When I first came across The Necks via their recent-ish album Travel, I was convinced their appeal was a more patient, somewhat less kitsch version of the sluggish “dark jazz” catered to the kind of people who secretly idolise the likes of Bohren & der Club of Gore but would be unlikely to admit this publicly. As with many things, I royally missed the mark there - the truth is a good deal more intricate. The Necks, all three of them, draw on a practically bottomless pool of improvisational talent and band chemistry, and set these to a deceptively vast scope of moods and methods. Their albums typically consist of one-song one-hour improvisations on a simple motif, and their approach is concerned with relentlessly mining this to inconceivable depths rather than the familiar improv trope of treating it as a launchpad for however many spontaneous departures; the styles they employ to that end can be triangulated between the three poles of jazz, minimal and ambient (usually in that order).

However, the Necks’ sixth studio record Aether turns that order on its head and offers the perfect antidote to everything I initially assumed about them – its developments are glacial, its atmosphere delicate, its note choice tasteful, its dynamics are fascinatingly fragile, and it’s so hesitant to introduce anything approaching rhythm or melody that the vocabulary of jazz is hardly touched upon. This is a minimal piece through and through, though its fibre is so sparse that you can effortlessly queue it as straight ambient. Think Music For 18 Musicians performed by, well, three musicians at a fraction of the tempo and you’re halfway there - drummer Tony Buck and bassist Lloyd Swanton accent the piece with meticulous judgement, but this is pianist Chris Abrahams’ album through and through, and the way he recalls Reich’s minimalist pulse-and-shimmer is all the more wonderous for the solo-shaped spotlight cast on his performance from start to close. The album builds immaculately - where 1999’s almost-superb Hanging Gardens was too dark and kinetic to sustain an entire hour despite the band’s best efforts, Aether takes its 63-minute expanse in its stride, making for the Necks album most sensitively tailored to a patient audience (from those I have heard). Its appeal, let alone its gratification, has to be earned: the opening ten minutes do little more than to assert the tempo and the band’s uncompromising vision of sparseness, but the way these heave and sigh and breathe and brush against the occasional guiding-star piano note throughout the majority of the album’s runtime makes for one of the most trenchant, binding reveries I’ve heard from any given band. By the time the final quarter-of-an-hour comes around in a rapturous ascension that makes for an absolute must for any Reich fan, you’ll be amazed at the extent to which you require rousing (the highest of compliments, in this case). I feel I spend a lot of time writing about albums that both create and inhabit their own space, but if there ever was a single case-in-point to encompass that whole phenomenon, this might be it. Absolutely sublime stuff.



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user ratings (30)
4
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
April 19th 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

v raw unproofed first(and a halfth) impression type review but shit damn, we need more Necks threads

Ryus
April 19th 2023


37886 Comments


will be checking this as i discog run these fellas

impressions so far:
sex: 4/5 gorgeous chill lovely

aquatic: 4.2/5 a-side is so damn funky and good, and the b-side is not what i expected but very good

hanging gardens: 3.8/5 this might be the only thing i've heard from them that actually seems to overstay its welcome a bit, but when it's good, it's really good

Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab: 4.5/5 the strongest first impression of anything i've heard in quite a while, hopefully that feeling stays. athenaeum and raab in particular are 10/5

Ryus
April 19th 2023


37886 Comments


nice review too

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
April 19th 2023


27339 Comments


ive had this band on my radar for a while but never really gave them a proper listen. will check that 10/5 one asap.

Ryus
April 19th 2023


37886 Comments


its nearly four hours of live recordings so if that puts you off id say check aquatic first

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
April 19th 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

Aquatic gang rise up !

do Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab benefit from a single sitting for all 4? weighing up when to jam

Ryus
April 19th 2023


37886 Comments


hmm i could go either way–theyre all distinct pieces/performances but they definitely tie together nicely

MiloRuggles
Staff Reviewer
April 19th 2023


3164 Comments


Woah, for some reason this band's name made me think they were self-aware pop punk and I never read a word about them. Reich-adjacent is good adjacent, will chuck'em in the playlist.

[redacted]

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
April 19th 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

Oh goodness yikes sorry excuse my verdant prose, all fixed! You would fuck with the Necks (ew) bigly, get onto Aquatic asap dear boi!

"hmm i could go either way–theyre all distinct pieces/performances but they definitely tie together nicely"

copy that - think I'll do a Kesto and binge em in the soon

DadKungFu
Staff Reviewer
April 19th 2023


5514 Comments


Drive By their greatest

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
April 20th 2023


32230 Comments


"the kind of people who secretly idolise the likes of Bohren & der Club of Gore but would be unlikely to admit this publicly"

wearing my Bohren t-shirt as I read this review and you had to make this personal haha

The Necks' discography is overwhelming so I gotta get to this one yet. Really enjoyed Travel though.

WatchItExplode
April 20th 2023


10531 Comments


I couldn't find aquatic yesterday so I did travel and that's pretty awesome in it's own right. Will be digging further

Ryus
May 9th 2023


37886 Comments


still gotta check this one. cant stop replaying Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab tho

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
May 9th 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

i was gonna say "fuck why haven't i checked that yet" and then realised that i'm 2/3rds into the latest vylet pony to confirm whether it's really as awful as you said and um

um

help a bronbrother out

Ryus
June 4th 2023


37886 Comments


aquatic a-side is their best track what a fuckin RIPPER

still need to check a lot of their stuff though

cylinder
June 4th 2023


3317 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Great band

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
July 1st 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

What the hell, the development/modulation of the initial motif + switch from keys to bass on Drive By is insane. Next rev uh?

Ryus
July 1st 2023


37886 Comments


shit i gotta hear this one and that one. too much music

Pikazilla
July 1st 2023


31485 Comments


surprised no one's posted the neck meme yet

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
July 19th 2023


62661 Comments

Album Rating: 4.2

necks

going back to Drive By, which I think is gonna sit at just above Hanging Gardens -tier. Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab next up



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