i just discovered 'aether'. it's kinda perfect.
― Nourry, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 23:13 (four years ago) link
It is!
― Tim F, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 23:30 (four years ago) link
it's glorious. the first one i heard and still my favorite.
― cheese canopy (map), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 23:34 (four years ago) link
my favourite too
bought it at a Necks show when it the new one and thus listened for the first time v.late on a sydney summer evening
it was perfect for that stillness after a day of heat, but such is the nature of the necks' music i'm sure it is perfect in a lot of other contexts too
feel very glad to have lived at a time/place where this band has been active
― umsworth (emsworth), Wednesday, 20 November 2019 00:53 (four years ago) link
mine as well
also really love Hanging Gardens
― Dan S, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 00:56 (four years ago) link
Aether is - and I always tell my daughter off for using this word because bloody hell - 'perfect'. It's the most 'absent' record I own. Absent isn't the right word. It barely exists. It's like breathing. Is it their best? It's the best record I've EVER heard at doing what it does, but I might prefer Drive By, and maybe even Chemist.
Listened to Body last night and really dug it; it's grown on my significantly.
Is Aquatic groovesome or abstract? I could do with more groovesome Necks.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 08:28 (three years ago) link
Groovesome - very much in the same vein as Sex but with some hints of where they would go in the late 90s.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 13 April 2021 08:53 (three years ago) link
Thanks Tim. May need to source a CD...
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 11:04 (three years ago) link
did anyone talk about ‘three’, their most recent one? got a bit lost in Covid perhaps, I only recently remembered to buy a copy
their best since ‘open’ for my money - really feels like it recaptures something I love about their music (while still being forward looking) - first track is very percussive and immersive and hypnotic, middle track is like nothing I’ve heard them do before - very eerie unearthly soundscape, had me thinking of Coil or Cyclobe or something - final track features a relatively conventional swinging groove which puts me in a mind of their earlier records - albeit with plenty of other stuff going on
it’s beautifully recorded too, sounded amazing on nice speakers
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 11:14 (three years ago) link
also - zero votes for mosquito/see through is a travesty!
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 11:15 (three years ago) link
Think it was Ronan on another thread (no idea if he still frequents these environs; I barely ever do) looking for stuff in the vein of Drive By a few years ago; Same As You, the final Polar Bear album from 2015, gets close, especially on the last track, which is a bewitching 20 minute groove where not a lot happens but the world changes.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 13 April 2021 11:34 (three years ago) link
I'm thinking of doing a chronological listen over the next few mornings. Obviously Sex is great, but I don't think I've ever heard Next before - "Pele" is fantastic, but so far (I'm about half way through) the rest of the album is... not good? It feels very much like a collection of early directions that they didn't end up taking (and probably that's exactly what it is).
― toby, Monday, 3 January 2022 07:45 (two years ago) link
I'm thinking of doing a chronological listen over the next few mornings. Obviously Sex is great, but I don't think I've ever heard Next before - "Pele" is fantastic, but so far (I'm about half way through) the rest of the album is... not good? It feels very much like a collection of early directions that they didn't end up taking (and probably that's exactly what it is).― toby, Monday, 3 January 2022 6:45 PM
― toby, Monday, 3 January 2022 6:45 PM
I really feel very bad...
― raven, Monday, 3 January 2022 11:49 (two years ago) link
Do Necks fans know about The Still? Post-rocky band featuring Chris Abrahams that I'm surprised doesn't get more love. They released their second album last year and it's even better than the first.
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 3 January 2022 18:05 (two years ago) link
I hadn't heard of The Still, thanks for the rec.Have tickets to The Necks in Brisbane at the end of this month. I have been trying to catch them every year for the past 5 but have always had something on. I am very hype. My wife's parents gifted me this shirt for Christmas and its my new favourite https://shop.thenecks.com/product/t-shirt-swiss-choc-brown
― hrep (H.P), Tuesday, 4 January 2022 01:14 (two years ago) link
The Necks are my most comically tragic "miss every time" band. I think I was supposed to see them 3 or 4 different times over the years, twice with actual tickets in hand, but something came up every time (most recently, the thing that "came up" was the pandemic!)
Cool shirt!!
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 4 January 2022 11:12 (two years ago) link
I had forgotten how chilled Mosquito is - the most so far other than Aether. I'd also forgotten that I find the periods of silence in See Through pretty grating.
I still think Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab are underrated - Raab is a long time favourite of mine for that piano phrase, but Athenaeum is great too. I should be taking notes as I go because I definitely preferred one of Homebush/Quay to the other but I no longer remember which.
― toby, Monday, 24 January 2022 06:58 (two years ago) link
"Raab is a long time favourite of mine"
rong thread?
― calzino, Monday, 24 January 2022 07:49 (two years ago) link
Gonna see them this weekend! </smug>
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 24 January 2022 09:35 (two years ago) link
yuck!
― toby, Monday, 24 January 2022 09:50 (two years ago) link
Townsville is WAY underrated.
Agreed!
― toby, Wednesday, 26 January 2022 07:48 (two years ago) link
my friends I am watching The Necks right now
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 January 2022 09:25 (two years ago) link
seriously considering springing for the $80 digital Bandcamp set of 8 albums, that seems like the best way to dive in here
https://necks.bandcamp.com/album/necks-box-8-album-collection
― bad milk blood robot (sleeve), Saturday, 29 January 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
For $90 you can buy the ten-album discography of the band's own Bandcamp, which I would say includes more crucial releases. There's no overlap between the two sets so the whole shebang is $170. https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/If it were me I would spend, say, $50 acquiring a bunch of the key works - e.g. Sex, Aether, Silent Night, Aquatic, maybe Athenaeum/Homebush/Quay/Raab (a lot of music for $18), Piano Bass Drums. Except the individual albums in the box don't seem to be available separately, aargh!
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 January 2022 23:06 (two years ago) link
this band one of the best arguments out there for Continuing With CDs, imo
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Saturday, 29 January 2022 23:11 (two years ago) link
they were spellbinding last night by the way - dusk on a lawn outside a gallery, a summer evening but cool and grey because it’s Tasmania, the group throwing shimmering, churning static drones over a bunch of people on distanced rugs, 1/4 in rapt attention, the rest eating, nattering, wandering. I’d normally be irritated but the music was so environmental it didn’t detract from the feel, a bit like that Spacemen 3 live piece in the arts centre.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 30 January 2022 00:23 (two years ago) link
sounds so good - i have only seen the necks outdoors once (also at dusk, in the quadrangle at Sydney Uni) and it was superb - there’s something about the music interacts with the surroundings for sure
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Sunday, 30 January 2022 01:04 (two years ago) link
*how the music
― lemmy incaution (emsworth), Sunday, 30 January 2022 01:05 (two years ago) link
ReR Megacorp still has their ongoing "£5 a CD" sale (need to order a minimum of 4, free shipping), which includes 6 of the 8 CDs in the Necks boxed set (the exceptions being "Chemist" and "Aether" - which happen to be two of my favorites from them) plus three more: "Vertigo", "Body" and "Three".https://www.rermegacorp.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=RM&Screen=SPECIALOFFERSSo if you get them all, that's 9 Necks CDs for $60 (USD) - free shipping, no sales tax.
Also - don't sleep on the (Necks drummer) Tony Buck album "Unearth" - it has the trademark Necks slow-build but it snowballs into something really intense, dark, thick and complicated. Check it out here: https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/unearth
― ernestp, Sunday, 30 January 2022 02:10 (two years ago) link
Great tip enstp thank you
― Tib, Sunday, 30 January 2022 08:58 (two years ago) link
I just caught them at the recital centre in Melbourne and they were great. But Hobart sounded truly magical.
― cooldix, Sunday, 30 January 2022 09:53 (two years ago) link
I just searched the ReR site for "Necks": https://www.rermegacorp.com/...and noticed they actually also sell the physical boxed set there for 60 pounds (8 CDs, although the product listing incorrectly says 7 CDs). And they sell "Chemist" and "Aether" individually (and "Sex", "Mosquito/See Through" double set, "Aquatic" and "Open") but those aren't on sale. 60 pounds = $80 (USD).
― ernestp, Sunday, 30 January 2022 15:42 (two years ago) link
Damnit now the Brisbane set I went to seems positively boring! not really though, great set, don't know if they played the same material in melbs/hobart but the 10-15ish minute mark of the second set took my breath away. playing with those two simply chords on the piano but so beautiful my god.
― hrep (H.P), Sunday, 30 January 2022 23:46 (two years ago) link
Cor, that £20 for 4 CDs is a steal - thanks for the heads-up, ernestp.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 4 February 2022 11:27 (two years ago) link
― Bloody Snail, Saturday, 5 February 2022 00:34 (two years ago) link
I took the deep dive and got the 8CD set, loving it
― thinkmanship (sleeve), Tuesday, 8 March 2022 22:49 (two years ago) link
(well, a digital version, but still)
Townsville is WAY underrated.Agreed!― toby, Wednesday, January 26, 2022 2:48 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
― toby, Wednesday, January 26, 2022 2:48 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
Heard this one for the first time a few days ago and I'm obsessed. It has the mystical sunny ambient vibe of Aether with the sonic purity of the piano/bass/drums live setup. Of course the one I sleep on turns out to be one of their best
― J. Sam, Saturday, 18 February 2023 19:56 (one year ago) link
open is fucking incredible yoga music lmao. it almost has this really distilled essence of, like, rock music to it in parts, a neu! vibe.
kind of weird but cool seeing transit in rock mag eoy lists this year.
― ꙮ (map), Saturday, 18 November 2023 04:18 (five months ago) link