By The Scruff Of Their Necks
Without a doubt The Necks are my favourite non-mainstream band. I always find something very calming in their long, meditative pieces even though the emotional impact can vary from darkly oppressive to studiously serious. I think the comfort I get is linked back to the apparently simplistic repetition that is so basic to the best of their music. It's completely mesmerising.
Late last year they released "Drive By" which seemed like a continuation of the best of their work without being as compelling - although it's grown on me much more since those first listens. This year they re-released their soundtrack to "The Boys" (although I'm not sure why - maybe they added some extra pieces to it or remastered it - but I'm very glad they did as it contains the best examples of their shorter works). And just in time for Christmas, their latest release is a double cd called "Mosquito / See Through" which has entirely revitalised my interest in their music yet again.
mp3: Mosquito (edit)
Mosquito seems like the most rigorously minimalist piece they've ever done. Built on yet another elegant, plaintive chord progression from Chris Abrahams (where does he find them?) with a ride cymbal, a single syncopated bass note, some tiny African percussion, atonal piano trills and some synthetic rumbling all fading in and out of the mix. The full 61 minutes are utterly breathtaking.
mp3: See Through (edit)
See Through has a similar feel to their previous release "Aether" where chords were struck and left to long natural fades. In this piece, sections of rumbling bass, washes of cymbal and piano runs are are started and finished with minutes of empty space intersecting them. The final impression is one of impending menace or unsatisfied resolution.
You must get their new album : for australia try via their own web site or ReR in Europe or ReR in the US (where you'll also find a terrific summary of their best work including this one).
posted by Phil at
2:00 pm
4 Comments:
those tracks by the necks are phantastic. i never heard of them before. the last band from australia which i discovered a couple of years ago were the dirty three. like the necks their music is very difficult to categorise. though less experimental. which album is a good place to start with the necks?
By
Alexander, at 8:41 pm
you've got to remember that the mp3s are just a few minutes in the whole scheme of the pieces and that there's not much else happening for 60 mins. i know you like ambient pieces a bit so you should be up for this lot too.
a lot of their releases are great but i'd go for 'Piano Bass Drums' which is their definitive live document (in concert it's completely improvised so the results can be variable but this one concert is simply magical in it's scope). for studio releases, the sountrack to 'The Boys' is terrific but probably better would be 'Hanging Gardens' which has an insistent flurry of drums - a more organic techno music.
By
Phil, at 8:00 am
I saw the necks last week and was shocked
they were awful really bad words fail me
By
Anonymous, at 1:07 am
this is just the sort of stuff that people who haven't got a musical frame of mind are into. although saying that, i did enjoy the song which used samples of an artificial resperator or then again that may have been the kind lady who was sitting next to me. i was expecting a bit of a dance and when i heard that a piano player was going to be their i had high hopes that it would be Bobby Crush becuase i haven't seen him on th etelly for a while and i lke him doing the theme tune from pot black. instead of that, i was treated to two realy long songs that sounded a bit like an old woman.
By
Anonymous, at 1:10 am
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