New Necks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/mixingitljf.shtml

i think part 2 of this is at least as good as anything they have released commercially.

Guardian article for anyone who is interested (almost no one).

It's spacious, but focussed. Reminds me of Talk Talk a lot. What should I get next?

as for the Necks, get "Drive-by"...their finest hour (literally speaking)...

I didn't know about this one before the Wire's end of year list:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/4b4h/

Has anyone heard it?

it's good...totally different from their other stuff, but still unmistakably the Necks...back to the one-long-song format...a little less hypnotic than, say, Drive-By, but it's very twinkly/chiming/glassy...stellar as usual...

so is anyone going to see them at the vortex in london?

i'm going to see them at the city halls in glasgow.

i'm off live music but i have waited a long time to see them.

here's the current tour, starts in glasgow.

May
UK
Sun 11 GLASGOW,
City Halls, Recital Room
www.glasgowconcerthalls.com

Box office (+44) 0141 353-8000

Mon 12 NEWCASTLE/GATESHEAD,
The Sage Gateshead
www.thesagegateshead.org

Box Office (+44) 0191 443 4661

Tues 13 NORWICH,
Arts Centre
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk

Box Office: (+44) 01603 660352

Thurs 15 BRIGHTON FESTIVAL,
Manic Organic at Brighton Dome
www.brightonfestival.org

Sat 17 BRISTOL,
The Cube
cubecinema.com

Sun 18 COLCHESTER,
Arts Centre
www.colchesterartscentre.com

Box Office: (+44) 01206 500 900

Mon &
Tues

19/ 20 LONDON,
Vortex Jazz Club

EARLY SHOW - SOLD OUT

FEW TICKETS LEFT - standing only

Monday 19th
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - one set only
Tickets: £9.00
Doors from 10.30 pm

Cafe/bar downstairs serving pre-gig espresso and black sambuca shots: or come earlier for dinner.
Showing films by Tony Buck

www.vortexjazz.co.uk

Tickets:

Box Office: (+44) 020 7254 4097

Or - www.wegottickets.com
and search on "The Necks"

Wed 21 LIVERPOOL,
Philharmonic Hall
www.liverpoolphil.com

Box Office: (+44) 0151 709 3789

sigh...they never seem to play in the States...

New Necks is one of my secret band/album names!

hanging gardens is still one of the dopest records ever

speaking of (Tony Buck), anyone heard the new Heaven And rec out on Staubgold? from what I ca tell on myspace it's pretty good. not really Necks-y but still interesting.

anyone going to see them in bath? tempted to make the trip...bargain for a tenner too.

I'd love to see them but the location and timing isn't great. This mention here isn't on the website and looks better for me; http://www.allgigs.co.uk/search/tourdates/55463/The_Necks-1.html

yeah that is better...would prob have to stay in bath by time gig is over.

anyone seen them live before? seems like it'd be good to have some chemical aid beforehand

I've seen them a few times, sober or on a couple of drinks, and you absolutely don't need anything to be swept away in delight or wonderment, or stop thinking at all and enjoy detached brain dancing at drones or rhythms. but if the surrounds are comfortable, seems like it'd be good is probably an entirely accurate estimation.

Saw them last year at Big Ears 2 -- the trio, and also the three of them plus Ned Rothenberg. There was another concert involving an ad hoc group of players doing a Necks-like set, Tony Buck on drums. Highly recommended. I'd skip the chemicals, but that's just me.

xpost: and the "two sets with an intermission" duration of their shows would suit that, if you did try.

check the venue though. last time I saw them, this year, was in a jazz club where 80% of the couple of hundred capacity stand behind a railing by the bar, while a few dozen sit at dinner tables in 80% of the floorspace = prob not conducive. a few years back at ATP, they played in the afternoon sun, a meter from the harbour, where the entire audience bar 8 people* lay down on the trimmed lawn and let the piano roll through the ground = potential zomg.

*halfway through, one of these 8 hugging the stage turned around and saw the rest of us, tugged his mate's sleeve, and promptly sat cross-legged.

yeah i mostly wouldn't bother with chems either these days, once a year maybe, but seems like you could have a bit of a transcendental experience with this band!

Played Drive By at our record club last night; went down very well. Just bought Mosquito / See Through too; every time I play a Necks album for the first time in a while, I end up buying another one.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/the-necks-–-drive-by-–-round-10-nick’s-choice/

anyone going to the gig next month at THE BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE, whatever that is

I opted for the date in Oxford at "The oldest custom-built concert hall in Europe" http://bit.ly/qH8mcm

Anybody fancy Leeds on November 25th?

yeah I'm going to both the London dates.

Harold Budd and Werner Dafeldecker should be great at those non-London shows, wish i could catch this tour.

Probably will go to the Bishopsgate Institute one, just making sure I am in town for the date.

How is Mindset? Been on a serious kick but I think I prefer the more 'live' sounding, less overdubbed stuff, like Sex and Piano Bass Drum, though I've yet to hear an album by this group I dislike. Still, wondering if the new one is worth a plunge, given that I find Drive By a little too maximalist and Aether a little too sleepy. Their records are expensive in the States.

these dudes are nothing if not consistent -- the new one is totally gorgeous.

yes! they might be my favorite band going.

has anyone heard any of these side projects? http://www.thenecks.com/shop/other

Don't know any of those but I can highly recommend Buck's project with Martin Siewert and Steve Heather, Heaven And (not listed there).

Can't wait to hear the new one.

Yeah thanks for the heads-up

What is the name of the new album?

Open

The Wire seemed to really like it. I'm just glad it's on a US label so I don't have to pay like $28 for this one.

Open is out today and let me repeat myself: it is totally gorgeous.

Yeah I listened to that a bunch of times when it was streaming. It is a cool journey for sure, gotta track down more by this band. My kinda thing.

yeah it's really good. I think it's important to listen loud. playing softly in the background you might thing it just passed on by and nothing happened.

Loud, this thing is amazing. On headphones, another experience entirely.

Have only listened on headphones, and dug it a lot. Not sure when I will get to listen to it in any other context ....

I did turn it up loud though.

I found Open instantly gratifying. The last one - Mindset was a tougher nut to crack, still great though.

this cd only thing is ludicrous. might as well have a darts player amputating his right hand.

good thing the necks are left-handed!!

i mean 'necks are left-handed.' they're left-handed necks.

I mean, it is CD only because of the length I would think, and the listening experience. I don't think it is meant to be flipped on a turntable.

not ideal really - i'd sooner buy it digitally than on cd.

Oh, there isn't even a digital option? Whoa, that just seems like a bad idea by the label/band. Sorry, I had missed that.

nah you can buy it digitally

Ah cool I didn't see that on the site.

http://northernspy.11spot.com/the-necks-open.html

Yeah, that would make no sense at all if they didn't sell it digitally.

Feel like a cheapskate wretch for saying this, but I get Necks albums through my emusic subscription where they just get charged as single tracks i.e. £0.42 per album. They should probably sort that out but in the meantime, I'm sorry Necks - you will not get rich off me unless you play here live a little more often.

tbf guys if you promise to come and play up our end once a week i promise i will come and see you every time

their albums are so beautifully recorded, too. snare drum sound of dreams.

and i guess that is what i'm losing when i buy my shitty mp3s

neato:

The Necks 18th album Vertigo is an eventful, kaleidoscopic tone poem set against a darkly shimmering background. Slowly but inexorably moving forward, it crosses many frontiers yet remains true to the mission and mood established in the opening stanzas of this cinematic 44 minute journey. A work able to be viewed either as a whole, or two symmetrical halves, Vertigo sees The Necks once again offer an excursion in sound that reflects both the light and darkness of some preternatural world.

Vertigo will be released on 30th October in North America by Northern Spy Records. It follows their acclaimed 2013 album Open, described by SPIN as ‘the most beautiful album of the year’.

In contrast to the sustained improvisations that are their live performances, The Necks' studio albums take shape by way of intricate crafting brought to bear throughout the entire recording and mixing process. “The discussion this time really began in earnest in the session itself, where we started to pursue the idea of having a drone running from start to finish, off which we could hang ideas,” said bassist Lloyd Swanton “But like all Necks albums we ended up in a very different place from whatever our initial notion of it had been.”

Maintaining a teetering tension between suspension and collapse, Vertigo draws on a diverse palette of sounds created in the studio by Tony Buck (drums/percussion/guitar), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano/keyboards), featuring everything from homemade instruments, extended instrumental techniques and marathon explorations of sonic textures.

One piece, at the same time two. Monochrome, yet multicoloured. Dark, yet incandescent. Expansive and still. Melancholic and exhilarating. The Necks. Vertigo.

It is pretty safe to say this is going to be very very good.

'vertigo' is pretty great. more rhythmically concerned and organ vibey than usual

Is it out now?

not officially for a little while i don't think

October I think. Is it two tracks? I've seen it announced and made a note to order it but not looked at details of listened. Rhythm and organs is good in my mind.

Ooh no, Australian CD release is tomorrow.

http://www.thenecks.com/news

Stoked! I listen to the last couple of albums and some recent live streams I ripped constantly. They basically just get better and better.

It is such a joy to listen to these notes accumulate over time. Or, as on Aether amd Open, dissipate over time! For me they are now old masters confidently exploring their personal subjects (piano, bass and percussives) inside an unfolding temporal landscape. When they work/play, their distinct voices are simultaneously woven together and embedded inside this amazingly flexible collective perpetual motion sound sculpture thingy called the Necks! Exciting stuff that I will be listening to gratefully for the rest of my life!

Great news. That press release does make it sound like 2x 20-odd min tracks, as with Mindset, which I would be happy with.

I enjoy Open, but find it a bit too sparse in places to really love. Maybe it needs more time; I really didn't get on with Silverwater at first but now it might be my favourite of theirs ...

Yeah, Silverwater is my absolute favorite, really! Just gorgeous stuff. The unity of form created by so-apt the art/title/performance puts it above the others in the final analysis, what with all the jingly shimmering tidal waves of percussion rolling in and out. It plays paradoxically on your perception, seemingly both calm and busy at the same time. And then if you turn it up real loud you hear that there is all this stuff concealed beneath the lapping waves that are on the surface!!!

yeah silverwater is just after drive by for me. prefer the motorik stylings of the latter just a tad.

New one is a bit noisier/busier than Open. But these guys can do no wrong in my opinion.

My first impression is that this is pretty damn good, that is always a good sign with a Necks album.

both halves are very strong

Just got this. One quiet listen yesterday (whilst feeling ill), and it seemed a bit abstract / delicate, albeit more ominous than Open. Was hoping for something more groovey.

Anyone else got any thoughts after spending more time with it?

First listen through this morning, and it feels like a cross between Silverwater and Mindset.

I haven't heard Mindset, but it feels almost like a throwback to Piano, Bass, Drums for me.

Yeah? I've not listened to that in an age but I remember it being way more propulsive / chaotic. maybe I need to listen to this turned up.

My copy of Vertigo finally came, prepared piano and bowed bass and gongs and things like that = awesome. It is a negative/reverse image of Open, which is to say a minor key variation with the same atmospheric rubato approach. Couldn't be more different from Drive-By, ha, no grooves or rhythmic motifs to be found here at all. There's some sections with prestissimo cymbals and hammered piano notes giving a kinda polyrhythmic cushion, though. It levitates!

The second half is appropriately vertiginous with all this reverb and weird distant dragging/slurping percussive sounds and the bowed bass played in the higher registers so it sounds like a bagpipe drone or a sustained trumpet note. And then it gets more and more sinister and murky and the notes get lower and lower until the return of the prepared piano at the very end. Perfect title, concept, execution. Essential The Necks.

I'm having a hard time connecting to it, but I guess I miss what you call the "grooves." The Necks are never dull, but this is maybe the first album of theirs that tests my patience a bit. Maybe it'll grow on me.

Yeah, I can see that, they definitely are getting farther and farther and farther from the niche they carved out for themselves. This newer more experimental phase just happens to coincide exactly with all my own interests, maybe.

Listened to it this morning (it's on Spotify) and it's instantly one of my favorites by them.

They can do no wrong for me, they have been consistently great for decades imo

I would recommend Andrew Hill's out there masterpiece Compulsion!!!!!! (not my exclamation marks) to people who dig The Necks, it obviously has had a big influence on them.

anyone at cafe oto last night? hadn't seen them live before and it was incredible. just three wildly brilliant musicians playing off each other.

Bugger me, these guys are actually playing in Southampton next Thursday. Nobody plays in Southampton.

It is quite heartening to see on their tour itinerary that they have also played at such other cultural metropolises as Halifax, Exeter, Cork and Gateshead in recent years!

Feel pretty #blessed that they've made the trip across the ditch to New Zealand a few times; some of my favourite live shows. Slowly digging into the new one, and cheers xelab for the Compulsion!!!!!! tip! Closest thing I've seen to the Necks recently was Nik Bärtsch's Ronin (ECM, etc); attended a jazz festival in Shenzhen and played a side-show opening up a new jazz club beside the Pearl River Brewery's new beer museum on a party pier(?????).

btw i found out this week you can buy all the albums digitally from this norwegian site:

http://www.subradar.no/artist/necks

US TOUR

3/21 – Blue Whale – Los Angeles, CA – Angel City Arts
3/22 – Goethe Institute – Boston, MA – Non-Event
3/23 – Philadelphia Art Alliance – Philadelphia, PA – Ars Nova Workshop
3/24 – The Whitney Museum of Art – New York City, NY
3/25 – The Whitney Museum of Art – New York City, NY
3/26 – The Stage at KDHX – St. Louis, MO – The New Music Circle
3/27 – Constellation – Chicago, IL
3/28 – The KMAC Music Series (Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft) – Louisville, KY – The Kentucky Center for Performing Arts - Todd Hall
3/29 – The North Door – Austin, TX – Epistrophy Arts
3/30 – Match Houston – Houston, TX – Nameless Sound
3/31 – Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN – Tony Buck with Zeena Parkins*
4/01 – Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN – Chris Abrahams solo*
4/02 – Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN – The Necks*
*set times for Big Ears subject to date change – keep an eye on the schedule! http://www.bigearsfestival.com/

http://northernspyrecords.com/shows/

Bummer no SF show.

Houston!

Philadelphia show was REAL good and also sold out. Bass player Lloyd Swanton in particular seemed overjoyed once they started levitating about 10 minutes in! A lot of fun and also curiously exhausting because of the amount of energy flying around the room at the peak, which consisted of a clamorous tornado-crescendo lasting about 20 minutes.

seeing them next week and couldn't be happier about it.

sunday, same
glad to know the show was energetic!

this sounds promising:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/65184fa41408fc98d83df9beab3c0ac6/tumblr_inline_o2yc3vPxs51ryacpf_500.jpg
The Still are a cast of international musicians who congregate in Berlin and create hypnotic, perfectly-tensioned instrumental music that has earned them a cool cult following on the underground gig scene there. Experimental drummer/percussionist Steve Heather and fellow Australian Chris Abrahams (The Necks) on piano, Canadian Derek Shirley on double bass, the wonderfully-named German guitarist Rico Repotente, and Thomas Meadowcraft on organ/revox are the core members, with an occasional expanded version with horns. The mood is set for minimalist, unhurried grooves and soundscapes.
http://seriesaphonos.com/

that'll be good shit.

not really Necks related but Nik Bartsch doesn't have a thread and occupies similar territory to them, his latest one Continuum is very good.

I like just about everything put out on the Tonus Music label, where Nik Bartsch got his start. Check Don Li, Mik Keusen, and Sha's Banru if you're into the Nik Bartsch/Dawn of Midi minimal vibe.

saw them in LA on monday, they were a-m-a-z-i-n-g

This live performance from a year ago is mesmerizing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFpWd1V__SI

Continuing the aside, Nik Bartsch's Mobile Extended has a few US sets coming up. Nowhere near me, alas.

May 01 Portland, OR Albetra Abbey
May 05 Troy, NY EMPAC- The Curts R.Priem Experimential Media and Performing Arts Center
May 06 New York, NY The Rubin Museum

I honestly can't believe I forgot about the 2 shows in NY this week. Disgusted with myself.

i heard that ppl stood a reasonable chance of getting in via the standby line but i couldn't make it either night

chicago show last night was sublime, warm & bubbly. i was sitting in front of tony buck and it was interesting to see how their sound comes together and where all the noises come from. at one point he moved a brush about an inch in either direction on the snare for 35 min straight. 35 min! he also rolled some bells around with his feet. i also thought it was interesting how gently he used the bass drum. anyway they played 2 longish sets and if they are in your area, you should definitely go.

seeing them Wednesday in Houston. havent been this excited for a show in a long time.

"the curves of the desire imprisoned somewhere, in a space with an implacably rectilinear geometry. But it's also a pink sky pastel, something of our sexual, epileptic and short-lived world." pretentious as fuck, but ace French drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq describing his acoustic chamber jazz trio Axel Erotic - In Love With album. It is only remotely similar to The Necks in the sense that it is improv, albeit with no piano - more like Dawn Of Midi I suppose, but it is still very good.

had incredibly high expectations going to see them last night, hoping for something spare & fragile & precious, and instead got this gorgeous shimmering jumble, ideas gradually refined through repetitions, everything turning into a radiant blur that left me feeling like a well-stroked cat

tony buck was v pleasingly understated and cliche-free, not seen anything like that before

excerpt from new one: https://soundcloud.com/editionsmego/the-necks-timepiece-excerpt-soma025

Not onboard for this. I think I've mostly been responding to the gestures towards dub in earlier Necks albums, so for me its all about that bass.

Whoa, awesome, thanks Tylerw!

Well, I love colorful rhythm clatter and chiming sounds, so I couldn't be happier. Good song title, too, for music with stut t e r y staccato bass figures that sound like a pocketwatch winding down!

Got home from work to find the Necks boxset had arrived. That's this evening sorted.

New record 'Unfold' available now. Sounds ace after a couple of listens; a 'gorgeous shimmering jumble' to borrow ogmor's phrase. 'Blue Mountain' is the standout for me so far.

Going to see them again soon, a few weeks. Looking forward to it so much! The show I went to brought out all kinds of people I rarely see at shows and it made me think of their rather broad appeal.

ugh, i'd love to see them.
new one is great — when I first put it on, I was kinda like "ok this is the necks", but by the middle of it I got the "holy shit how are they even doing this" feeling.

Gonna get there so early so I can sit right near Tony. They're playing for 2 nights!

they've definitely built up a cult audience over the years. it was a very bald crowd when I saw them

No reason why male pattern baldness should stop anyone enjoying this kind of sublime improv:p I love the new one already and like Tylerw on my first listen I had doubts + I was thinking are they turning into some average ECM plodders, but then realised it is absolutely wonderful.

Wow, Blue Mountain is glorious. What a band.

I think the first two tracks are amongst the best ever Necks as well, that organ on Overhear gives it a trance/gospel quality. Wonderful stuff.

Shades of "Vuh" in Overhear. But I think the involving stasis of Timepiece is the most arresting.

Well quite by happy chance I caught them -- for the first time ever -- last night here in SF. Stellar show.

so has anyone else seen this band play with a guest musician? at the second night of the chicago shows (the one i went to), joshua abrams (natural information society, among many others) sat in for the second set and it was really interesting to watch another person integrate into the necks sound-world, which seems very tightly sealed from the other sets i've seen them play (2). he played one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintir

They played with Ned Rothenberg at the first Big Ears, iirc. It was billed under their four names rather than Necks + NR. (I wish the festival still had previous years' schedules archived so I could check that.)

he's a saxophone player right? how was it? the set with abrams was significantly more heavy on the groove side of things (he's a bass player most of the time iirc) if memory serves there were even some riffy moments. i think i enjoyed the pure Necks set slightly more bc they are like a snowglobe band -- you enter their world and then stay there for a while to daydream.

As I recall the set, it was very much Rothenberg entering Necksian trance-space, long lines and patterns. I don't know enough about him to say if that's his territory to start with.

not much use to me by the looks of it, but maybe relevant to some of your interests:

Sat 29th: Cheltenham, UK - Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Sun 30th: Bray, Ireland - Bray Jazz Festival

MAY

Mon 1st: Brighton, UK - St Luke's Church

Wed 3rd: London, UK - Jazz Cafe

Sat 6th: Glasgow, UK - Glasgow Tectonics - The Necks with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Sun 7th: Glasgow, UK - Glasgow Tectonics - Eddie Prévost's Spirals with members of The Necks

Mon 8th: Rijkesvorsel, Belgium - De Singer

Tue 9th: Paris, France - La Dynamo

Wed 10th: Prague, Czech Republic - Palac Akropolis

Thu 11th: Olomouc, Czech Republic - Jazz Tibet Club

Fri 12th: Ustí Nad Labem, Czech Republic - Národní dům

I'm photographing Tectonics again this year and really looking forward to finally seeing The Necks, never managed to catch them before.

somehow i can't warm up to the necks. whenever i try the repetitive music bores to death me after about five minutes. maybe my attention span is just too small.

"bores me to death"

more like alex in geirhattan

I was blasting out the Sex album in the kitchen last summer, and I overheard my last neighbour, in his garden saying to his girlfriend "[something something] weird cunt [more mumbling] shit fucking music!". He was a HGV driver and I told him it would be ideal driving music, but he didn't listen to my advice!

listening now -- interview + performance w/ the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra -- sounds cool.
www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2017/05/02/4662103.htm

This is terrific (no surprise).

yeahhhh, at points it almost sounds like the necks meet bernard hermann

You can watch the whole of the Necks performance (w/ orchestra) at Tectonics Glasgow here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05274dq

This is so how I expected. 1 id, 1 ego, 1 superego is enough.

Geoff Dyer goes in

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/magazine/my-obsession-with-the-necks-the-greatest-trio-on-earth.html

are we allowed to comment on this piece?

Comment away! (The Lab in SF, which Dyer talks about throughout, is where I saw them earlier this year.)

i changed my mind. i choose not to comment.

i should check and see if the necks are on spotify. i never see their CDs anywhere.

I couldn't stand The Colour of Memory 20 years ago, and also can't stand reading him on The Necks either. Sorry, I know this is a pretty lame "hot take" or whatever. I will shut up now.

It is the inverse of writing that makes you want to listen to good music in that it puts you off instead.

well, me anyways. I'll stfu and go away now.

I detected, so far back in the mix it seemed to have leaked through the inadequate sound proofing of a neighboring sound system, the faint bleed of funk

calzino OTM

yeah, see, i was trying to be nice. i don't know the writer's work. but it reads like an extra-long blog post and makes me wish that editors still existed.

i mean you could cut it in half and have a good editor work with that writer and you could make it a LOT better. also i'm just sensitive to sweeping statements about jazz. stuff like this:

"Now the claim made frequently on behalf of free playing is that everyone solos all the time."

this is just not anything i have ever heard anyone say. free playing is great! everyone solos all the time!

maybe i'm just too critical.

Yeah, the nearest thing I can think of to his "everyone solos all the time" is Joe Zawinul's comment abt Weather Report - "“We always solo, we never solo“ - and I'm sure even a nitwit like Geoff Dyer would recognise that they were not a 'free playing' group.

There were two recent longform pieces by Adam Shatz on Mal Waldron + Craig Taborn which I thought were great. And they made me want to listen to the artists again, without getting too pseudy, with an added appreciation of them of sorts or summat like that! I think a good editor would tell Dyer to not be such a bad writer or just give up the game!

i thought that craig taborn thing was too long too. and tried too hard to make him this inscrutable and mysterious genius. he likes indie rock! but he makes jazz! who is he really?? i guess the music i had heard of his in the past never seemed that mysterious to me.

i am all for people wanting to hear jazz after reading something though. and i did read the whole thing. but it was really long. and it just seemed like he led the modern jazz life and that is not usually that exciting a life to read about.

I think Taboorn + Maldron are inscrutable and mysterious geniuses, or is that genii? Fuck knows, I'd be a sorry excuse for a music critic - so I'll shut up!

you don't have to shut up. i wasn't trying to shut you up. that was just my reaction to the taborn piece.

I don't understand how anyone could find Craig Taborn's music mysterious or hard-to-embrace unless they were actively trying to do so. Mal Waldron I've never really dived into, but what I have heard is...a 1950s jazz player who gets a little adventurous sometimes? I mean, half the time he's playing standards anyway. I guess if you're a piano player Mal Waldron is doing some otherworldly shit, but if you're just a listener he's...fine.

The Necks, I don't really get. I kind of prefer their latest album because the pieces are 15 minutes long instead of an hour, but honestly most of their stuff could be on ECM without scaring anybody.

I'm suffering from an OD of "hot takes" here, Unperson! You should check Maldron's The Call out.

i've been listening to this album a lot lately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=170rAzlx1X4

he made lots of excellent records in the 70's. the stuff he did with steve lacy is really cool if you like steve lacy. i like that album with gary peacock a lot too.

Waldron was the first release on ECM iirc, got that one

Hard Talk. i like that one. live. euro dudes + lacy. i dunno, he's on/made a ton of good records past the 50's. there is a lot to listen to.

Free At Last absolutely rules, and yep it is ECM no1!

The Quest
his twin piano trio w/ Archie Shepp - Three For Freedom
Impressions
his plays Satie

These are some of my favourite things!

i heard tony buck has a solo album out -- has anyone heard it? i am curious about it but not enough to spend money just yet.

i looked up their individual stuff and they have all played with 50 groups i've never heard of. it's a big little world out there. i'm not that up on 90's/2000's stuff though.

(and 90's/2000's australia would be a big black hole for me as far as this kind of thing goes...)

there is always something new to discover
that's why we're here :)

i would welcome recommendations for necks side projects (esp tony buck-based) ones if anyone has them

heard tony buck has a solo album out -- has anyone heard it? i am curious about it but not enough to spend money just yet.

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus was good

Peril was his "main" band for a good while there

huh
check him out! old 1991 neck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2pjZIUJHc

Ach, I like Geoff Dyer. I get why that phenomenological transcribing of music might be regarded as pointless and superfluous but as it stands, i think he does it well. Some of the passages about Monk in But Beautiful are extraordinary.

he can obviously write it just needed a good editor. take this paragraph out, shorten this, move this up, move this down. that's how i felt reading it anyway. usually i don't feel that way reading the NYT even at this late date. someone on my facebook loved the first paragraph so much. that's why i clicked on it.

I totally mourn the loss of good editors, but in Dyer's defence that verbosity and perfromative lack of self consciousness are part of his shtick so it didn't grate on me too much.

Given both the details of today's Pitchfork review and the truly abysmal 90s cover art, safe to say this is the first Necks album I am not champing at the bit to hear

I'll still buy it, of course

the cover art is the best thing about it imo

this is very nice so far! Not read p4k or looked at the album cover yet tho! How much thrills 'n' spills you expect out of this Necks album shouldn't be judged out of isolation from how you much you liked their last 19 albums!

i hate the guitar

hm, i had hoped the era of guitar on necks records ("chemist"-era?) had passed... it always felt a bit corny and out-of-place to me

I left it playing in the kitchen and had to go out, and when I come back, it was after the guitar bit. And rewinding back didn't seem right. i'll try it another day!

see what you were driving at now, definitely not a classic vintage of Necks!

This isn't quite the bummer I expected it to be, but that middle section definitely sounds like it could be any number of boring modern 'krautrock' inspired bands. Really liked the first 20 minutes, though, even if it is a bit Necks 101

Anyone check out this collab with Underworld?

Yeah the Underworld fans like it, at least.

There's a touch of 'jazzy house' to it that's perhaps just this side of corny, but on the other hand it's cool to hear rhythmic Necks again. And I like how it starts fully electronic, brings them in, then slowly transitions to fully acoustic and eventually to rubato Neckisms.

https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/three

it must be great being in the necks, just like, vrrrrrrrrooooooommmm

the consuming rattle of the opener, “Lovelock,” dedicated to the memory of Damien Lovelock, former frontman of The Celibate Rifles, is a weightless and atmospheric threnody that ruminates in the quiet and overwhelming moments of grief

aww

Album streaming today; enjoying it immensely so far!

New album is great and their prettiest album in years and years, albeit hardly groundbreaking - as hinted by the Underworld collaborations they’ve returned to a “classic” Necks sound: the ringing piano chords and circular bass of “Bloom” reminds me of Drive By; “Lovelock” is all whispery ambience and rustle somewhere between Silent Night and Aether, and is closest to the live style; “Further” is a return to the Sex / Aquatic sound by way of Journey in Satchidananda.

oh that sounds good. have had some reliably great live experiences with them in the last couple of years but I think 'open' was their last essential recording,

Yeah if Open was the last album you really liked then you will definitely enjoy this.

i really like this

I enjoyed Body quite a lot, actually, it felt like something genuinely different for them. That said, I've not listened to it anywhere near as intensely as my favourites by them over a similar length of time, perhaps because it lent itself far less to ambient / atmospheric 'use'.

Got Three yesterday, and gave it a half listen last night. Chemist is probably my second favourite thing they've done, so I'm looking forward to exploring what they do with a similar format again.

I liked Vertigo quite a bit, but never ended up connecting with Unfold or Body. I think they are back on track with this one, though. Glad they've ditched the guitar

'Unfold' seems to get a bit ignored, but I thought was the some of best music they've recorded in years, esp 'Blue Mountain'. New one is great, though, isn't it!

It really is. This and Alabaster DePlume have been the soundtrack to my quarantine!

God this last track sounds like an unreleased late Talk Talk jam.

Enjoying this a lot. First track is really clattery - almost gamelan; second is eerie as hell - piano led and pure atmosphere, like the desert at night.

Wrote a review of this that will go up on Tuesday. Second track sounds like a cross between Miles Davis's "He Loved Him Madly" and Tangerine Dream's Zeit. I like it a lot.

it's weird. you always make me listen again and again to this band. talk talk and tangerine dream's zeit, some of my favourite music. but though i understand the comparisons, there is a feel of late talk talk in the last piece and there is a hint to zeit in the second i don't think the necks have anything to do with those bands and their music. they take little snippets and repeat them for 20 minutes and more, they turn around and around, their music negates progression, it just circles around itself. it does not point anywhere. there is no horizon in it, just self-centeredness. like minimal music which was so hip in the second half of the seventies. but in the end it was just what the name says, it was music with very little creative input which was then inflated by repetition. not my cup of tea at all. though this has been the time i was the closest ever to like the necks.

disagree but very good post

They were supposed to play in town this weekend :(

Last time I saw them I was surprised to see so many people I never see out at shows. They have a solid fan base!

'Bloom' is a stunner

Yeah, "Bloom" and "Further" are outstanding. I've had a hard time connecting with "Lovelock," however. It's nice and I like it when it's playing, but it's the only one where when it's on I feel like I can safely leave the room for a minute to check the mail or grab a snack and not really miss much.

I've been taking a walk everyday, and each day I listen to a different bootleg of a live Necks show (mostly from Soulseek, and some ripped from videos on youtube). It's a really great way to zone out.

Oohhhhh, did not expect 'Further' to be Alice Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders-esque spiritual hat jazz in 5/4. This album owns.

The clattery percussion is mind bending, I wonder if it's just free or even recorded without listening to the main track

Never before have I looked at the track time and thought 'thank god there are still seven minutes left in this track'

If you want to read my review, here it is.

Very, very sweet new record. (Also, great review, Phil.)

"Further" definitely the standout of the three for me

also looool i just looked to see where i was in the song and it was just about 7 min left -- the 13-something minute point must be really good!!

haha

New Necks! Travel, out February 24th.

https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/travel

Really wish they'd re-release Unfold, even if just on CD.

'imprinting' sounds like a caravan through purgatory i'm feeling it

Listening to the album now. Each track is surprising and yet utterly The Necks.

loving this new one

Not done yet, but so far I like the first two soooooo much better than "Imprinting" (but maybe it will be better in context).

Oh this is where people talked about Three! Thought that one was their strongest since Open.

So I'm basically listening to Travel every day now, especially in the morning. I like this so much better than the last two, but I've been meaning to revisit Three, which I don't think I gave a fair chance after being so utterly disappointed by Body. I'm nuts about this new one, though.

Weird to read people don't like "Imprinting." That might be my favorite!

Love this album. It feels like it touches on a lot of different great aspects of their previous work. First two tracks very Drive By, then “Imprinting” kind of reminds me of Silverwater, and then “Bloodstream” is like Aether if they had decided to cut straight to the noisy ending. It’s all very pretty.

feel like "Signal" is a hard act to follow

magical track

like their previous release

whoops

like their previous release that came out on vinyl, it's one track per side with no given order. So feel free to play the CD's first track last.

It's a good one for sure, bless The Necks <3

i've been going back to aether and open lately. so beautiful. hmm maybe today is the day i get the new one.

i need to remember about this band the next time i reach for something new too

i got the new one! it's great. travel if you're traveling through purgatory? very evocative.

Turns out this new album is incredible (who would have thought otherwise?)
Tossing up making the 3hr return trip to see them tonight but honestly what a small price to pay.

is Travel the new one or is there a newer one? I can't actually remember if I have it / have heard it - but I absolutely loved Three

was thinking it was time to see them again but didn't get around to their Sydney shows

(you should go!)

Travel! I'm just late to the party.

I'm on my way there now. Brissy's putting on a good show these three weeks. Necks, boris, Tim hecker back to back!

I think Necks heads would dig Activator by Gerycz Powers Rolin, which appeared last month.

I saw them in Melbourne a few weeks back - brilliant as ever.

It truly is something how many layers they produce from three people playing live

never sure seeing this thread title if this thread is about The Necks or if there's some band I haven't heard of called New Necks

They will always be nummy num krautjazz goodness

New album, Bleed, out in October!

https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/bleed

Wish there was an excerpt

Always good news

Heard a promo, unsurprisingly great as always.

I’m really looking forward to this Necks-related business: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/tim-etchells-tony-buck-go-on-like-this/

gosh this new one is great

Oh is it out?

yep!

https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/bleed

👍🏽

This one feels particularly digital. Lots of granular and a general collagey impression. It’s hard to pin down, but I like it!

weird, it's probably the first Necks album that has left no impression on me whatsoever after one listen, but I expect that is likely to change on subsequent plays

I prefer their rhythmic pieces but it's still very nice.

Haven't heard this new one yet but Aether is among my favorites of theirs, so very curious to hear. Or buy. Yeah, probably buy, no need to even hear.

Aether is among my favorites of theirs

same!

my favs are open, aether and townsville in that order. promising start to this one, morton feldman piano and breathing.. oh yeah i think i'm gonna like this one. mysterious and collage-y, open is similar in that regard. the last one didn't really stick with me, the mood was kinda grim and i think prefer their tonally lighter side, though i should go back to it.

The gig at wyong kicking off the new tour was sweet! Good venue. 2 long 50 min pieces. Intimate.
Anyone else there? Emsworth?

Tony bucks brush playing was unbelievable. Typical necks. He played this almost unthinking repetitive hypnotic swirl for like 15 minutes.

And then he stepped it up.

Might catch them at the city recital hall. Glad to hear the good review

hey bn, I wasn’t there but sounds fantastic! I am ready to go again - sometimes I need a recharge and have to skip a Necks summer but I am all on for this one and actually have tix to that recital hall show, just hope work doesn’t fuck me up

Yeah i feel that too about the time out recharge

new triple CD coming in October, preview sounds great

https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet

:) sounds gorgeous

oh jeez the preview track is amazing!

the cd package with the poster is alluring

so far I have:

the 8-disc box
Athenaeum/Homebush/Quay/Raab
Travel

what else do people love, or think is essential?

truthfully haven't really loved their last few but this new track is gorgeous

sleeve: i love Open a ton, minimal even for them but also some of the most beautiful passages in their catalog. also very fond of Body.

seconding open, just sublime

we would have open on all the time when our dear a. was over. at some point he asked about it and eventually put it in his playlists. depending on my mood i can't listen to it or i miss him too much. but i wouldn't have chosen anything else for those special times, it was always perfect.

thanks y'all!

I wonder if there will be a cheaper version sans poster. Typically, I've bought Necks CDs from ReR Megacorp, where they are always shockingly inexpensive.

Bandcamp is there for the thrifty (or want to take up less space with stuff)

preview track sounds fantastic

what else do people love, or think is essential?

i think Three is their best most recent thing, and sometimes it's even my preference overall

Hanging Gardens and Aether are probably my favorites.

Drive-By is my fave

those are all on the 8xcd necks box, c'mon guys!

lol, thanks again

listened to Open today and yeah it was great, on my list

really hope they do one more stateside tour, i missed them last time and it remains a huge regret

Me too

I love how the new track goes gospelly around halfway in.

yeah a little spiritual hat jazz to these ears - they wear it well!

wow the new album is gonna be 3 hours. Oct 10.

Seconding praise for Three, especially if you enjoy their rare propulsive mode.

Open was the last one I really loved, but I keep buying 'em, and I'll continue to do so. The only Necks album that never really landed for me was the one with the guitars--was that Body or Three? I forget. Didn't really connect much with the last one, either, come to think of it. In fact, I forgot all about it until just now, but I should probably revisit it, as there was a lot going on in my life when it was released and I probably didn't give it enough attention. But almost all of their records are worthwhile, which is quite a feat given the size of the discography. We're lucky to have them.

Hanging Gardens was my first Necks and was an old ILM fave, but I feel like it's become a bit of a forgotten album.

The Necks are one of the few bands that have evaded my "5 albums or so then I'm basically out" rule. (Not really a rule but something that just seems to happen; hard to keep momentum going, both as an artist and a fan.) I buy all the new releases on sight, and even if I only pull them out occasionally, when I do they really hit the spot.

I think mosquito / see through is a special one - used to love putting the first album on to make a summer afternoon a little bit strange and beautiful

(The second album is more intense but I did have an unforgettable drive through stormy mountain scenery listening to it)

my other favourites for reference - three / open / aether / sex and the townsville live one

I feel guitars have made a few appearances over the years, never particularly stoked to hear them on a necks lp, makes them feel too ordinary

i adore the tiny bits of guitar that appear toward the end of open. townsville is another fav. in an ideal world more piano teachers would play that for their pupils lol.

Townsville a favourite for me too, that piano part is amazing.

I like Sex too. The album, silly! Listening to it right now. One of the only Necks albums with meh cover art.

It's become increasingly difficult to talk about "what are the essential Necks albums" because they've now released so many that trying to rank them is always gonna be a bit arbitrary.

But one that people don't seem to talk about much (perhaps because it's pretty similar to 'Sex' which obv is very well-known) is the early release 'Aquatic', one of their more consistently beautiful efforts. And as with 'Sex' it's one of their releases that is less likely to annoy non-fans if you have it playing in the background - a pragmatic point in its favour for me.

am I the only Silverwater fan? dang

Forgot to post about seeing them back in February. 2 x hourlong sets. First was great, liked it a lot, then the second hit like a thunderbolt. I don’t really know what was different but the result was night and day.

Listening to this new cut on headphones last night was an almost holy experience.

man listening to mosquito on the perfect warm Sydney afternoon, back from the beach and the door is letting in birdsong and jasmine and everything is beautiful

one day i will visit australia, and when i do, i will listen to the necks in their natural habitat just like this

Fuck yeah.

am I the only Silverwater fan? dang

― czech hunter biden's laptop (the table is the table)

no, I like that one a lot!

I can't afford to actually buy this new one until next week but I am very much looking forward to a full listen this weekend

Just got the shipping notification for mine, can't wait!

listening to it now and enjoying it.

This album fucking rules. Ghost Net in particular.

ok I'm heading in, first track sounds fantastic with the delayed (?) keyboard shimmer and the bass sounding like it's being played directly in front of you

I love the way with their music you just are sort of listening and not noticing and then the groove kind of makes sense and you're locked in.

warm running sunlight 👌🏽

Wait is the whole thing out?

yep https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet

listening later today on a stormy day, looking forward to it

this new one is goooooood

second track has a lil jazz rock-ey swagger that makes me think of the doors haha

I was thinking similarly, sort of bluesy

def! to be clear, that was complimentary and i love it

second track has a lil jazz rock-ey swagger that makes me think of the doors haha

I had the same thought.

The first track is like the very beginning of Miles Davis's "Shhh/Peaceful," before everything really gets going, stretched out for a half hour.

Sorry, 57 minutes.

I can totally hear the Doors thing on "Ghost Net"

this stuff sounds so impeccable, the recording/sound quality is very you-are-in-the-room

missed opportunity to bump the nummy nummy krautjazz frothy goodness thread

the necks - nummy num krautjazz goodness, or frothy australian piffle?

TS: nummy num krautjazz goodness Vs BIG BOTTOM BIRD NEWSY WEWSIES BLOOD SAUSAGE IS DELICIOUS

This is starting out wonderfully

I can totally hear the Doors thing

This is very imperfectly remembered - but there was a Sydney street press interview where Lloyd Swanton said that while it would be nice to ascribe credible art/classical minimalism influences to what the Necks did, the (in his paraphrased words) slightly embarrassing truth was that when they started they were probably more conscious of/influenced by The Doors than Steve Reich or Journey To Satchidananda or whatever.

It is all a long time ago but it might have been the same interview where he was talking about Piano Bass Drums, which was their new release, and saying he was pleased they were doing a live album because the project had probably just about run its course and it was nice to have a record of the live experience!

I had just bought Sex (for a couple of US dollars from the bargain basement of Amoeba Berkley) and was pretty devastated that I might have missed out a chance to see them live.

Luckily they played some shows around Piano Bass Drums and went along - and have subsequently seen them 20-30 times.

Oh and budo jero you should totally visit Australia, you are welcome to sit in companionable silence while listening to my reasonable stereo, also you should do it in Summer cos the Necks almost always do dates in Jan/Feb (also Sydney in Summer rules)

you are welcome to sit in companionable silence while listening to my reasonable stereo

damn that's like my dream new friend activity

otm

i've got 'rapid eye movement' on now nice n loud - immaculate mood, hard to nail it exactly but the word 'disquieting' comes to mind for some reason har har

they are so fucking earthy and assured ugh it's good to really connect with this. love abrams piano playing so much.

another AOTY contender

speaking of classic rock influences, Rapid Eye Movement def has No Quarter vibes

emsworth, i love a reasonable stereo! sounds like an excellent arrangement. i'll plan to visit sometime between now and 2040

xp omg yes, re-listening right now at like 35:00 and this is so otm

a certain part of me has always just wanted to move to Australia tbh. just bought this, won’t have time to listen tonight but excited for it tomorrow

i finished this tonight, really great. that groove in 'ghost net' is quite an achievement. last track is a highlight, what an atmosphere it has.

I love the Necks for their contributions to Ned Collette and Swans tracks, but haven't yet connected with a full release of their own -- and admittedly haven't tried much. I'm definitely gonna try THIS.

Oh shit! and Underworld too!

fwiw i've generally liked this band for a minute, heard some of the records, caught em live once, and generally thought that they were a fine, solid band. but this new one is the best thing from them that i've heard. which again, isn't everything. but i bet its a good way in.

I have like a dozen of their records and yeah this new one is a great intro

First proper listen and Disc 3 is my initial favourite. The cruder, post-rock-trained version of me wants crescendos and progression, but I love their horizontal approach and how they resist letting a track like 'Warm Running Sunlight' resolve itself. I find myself reaching for clumsy metaphors, but it is closer to watching weather, or the play of light on water; it becomes about the interstices, following subtle eddies of turbulence.

not listened to these for a while and have taken an instant liking to this one

drumming on ghost net is stellar

I love their horizontal approach and how they resist letting a track like 'Warm Running Sunlight' resolve itself. I find myself reaching for clumsy metaphors, but it is closer to watching weather, or the play of light on water; it becomes about the interstices, following subtle eddies of turbulence.

yeah definitely. it's one of my favorites here too. when the first field recording comes in, the voices, jeez - chills. i was thinking about the title of this album vs. the contents and like, it feels to be like an attempt to be quiet in a world of disquiet. or something. i'm prone to read big themes into music i like.

so far only listened to "ghost net" (great way to zone out for an hour+ on a long plane ride) but damn, so good. the drumming is totally mesmerizing

Ghost Net gives good loping clatter. This, "Freakadelic" off the Jeff Parker Quartet record, and the Bitchin Bajas/Natural Information Society rekkids all giving big Lanquidity vibes (albeit, Lanquidity stretched out to infinity, which...).

I think that's a good reading fwiw, map. Necks records (and shows) are often about transport and transcendence - like third spaces for the quieting of the soul.

gotta say I am becoming really curious about how this music is created. are we hearing 100% straight improv from a trio whose long years together has rendered them telepathic? do they come into these recording sessions with some ideas beforehand? is any of this charted and written out? (I doubt it). Simon Reynolds has talked about that fine line of perfection that lies between composition and improv, like we hear in things like 70's Can and Miles Davis records, where does this band fall in that spectrum? they definitely aren't editing longer jams, but do they have any of this stuff mapped out in any way beforehand?

I mean, I could be asking these questions about AMM, granted. But this stuff has way more rock/jazz/ambient DNA in it, so it makes me wonder if some aspects were predetermined.

After two full listens plus a couple more listens to the track released early, this falls into "good, not great" for me.

i have to admit, i would be surprised if everything was straight improv recorded in a room in real time, but i dunno, they seem to say otherwise? i feel like there is likely some editing involved because there are times when it really seems like more than three "instruments" or "sound sources" are being utilized. i could be totally wrong though, maybe they're all just really adept at doing more than one thing at once. idk it's mysterious. i imagine others here with more first-hand knowledge can offer insight.

no you're right, at least with the field recordings on the new one. but there are others that are 100% live, like https://www.discogs.com/master/736129-The-Necks-Athenaeum-Homebush-Quay-Raab

I guess what I am really wondering is how often these guys practice, if it's regular, whether they run through these jams in advance of recording/performing, idk

again, this might be old understanding - but at one point i believe their practice was to record a first pass that was fully improvised, then do at least one overdub pass responding to that first recording

certainly some incredible communication is happening during their live sets

ty! would love to read an interview w/them abt this

There was a cover story on them in The Wire in 2023. Here are some excerpts:

There are, in effect, two different manifestations of The Necks. “We decided from the very outset to never try to replicate our live experience in the studio, and vice versa. We never play anything from our albums live. I always say we’re just not good enough musicians to be able to remember,” Swanton quips.

“Our live performances do tend to have, as a formal aspect of them, a crescendo or a feeling of things building, whereas our studio stuff eschews that,” muses Abrahams. “It’s very difficult to actually record a crescendo on an album and for that to be interesting after one listen.” For Buck, the distinction seems to be more about maintaining multiple avenues to expression: “I think we decided pretty early on, let’s keep these two different approaches happening to create this longform music.”

...

Equally important in their performances are the sounds the room itself can make – the unpredictable resonances and frequencies created by the acoustic architecture of the space. “I hear them as sort of sonic collisions,” says Swanton. “Chris put it incredibly well in an interview a few years ago – he said, ‘Sometimes I’m playing something on the piano and I can hear it’s triggering a sound in the room and so I start really working on that and the more I do it the more it’s creating a kind of a feedback within the room, but a controlled feedback, and then I decide to stop playing that and it keeps going and I realise it was never me doing it in the first place.’ I totally know that experience. Who is making that sound?”

“Sometimes there’s a kind of standing wave in the room,” observes Buck. “If it’s a problem, we can avoid it, but if it’s kind of cool, we can really exploit it and head towards it. These sounds can really influence how things unfold.”

Of course, in a recording studio, this kind of spontaneous audio event is simply not going to happen. “Most studios are designed to eradicate any kind of troublesome frequencies,” says Swanton. “And yet they’re the things that in our live show we’re going to home in on and actually try to accentuate and turn into something really interesting. So, a lot of the elements to take for granted in a live performance room have to be added electronically.”

Drawing on their early immersion in dub reggae, The Necks’ studio albums employ imaginative overdubs, dropping in and chopping out extra organ swirls, arco bass drones and flights of percussion into the flow of the music. “With digital recording,” Swanton continues, “we don’t even have to allocate a particular point in the piece for a motif. We can decide in the mix if it comes at the start, the middle or the end or is a recurrent motif. It’s really blurring the lines between composition, recording and improvising. It’s a combination of all three.”

very cool, thanks!

Hadn't listened to Three in ages so dug it out last night. Fantastic stuff, especially the opener Bloom.

Am I reading their past tour dates page wrong, or have they not played in the US in years?

Yeah they had a US tour booked for spring 2020 which got cancelled for obvious reasons and they haven't been back since.

causeway is amazing, also giving me the chills as people said about other tracks, just beautiful music. it is weird to listen to a new record by a band and feel it could sit in the pantheon with basically anything else, and most of their records are like this.

xpost Sucks to hear that. I don't know if it was their last tour here but I caught them in, IIRC, 2018 or 2019 in SF by chance -- a friend was visiting, plans for another event fell through, I did a random check and realized that they were playing that very evening. Officially sold out but we were able to cajole our way in (and paid full price) -- wasn't a standard venue, more a performance space, so we promised we had no problem sitting on the floor. A fantastic experience.

Sitting on the floor is arguably the best way to witness The Necks live!

I saw them once at a medium big room in Sydney supporting Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - we had GA standing tickets for the front section and I was worried it was gonna be shit - it was also a filthy hot day! - but luckily the vibe was surprisingly chill and we got to lie on the floor for the Necks set, excellent outcome from an unpromising setup

Just bought tickets for their Feb show here, I had to work last year so missed the show, keen for this one!

O man they are playing avoca beach theatre in feb.

huh that would be pretty cool

i just looked up their website for tour dates and found the tech specs. the drum specs are extremely specific! esp re heads

https://thenecks.com/tech-specs/

wow that's incredible

*Bass drum to have two coated Remo “Emperor” heads, front and back. Definitely NOT Remo “Powerstroke” or “Powersonic” heads or Evans heads.

Oh nice! Heads do make the biggest difference and I love the specificity, that makes a ton of sense. To me that says he wants to avoid rock drum sounds like the plague, nothing tight or short, just pure open tones.

that's really interesting! what other types of music would want those heads for the drums?

It's the jazz sound, which I think of as home base for the Necks (although it is interesting that he plays a 20" or 22" kick, not the 18" that's often used for jazz).

you know what they say, big kick... big drum!

This is very interesting! I love looking at tech specs / stage plots.

I'm not a bass player so maybe any bassists here can weigh in, but this seemed odd to me:

Bass Amp
Preferably Gallien Krueger 400RB, 800RB or 1001RB...

Bass Speaker
...NOT Gallien Krueger.

Then again, I guess I could see wanting a Fender guitar for backline but not a Fender amp

ha that stood out to me as well

I know nothing about how performing bands set up when away from home. Is this kind of set of requirements usual? I mean i get the piano would usually provided by the venue, and i yes ive heard of drummers using other bands kits...

Tony is bringing his own ankle shells i guess

yeah, this is fairly typical. Backline makes stage set-up a lot easier and makes it so bands don't need to lug every piece of gear they own to every venue, especially when the gear is fairly common. And also eliminates the voltage / power adaptor issues for bands traveling internationally

I saw them once at a venue in Boston (which was basically a big house so it felt like a living room show) and the band placement was exactly as depicted on their stageplot, as I recall it. Good on yer, Goethe Institute!

As far as audienceplot goes, I was the dot to the far left, just above the box.

The melancholy piano bit in Causeway gives me goosebumps, prob a bit more straight up emotional than some of their previous work.

This record is absolutely amazing, even by their standards. Hearing new things every time I listen.

Last two posts otm. The second half of "Causeway" opened up for me in a big way when I listened to it again last night. I think I underrated that one at first

Might be their best album, all things considered

Picked up this EP yesterday, which features all Necks in various permutations and sounds very nice on vinyl - I remember the song Benchtop getting a lot of radio play back in the day (the day being 1990)

The Chris Abrahams / Melanie Oxley LP Jerusalem Bay was going for a “Necks with vocals” thing and largely succeeds - features Lloyd Swanton but not Tony Buck (Toby Hall is fantastic tho)

While on the subject of Necks With Vocalists, here is a film documenting their 1987 tour of Mexico supporting cabaret-flavoured singer Jeannie Lewis where they all look indecently young

Wandering back into this album

The second half of "Causeway" opened up for me in a big way when I listened to it again last night. I think I underrated that one at first

im occasionally riding a ferry as the sun sets and ive started throwing this track on for the occasion and thats a nice combo alright

I'm still completely hooked on this record.

i have a wee controp -- i tried to listen to this while i was out for a walk and it was so boring i had to turn it off. is it possible that this band is often quite boring? i will accept that sometimes i don't have the patience to wait 15 minutes for them to get to the good part. i genuinely like this band and have seen them perform and was not bored -- maybe something has changed in me.

There is no good part, it's all the good part (or none of it is depending on your perspective). :) I mean it can absolutely be background music and sound like nothing at all, or like aimless plinking at their instruments for some pieces. But I do think they have a focus and commitment that comes through and rewards close listening too, that long-form attention to detail that's missing from a lot of both ambient and free improv.

This isn't my favorite Necks but I do like it a lot. 'Ghost Net' is like a magic eye picture, it either sounds like a 'shreds' video joke or like someone didn't line up the tracks in a DAW correctly, or like some deep west African-influenced 12/8 stuff if you actually try to follow the patterns. Referencing time and rhythm but not actually in time? Idk.

I've been putting on Warm Running Sunlight a lot just to bathe in the textures, it's nice to hear the low cymbal frequencies (and I feel like that's actually the focus of the track, it's like everything else is backing up the cymbals).

yeah it is odd, ghost net, listening to it and there's that slightly jarring feeling of wanting to flick it into time, tho idk if that's just the residue of dj brain.

the best time i had listening to this was on an early morning flight, eyes closed, with noise-cancelling headphones. just completely immersed.

xp that's a nice description of 'ghost net'. i've never not heard "long-form attention to detail" in their work. one thing that hasn't really opened up for me yet with this new one is hearing c.a. do his 'lots of staggered notes in sort of a constant stream' style of playing on the organ. i love it when he does it on the piano because of the acoustic resonance etc (townsville is basically this through the whole piece) but on the organ... idk it doesn't sound the same and i haven't opened up to it yet.

I've been putting on Warm Running Sunlight a lot just to bathe

first read-through i was like 'oh i need to bathe to this track too' haha

repetitive jazz useful to encourage ourselves to bathe

i can accept that it could be a me-problem at this time given that my overall life schedule is absolutely chaotic and most of my days and nights are spent bouncing from one place to another, constantly switching roles, and having little time for reflective listening of this nature.

album is great

This is what I wound up saying about it for Stereogum:

I like Australian trio the Necks’ music, but their hardcore fans’ rapturous devotion is weird to me. Their stuff is (not always, but often) so chilled-out and meditative that it’s impossible to focus on; it seems to waver right at the edge of perception, like a heat mirage on a highway. And that’s deliberate; their albums typically consist of single 45-60 minute tracks. Disquiet is different only in quantity; it’s a three-CD set. The first piece, “Rapid Eye Movement,” runs 57:07 and sounds like the beginning of Miles Davis’ “Shh/Peaceful” from In A Silent Way, before everything really gets started, stretched out for an hour. (It may also remind you of the Doors.) The more assertive “Ghost Net” runs 74:01. The third disc has two tracks, “Causeway” and “Warm Running Sunlight.” The former is the “single,” and has some really nice piano laid over a reverberating, precisely repeated guitar figure.

If we're gonna do "it's the same thing over and over" as a criticism I'm gonna say I'd expect better.

Yeah, I love this record. I still think Aether is my favorite of theirs, but the vibe here is immaculate— meditation punctuated by some revelatory moments.

LL, i do understand what you’re saying, though— I still don’t totally understand the plaudits for the Jeff Parker IVtet record from last year, which struck me as so boring that I literally deleted it from my devices to free up space

"Warm Running Sunlight" has some moments that remind me of this great record 'Punk Equinox' by Lori Goldston and Stefan Christoff. The instrumentation other than organ is different, but vibes wise it's there. https://dasatapes.bandcamp.com/album/punk-equinox

(Probably one of my top 5 of 2022!)

back to this. "rapid eye movement" is so juicy.

feels like a seance tbh

listening to this kept me in a benevolent and meditative state all morning at work.

Gonna start painting the front fence and maybe this will be the soundtrack.