New Necks

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.