Artist : The Necks
Album : Mindset
Year : 2011
Genre : Jazz
Quality : 256kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 0h 43m
Size : 83.54mb
Label : ReR MEGACORP
Catalognr : ReR NECKS 10
Tracklist:
01. Rum Jungle 21:48
02. Daylights 21:36
Releasenotes:
For those lucky enough to have seen The Necks perform live on more than one
occasion, their records may begin to sound like arbitrarily captured moments;
improvisations no more or less remarkable than the last, a water treading
exercise in minutely building atmospherics. Mindset is their 16th record and,
compared with much of their output throughout the Æ00s, it doesnÆt shed new
light on their approach. That might sound like a misnomer for a vaunted
improvised jazz group, but The NecksÆ form of experimentation is too subtle,
perhaps, to register from album to album.
The first of two tracks, æRumjungleÆ is a galloping melee of hi-hats,
pattern-less piano notes and knocking double bass strings. Bearing a passing
similarity to their 1999 LP Hanging Gardens, itÆs all chariots overturned and
horses ablaze. Panning synth atmospherics appear late in the piece like some
strobing visitation, and the track tends to heave and lurch with subtle tempo
variations and Chris AbrahamsÆ increasingly discordant piano.
If æRumjungleÆ demonstrates a side of the Necks better suited to the stage than
on record, æDaylightsÆ is the three-piece at their eerily quiet and dramatic
best, tailored û despite the song title - for the 4am crisis hour. A practice in
still-life noir not dissimilar to their 1997 soundtrack to The Boys, drummer
Tony Buck is relegated to tensely hitting a block for the first passage of the
piece, holding the yet-established tempo by a thread while AbrahamÆs minimalist,
music-box piano plays out listlessly. All the while Lloyd SwansonÆs bass rattles
intrusively, like a menacing midnight tap-tap at the door.
æDaylightsÆ also demonstrates the bandÆs knack with the stealth crescendo: by
the time it abruptly ends in a free jazz tantrum the growth has barely
registered, like a gradual time-lapsed blossoming. Even if they arenÆt evolving
per se, The Necks are in the enviable position of having their own sound and
approach, so itÆs for the best they explore it so meticulously.
Shaun Prescott, messandnoise.com
http://www.thenecks.com