A fortnight without a single post? I guess we were all just Shpongled.
The Necks - Chemist
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz
Release Year: 2006
A note first: for all the Necks will be described as "avant-garde jazz" pretty much everywhere they're mentioned, it's a misleading label if I've ever seen one. When jazz is described as experimental or, lord forbid, "free," it conjures images of the likes of Ornette Coleman and Peter Brotzmann's noise-fests. Not that either weren't wonderful musicians, but it's fair to say that the likes of them being the reference points for an entire description of music is gonna be pretty offputting to the majority of curious music listeners.
For what the Necks do is basically bring the fundamental tenets of minimalism to the traditional jazz trio base. Their albums almost exclusively consist of one slowly shifting, utterly entrancing hour-long opus, and since they started adding studio wizardry and overdubs to their box of tricks around a decade ago they've been one of the most utterly unclassifiable bands around. They've skirted with Arvo Part-esque ambience on Aether, krautrock on the pulsating Hanging Gardens, and on 2003's Drive-By they created one of the most menacing, futuristic yet ultimately accessible takes on jazz I've ever heard. And amazingly, despite their blatantly unorthodox nature, The Necks are a pretty damn accessible band. Unlike avant-garde jazz's standard bearers, they're not difficult to listen to at all; in fact, the difficult part is not getting utterly swept away by the subtle shifts in tone and timbre throughout. If genres were truly literal descriptions of music's effect on the listener, The Necks would be the best trance band ever formed.
For what the Necks do is basically bring the fundamental tenets of minimalism to the traditional jazz trio base. Their albums almost exclusively consist of one slowly shifting, utterly entrancing hour-long opus, and since they started adding studio wizardry and overdubs to their box of tricks around a decade ago they've been one of the most utterly unclassifiable bands around. They've skirted with Arvo Part-esque ambience on Aether, krautrock on the pulsating Hanging Gardens, and on 2003's Drive-By they created one of the most menacing, futuristic yet ultimately accessible takes on jazz I've ever heard. And amazingly, despite their blatantly unorthodox nature, The Necks are a pretty damn accessible band. Unlike avant-garde jazz's standard bearers, they're not difficult to listen to at all; in fact, the difficult part is not getting utterly swept away by the subtle shifts in tone and timbre throughout. If genres were truly literal descriptions of music's effect on the listener, The Necks would be the best trance band ever formed.
Which brings us to Chemist, I guess. Their latest studio album (before the release of Silverwater this month, anyway) probably isn't their best, and the fact it has three twenty-minute pieces rather than one does slightly hamper its potential (Fatal and Abillera could both be stretched to an hour with ease) but it is still remarkably good and probably the best way for all of you people to start loving these guys as much as I do. Which, I have no problem in admitting, is the entire point of writing all this.
The three tracks that make up Chemist pretty much cover The Necks' sound as well as three tracks ever could. The straight out the box, almost dirty 5/4 groove of Fatal makes it the most immediate piece they've ever done, Buoyant is spooky, electronic and minimal and Abillera almost sounds like The Necks playing at shoegaze - it marks the first time they've ever used a guitar in their 20+ year career, and using it to write what basically sounds like a twenty-minute jazzy M83 song wasn't a bad move whatsoever.
So, uh, yeah. The Necks are almost certainly the best band you don't listen to. Change that ASAP (make it Skepticism or Ulver or something instead!)
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1 comments:
I've had this since you posted it and I've not gotten the proper mood to listen to it >_<
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