have included the trio PERIL and the klezmer-punk group Kletka Red.
The group issued their debut album, Sex on the Spiral Scratch label in 1989. It consists of a single track of the same name, which is just under an hour long. Couture noticed that "The difference between Sex and the many other CDs they would record afterwards is the purity: The trio's hypnotic repetitive piece relies only on piano, bass, and drums; no electronics, extra keyboards, samples, or lengthy introduction. The reviews were enthusiastic, most people praising the group's ability to blend simplicity and experimentation. They would play whenever the three musicians were in Australia at the same time. The next three albums experimented with the format, integrating occasional guests (Stevie Wishart on Aquatic), electronics, and more. But, by the 1998 Piano Bass Drums, the recipe had become fixed and would not change anymore.
In 1996, the Private Music label released Sex in the United States. It was the Necks' first exposure on the North American continent and it did not get them far. But Europe was catching on and the group began a series of annual tours there. Piano Bass Drums and the soundtrack for Rowan Woods' film The Boys both received Australian award nominations in 1998. The more energetic, almost space-rocking Hanging Gardens, released in 1999, opened more doors, including a first American tour in late 2001. The album was picked up for distribution by the British avant-garde label ReR Megacorp the same year. Another North American tour in 2002 followed the release of Aether, the group's studio masterpiece. Drive By followed in 2003, and took home the ARIA Music Awards Best Jazz Album prize in 2004.
Subsequent albums Mosquito/See Through (2004), Chemist (2006), Silverwater (2009), and Mindset (2011) continued to bring in the accolades, delivering consistently fresh takes on the trio's signature riffing. In 2013 they released Open which, like its 2015 single-track follow-up Vertigo, saw a return to the long-form improvisation of their earlier works. Arriving in 2017, the ambitious Unfold, a double album on Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label, it featured four non-sequential tracks (they could be heard in any order) -- each is its own suite. During the summer of the following year, the trio issued BODY, their 20th album on Family Vineyard, showcasing a return to the single, long-form improvised work.
Geoff Winston of London Jazz News described how "Each performance by [the Necks] begins with a blank page which one of the trio will start to fill in to commence the journey, an uninterrupted set of around forty to sixty minutes. There are no rules, no agreements about who will take that lead and about how the discourse will evolve. The only criteria that apply are those of their own impeccably high standards." Typically a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing a simple figure. One by one, the other two will join with their own contributions–all three players independent yet intertwined. As the 'piece' builds through subtle micro-changes, the interaction of their instruments creates layers of harmonics and prismatic washes of sound that lead some to apply the genre label 'trance jazz'. Their live performances can be challenging for those expecting a conventional musical experience.
Their soundtrack for The Boys (1998) was nominated for ARIA Best Soundtrack Album, AFI Best Musical Score and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for What's The Deal? (1997) and In the Mind of the Architect (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000). The band won two ARIA awards for the albums Drive By (2003) and Chemist (2006).
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
By now, the Necks have become the kings of sticking to a modus operandi while renewing it with every album. Paradoxical? Maybe, and that's what makes the Australian trio so endearing...and enduring. Silverwater is, once again, a single hourlong piece, but within that scope, it goes through multiple changes. Unlike a regular Necks piece that would slowly build up from the smallest musical tidbit (a drum pattern or a two-note ostinato) to an unsuspected climax, "Silverwater" constantly stops, shifts gears, and alters its course. Themes and instruments come in and out, and the drive of the piece ebbs and flows. The instrumentation is wider than usual, as this is a multi-tracked studio construct, not live-in-the-studio at all. There's lots of percussion early on, occasional guitars, organ aplenty, and both double bass and electric bass, it seems (the package reveals nothing in terms of musician credits, leaving you guessing). Is it different? Yes. Does it work out? Yes, as a trippy musical journey through a sequence of moods carefully selected to keep you off balance -- and yet, the duration/repetition aspect of the music remains a core element. Longtime fans of the Necks will be surprised (positively so, one might think, especially since Townsville, the group's previous effort, sounded half-hearted). And newcomers would be well advised to start here, if only because the track, being more eventful and varied, is less of a demanding listen than Aether, Drive By, or Townsville.
The Necks - Silverwater ( 331mbmb)
01 Silverwater 67:15
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Bass, piano and drums that fill what they want, this trio throws the imagination to blow with the piano, with metallic precision, without leaving a gap for respite. The work consists of stripping a melody, the piano will do it, for its chromatic variety, while bass and percussion will serve as support for the music to advance from its starting point. From here, everything turns out to be cinematographic. You can put any image or scene on the music track that the band's work will protect or guide you with your notes. By the evolution of the melody, you can manipulate the meaning of the images to pleasure, you can make it more dramatic, bring it closer to the mute spirit, to the contrast of white and black, to the more colorless claustrophobia, up and down an endless staircase. From one chapter to another, transparencies of twenty-one minutes to others of twenty-one minutes. The scenes change as the colors of the day, from the white ash of the morning to the red of the twilight. Musicians will always forced to satisfy sensations, to take measures to logic before turning it around and transforming it. It's what they do. If music is an infinite mansion, this album is a secret room.
The Necks - Mindset (flac 294mb)
01 Rum Jungle 21:48
02 Daylights 21:36
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Necks take elements of minimalism, jazz, ambient and more to create something truly unique. On Open, their 17th album, just like Miles Davis they create a tapestry where the space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves. Somehow the music is both subtle yet powerful. Supremely relaxing, hypnotic majesty from 3 immensely talented and creative musicians. The thing about The Necks is they are all about setting a neutral, organic mood. The sparseness of their music allows much room to breathe, think, feel, contemplate, etc etc etc. This album does it as well as any Necks I've heard up to this point. I put this on the other night to read to and it was absolutely perfect.
What was interesting was that even though it was great background music, there were so many moments where something interesting would catch my attention and distract me (in a good way) and force my attention to it. But because of the sparseness I mentioned, it also put me on edge, strangely excited (strangely because of how unassuming this stuff is at its core) at what sounds would come next. A lot of it has to do with how pristine sounding the album is. Every tom hit, every bass note, cymbal cling... every single detail comes out at you like it were in the room with you.
The Necks - Open (flac 344 mb)
01 Open 68:05
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Over 17 previous albums, the Necks have explored as many different kinds of space and texture the piano trio format (occasionally with electronics) would seemingly allow for. But Australia's longstanding avant-ambient jazz unit, while having an instantly identifiable sound, has never made the same record twice -- even though they typically employ a single, set-length track in doing so. Unlike their Northern Spy debut, 2013's airy, gentle, and drifting Open, Vertigo is a dark, brooding, sometimes dissonant -- and occasionally explosive -- outing. The 43-minute work is informally split into movement-like halves, though its sense of fluidity is constant, no matter what arises in the proceedings -- and there is plenty. Vertigo's guidepost is a single drone that runs throughout, allowing the musicians a centering device for their various rounds of improvisation and interplay. In the opening minutes, pianist Chris Abrahams improvises with busy lines in the middle and upper registers, answered by drummer Tony Buck as bassist Lloyd Swanton plays a low-end arco. Buck erupts occasionally with clattering cymbals, tom-toms, and the wood on his kit. Abrahams introduces an elliptical melody about ten minutes in via his left hand, while his right continues its series of flourishes. A synth slips in, or make that two, pushing against that intimate display of notes and tones as Swanton begins to pulse a single string with a snarl and Buck frenetically employs a host of percussion instruments adding drama. Elements of ambient noise, the plucking on the inner strings of the piano, and a single repetitively played high key push against the drone, which asserts dominance again before the piece resists, moment by moment, and then almost disintegrates. The second half begins with a sparse, ghostly Rhodes piano, offering single lines and spacy chords. Flits of electronic noise and a shimmering ride cymbal add mystery before the acoustic piano returns. The trio commences a dialogue without exchange -- all members speak at once. No one fights for the center, but all speak from different tonal terrains. When Buck enters with a squalling, feedbacking electric guitar answered by his own thudding tom-toms and Swanton's bass throb, Abrahams can only answer with aggressive synth washes adding to the din. And just as the work ratchets toward an intensity that might break it apart, bowed electric guitar, bass, and that drone emerge to re-center the piece with an uneasy sense of solace. Buck's drums reinstate their clattering force and the others answer by pushing back with circular percussive sounds on their own instruments. Vertigo is more expansive than Open -- even with its humid, uneasy sense of musical claustrophobia. It's no less engaging for its dissonance and tension. This is possible because the Necks understand how to instinctively balance sonic seduction with limitless exploration.
The Necks - Vertigo ( 316mb)
01 Vertigo 43:57
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Ideologic Organ is proud to present the brand-new recordings from The Necks, the legendary Australian trio who excel in bypassing musical cliche whilst exploring and extending the practices embedded within improvisation, jazz, post rock, ambient, minimal, and textural, ‘sound based’ music. The latest document from this long-running ensemble, Unfold, presents itself as a double LP, with four side-length tracks. A deliberate absence of numbered sides hands a substantial swatch of participation over to the listener, allowing her to navigate his own path through the soundscape at hand. The shorter length of the vinyl format, far from being a constraint upon the members of the ensemble, instead offers them a more compact horizon to contemplate, wherein the distance travelled is recalibrated to more immediate and dynamic textural concerns.
The immediacy of Rise confirms this new path, as the mournful tones of Lloyd Swanton’s bass swirl around Chris Abrahams’ crystalline piano motif, with Tony Buck’s percussion steering proceedings into enlightening free-jazz territories. Blue Mountain cuts a swathe through the sonic undergrowth, with soul organ, rattling percussion, whistles, and loping sound-waves all vying for the foreground. Overheard retains a sublime melancholic aura as the percussion and keyboards simultaneously embrace and fall apart, whilst Timepiece skips along as a gentle gesture of further possibilities. Like the trio’s best pieces, these are tracks that slowly explore every nook and cranny of an available sound without seeming to move at all, standing perfectly still while moving in a full-bodied sprint, traversing enormous distances but ending up exactly where they started. It’s a continuation of the trance that they established twenty-eight years ago with Sex, the pulse dropped out and replaced with a disarrayed din that nevertheless has the same effect. Unfold is the sound of The Necks questioning their sound yet again, speeding it up and cluttering it and seeing if it still works. Exactly how The Necks conjure their particular magic - as deceptively simple as it seems - whilst always moving forward, is anyone’s guess, but Unfold proves yet again that rules and schools are to be broken and re-formed into patterns and frameworks unlike those we know.
The Necks - Unfold ( flac 492mb)
01 Rise 15:33
02 Overhear 16:17
03 Blue Mountain 20:59
04 Timepiece 21:47
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Today's artists are often compared to German krautrock legends Faust and Can, labelled as post, trance, hypno or ambient jazz, they have released more than twenty albums and their sound is an enduring hammer that smashes jazz lethargy. The Australian export trio is an example of three decades lasting virtuosity without limits, whose poetics captivates a wide audience. Tony Buck (drums), Lloyd Swanton (double bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano) – they all belong to the cream of international improvisers. Their impromptu compositions draw on the minimal music tradition and their concerts are often structured around a simple, recurrent melody, gradually reworked in a complex and hypnotic monumentality. They transform ambient chamber sound into a wall of a 'supernatural' intensity A word of warning is called for here "people who "get it" usually become devoted fans"... ......N-Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Necks are a virtually unclassifiable piano trio from Sydney Australia. Neither jazz nor rock, this deceptive unit has kept to a single line of conduct -- whether recording or performing -- throughout its career. Pianist (and sometimes organist) Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck usually commence their shows and recording sessions by playing a single, basic, melodic, and rhythmic vamp or figure, that over an extended period of time -- usually an hour or so -- gradually transforms its shape without ever completely discarding it, amid microscopic tonal, dynamic, electronic, and textural changes, as well as similarly minimal harmonic variations are gradually introduced into the music. By the time any particular piece reaches its nadir, the listener will have been transported to very different head and heart spaces as the music evolves into something else entirely -- though all of its root layers are ever present. Some critics have compared them to Krautrock groups like Can and Faust. Others find similarities in the works of minimalist composers like LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, even Philip Glass. No matter, the Necks exist on a terrain uniquely their own. Whether it is in the gentle, trance-like grooves of 1995's Sex, (issued in the U.S. on the now-defunct, new age-leaning Private Music label, before the group used electronics), the undulating exchange of synth and piano passages in 2003's Drive By, the quaking space rock of the following year's Hanging Gardens, or the dark, brooding, elegantly fractured -- and occasionally explosive -- interludes on 2015's Vertigo, the Necks never remain (quite) static as they shapeshift all through and around the piano trio format. Over the past three decades, their reputation has spread across the globe as a band that only fits comfortably in its own category.
The Necks were formed in 1987 in Sydney by founding mainstays Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. In 1983 Abrahams (ex-Laughing Clowns) on keyboards and Swanton on bass guitar were founders of the Benders, a jazz group, with Dale Barlow and Jason Morphett on saxophones, and Louis Burdett on drums; which disbanded in 1985. Abrahams had formed the Sparklers in 1985, a dance pop band, with Bill Bilson on drums (ex-Sunnyboys), Gerard Corben on guitar (ex-Lime Spiders), Ernie Finckh on guitar, Melanie Oxley on lead vocals (ex-Sweet Nothing), and her older brother Peter Oxley on bass guitar (ex-Sunnyboys). Abrahams left in 1987 before that group's first album, Persuasion (October 1988). Buck had been a member of a number of groups: Great White Noise (1983), Women and Children First, Tango Bravo and Pardon Me Boys; prior to forming the Necks. In 1986 Swanton had been a member of Dynamic Hepnotics.
The original lineup of pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck has remained stable, even though they all lead busy and highly divergent careers. Abrahams is an acclaimed session keyboardist who has released a couple of solo piano albums, written music for film and television, and toured the world in 1993 with the rock group Midnight Oil. Swanton is a much in-demand session jazz bassist and a regular on the jazz festival circuit. He has played in the Benders and the Catholics, and accompanied Stephen Cummings and Sting. Buck spends most of his time in avant-garde circles, with multiple collaborations and projects. His best-known engagements have included the trio PERIL and the klezmer-punk group Kletka Red.
The group issued their debut album, Sex on the Spiral Scratch label in 1989. It consists of a single track of the same name, which is just under an hour long. Couture noticed that "The difference between Sex and the many other CDs they would record afterwards is the purity: The trio's hypnotic repetitive piece relies only on piano, bass, and drums; no electronics, extra keyboards, samples, or lengthy introduction. The reviews were enthusiastic, most people praising the group's ability to blend simplicity and experimentation. They would play whenever the three musicians were in Australia at the same time. The next three albums experimented with the format, integrating occasional guests (Stevie Wishart on Aquatic), electronics, and more. But, by the 1998 Piano Bass Drums, the recipe had become fixed and would not change anymore.
In 1996, the Private Music label released Sex in the United States. It was the Necks' first exposure on the North American continent and it did not get them far. But Europe was catching on and the group began a series of annual tours there. Piano Bass Drums and the soundtrack for Rowan Woods' film The Boys both received Australian award nominations in 1998. The more energetic, almost space-rocking Hanging Gardens, released in 1999, opened more doors, including a first American tour in late 2001. The album was picked up for distribution by the British avant-garde label ReR Megacorp the same year. Another North American tour in 2002 followed the release of Aether, the group's studio masterpiece. Drive By followed in 2003, and took home the ARIA Music Awards Best Jazz Album prize in 2004.
Subsequent albums Mosquito/See Through (2004), Chemist (2006), Silverwater (2009), and Mindset (2011) continued to bring in the accolades, delivering consistently fresh takes on the trio's signature riffing. In 2013 they released Open which, like its 2015 single-track follow-up Vertigo, saw a return to the long-form improvisation of their earlier works. Arriving in 2017, the ambitious Unfold, a double album on Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label, it featured four non-sequential tracks (they could be heard in any order) -- each is its own suite. During the summer of the following year, the trio issued BODY, their 20th album on Family Vineyard, showcasing a return to the single, long-form improvised work.
Geoff Winston of London Jazz News described how "Each performance by [the Necks] begins with a blank page which one of the trio will start to fill in to commence the journey, an uninterrupted set of around forty to sixty minutes. There are no rules, no agreements about who will take that lead and about how the discourse will evolve. The only criteria that apply are those of their own impeccably high standards." Typically a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing a simple figure. One by one, the other two will join with their own contributions–all three players independent yet intertwined. As the 'piece' builds through subtle micro-changes, the interaction of their instruments creates layers of harmonics and prismatic washes of sound that lead some to apply the genre label 'trance jazz'. Their live performances can be challenging for those expecting a conventional musical experience.
Their soundtrack for The Boys (1998) was nominated for ARIA Best Soundtrack Album, AFI Best Musical Score and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for What's The Deal? (1997) and In the Mind of the Architect (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000). The band won two ARIA awards for the albums Drive By (2003) and Chemist (2006).
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
By now, the Necks have become the kings of sticking to a modus operandi while renewing it with every album. Paradoxical? Maybe, and that's what makes the Australian trio so endearing...and enduring. Silverwater is, once again, a single hourlong piece, but within that scope, it goes through multiple changes. Unlike a regular Necks piece that would slowly build up from the smallest musical tidbit (a drum pattern or a two-note ostinato) to an unsuspected climax, "Silverwater" constantly stops, shifts gears, and alters its course. Themes and instruments come in and out, and the drive of the piece ebbs and flows. The instrumentation is wider than usual, as this is a multi-tracked studio construct, not live-in-the-studio at all. There's lots of percussion early on, occasional guitars, organ aplenty, and both double bass and electric bass, it seems (the package reveals nothing in terms of musician credits, leaving you guessing). Is it different? Yes. Does it work out? Yes, as a trippy musical journey through a sequence of moods carefully selected to keep you off balance -- and yet, the duration/repetition aspect of the music remains a core element. Longtime fans of the Necks will be surprised (positively so, one might think, especially since Townsville, the group's previous effort, sounded half-hearted). And newcomers would be well advised to start here, if only because the track, being more eventful and varied, is less of a demanding listen than Aether, Drive By, or Townsville.
The Necks - Silverwater ( 331mbmb)
01 Silverwater 67:15
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Bass, piano and drums that fill what they want, this trio throws the imagination to blow with the piano, with metallic precision, without leaving a gap for respite. The work consists of stripping a melody, the piano will do it, for its chromatic variety, while bass and percussion will serve as support for the music to advance from its starting point. From here, everything turns out to be cinematographic. You can put any image or scene on the music track that the band's work will protect or guide you with your notes. By the evolution of the melody, you can manipulate the meaning of the images to pleasure, you can make it more dramatic, bring it closer to the mute spirit, to the contrast of white and black, to the more colorless claustrophobia, up and down an endless staircase. From one chapter to another, transparencies of twenty-one minutes to others of twenty-one minutes. The scenes change as the colors of the day, from the white ash of the morning to the red of the twilight. Musicians will always forced to satisfy sensations, to take measures to logic before turning it around and transforming it. It's what they do. If music is an infinite mansion, this album is a secret room.
The Necks - Mindset (flac 294mb)
01 Rum Jungle 21:48
02 Daylights 21:36
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Necks take elements of minimalism, jazz, ambient and more to create something truly unique. On Open, their 17th album, just like Miles Davis they create a tapestry where the space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves. Somehow the music is both subtle yet powerful. Supremely relaxing, hypnotic majesty from 3 immensely talented and creative musicians. The thing about The Necks is they are all about setting a neutral, organic mood. The sparseness of their music allows much room to breathe, think, feel, contemplate, etc etc etc. This album does it as well as any Necks I've heard up to this point. I put this on the other night to read to and it was absolutely perfect.
What was interesting was that even though it was great background music, there were so many moments where something interesting would catch my attention and distract me (in a good way) and force my attention to it. But because of the sparseness I mentioned, it also put me on edge, strangely excited (strangely because of how unassuming this stuff is at its core) at what sounds would come next. A lot of it has to do with how pristine sounding the album is. Every tom hit, every bass note, cymbal cling... every single detail comes out at you like it were in the room with you.
The Necks - Open (flac 344 mb)
01 Open 68:05
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Over 17 previous albums, the Necks have explored as many different kinds of space and texture the piano trio format (occasionally with electronics) would seemingly allow for. But Australia's longstanding avant-ambient jazz unit, while having an instantly identifiable sound, has never made the same record twice -- even though they typically employ a single, set-length track in doing so. Unlike their Northern Spy debut, 2013's airy, gentle, and drifting Open, Vertigo is a dark, brooding, sometimes dissonant -- and occasionally explosive -- outing. The 43-minute work is informally split into movement-like halves, though its sense of fluidity is constant, no matter what arises in the proceedings -- and there is plenty. Vertigo's guidepost is a single drone that runs throughout, allowing the musicians a centering device for their various rounds of improvisation and interplay. In the opening minutes, pianist Chris Abrahams improvises with busy lines in the middle and upper registers, answered by drummer Tony Buck as bassist Lloyd Swanton plays a low-end arco. Buck erupts occasionally with clattering cymbals, tom-toms, and the wood on his kit. Abrahams introduces an elliptical melody about ten minutes in via his left hand, while his right continues its series of flourishes. A synth slips in, or make that two, pushing against that intimate display of notes and tones as Swanton begins to pulse a single string with a snarl and Buck frenetically employs a host of percussion instruments adding drama. Elements of ambient noise, the plucking on the inner strings of the piano, and a single repetitively played high key push against the drone, which asserts dominance again before the piece resists, moment by moment, and then almost disintegrates. The second half begins with a sparse, ghostly Rhodes piano, offering single lines and spacy chords. Flits of electronic noise and a shimmering ride cymbal add mystery before the acoustic piano returns. The trio commences a dialogue without exchange -- all members speak at once. No one fights for the center, but all speak from different tonal terrains. When Buck enters with a squalling, feedbacking electric guitar answered by his own thudding tom-toms and Swanton's bass throb, Abrahams can only answer with aggressive synth washes adding to the din. And just as the work ratchets toward an intensity that might break it apart, bowed electric guitar, bass, and that drone emerge to re-center the piece with an uneasy sense of solace. Buck's drums reinstate their clattering force and the others answer by pushing back with circular percussive sounds on their own instruments. Vertigo is more expansive than Open -- even with its humid, uneasy sense of musical claustrophobia. It's no less engaging for its dissonance and tension. This is possible because the Necks understand how to instinctively balance sonic seduction with limitless exploration.
The Necks - Vertigo ( 316mb)
01 Vertigo 43:57
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Ideologic Organ is proud to present the brand-new recordings from The Necks, the legendary Australian trio who excel in bypassing musical cliche whilst exploring and extending the practices embedded within improvisation, jazz, post rock, ambient, minimal, and textural, ‘sound based’ music. The latest document from this long-running ensemble, Unfold, presents itself as a double LP, with four side-length tracks. A deliberate absence of numbered sides hands a substantial swatch of participation over to the listener, allowing her to navigate his own path through the soundscape at hand. The shorter length of the vinyl format, far from being a constraint upon the members of the ensemble, instead offers them a more compact horizon to contemplate, wherein the distance travelled is recalibrated to more immediate and dynamic textural concerns.
The immediacy of Rise confirms this new path, as the mournful tones of Lloyd Swanton’s bass swirl around Chris Abrahams’ crystalline piano motif, with Tony Buck’s percussion steering proceedings into enlightening free-jazz territories. Blue Mountain cuts a swathe through the sonic undergrowth, with soul organ, rattling percussion, whistles, and loping sound-waves all vying for the foreground. Overheard retains a sublime melancholic aura as the percussion and keyboards simultaneously embrace and fall apart, whilst Timepiece skips along as a gentle gesture of further possibilities. Like the trio’s best pieces, these are tracks that slowly explore every nook and cranny of an available sound without seeming to move at all, standing perfectly still while moving in a full-bodied sprint, traversing enormous distances but ending up exactly where they started. It’s a continuation of the trance that they established twenty-eight years ago with Sex, the pulse dropped out and replaced with a disarrayed din that nevertheless has the same effect. Unfold is the sound of The Necks questioning their sound yet again, speeding it up and cluttering it and seeing if it still works. Exactly how The Necks conjure their particular magic - as deceptively simple as it seems - whilst always moving forward, is anyone’s guess, but Unfold proves yet again that rules and schools are to be broken and re-formed into patterns and frameworks unlike those we know.
The Necks - Unfold ( flac 492mb)
01 Rise 15:33
02 Overhear 16:17
03 Blue Mountain 20:59
04 Timepiece 21:47
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
2 comments:
Hello Rho-xs. Nice to read about The Necks. All their albums are pure gems but the real thing is to see them play live if you get a chance. They provide mind blowing performances. I saw them two times in Paris and both concerts were memorable. Each time they played 2 long sets of about 45 minutes, having a beer, selling cds and talking to people between them, being the most talented yet simple gentlemen!
I've not come across The Necks before. They sound like something I can get into so I'll start with 'Vertigo'. I may be back! Many thanks.
-Brian
Post a Comment