Jazz Articles about The Necks

The Necks: Philadelphia, PA, September 22, 2012

by Kurt Gottschalk
October 3, 2012

The NecksPerforming to Food CourtLive Arts Festival + Philly FringeKimmel Center for the Performing ArtsPhiladelphia, PASeptember 22, 2012The prospect of Australian trio the Necks providing a live soundtrack for a theatrical production would seem to be either a perfect idea or an absolutely flummoxing mistake. The longstanding group is known for long, slowly-developing improvisations, owing a bit to trumpeter Miles Davis, a bit of something else to minimalist composer Steve Reich, ...

The Necks: Silverwater

by Andrey Henkin
March 9, 2010

A recent conversation brought up the question why anyone would buy a CD by the Australian trio The Necks. The interlocutor wasn't questioning the quality of the band, merely wondering about listening to them any way other than live. The reason is the same why people read Tennessee Williams plays--appreciating genius outside of the visceral experience. Since their inception, The Necks--pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer Tony Buck--have hewn remarkably close to their original concept, ...

The Necks: Chemist

by Nic Jones
September 2, 2006

This is apparently the thirteenth release by the Necks, and this reviewer is ashamed to admit that it's the first one he's heard, especially when the music is singular enough to satisfy the average iconoclast status to which this reviewer would make no claim, incidentally.

Describing what the Necks do seems to serve no purpose when it comes to trying to convey the feel of their music. Their minimalism is of a singular order in the sense that it maximises ...

The Necks: Mosquito/See Through

by John Kelman
March 20, 2005

The members of Australian trio The Necks may have individually mixed pedigrees, having functioned in a variety of contexts from pop to hardcore to more conventional jazz. But when pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck get together as The Necks, it's a different beast entirely. Like them or not, they score high marks for originality. The music on Mosquito/See Through is certainly unlike anything else you're apt to hear, ranging from delicate ambience to darker stasis. ...

The Necks: Mosquito/See Through

by Chris May
February 24, 2005

Hard on the heels of Pat Metheny's one-track CD suite The Way Up, here's some more writing on the wall for short attention span/instant gratification culture, as the Time Lords from Oz touch down with an even more uncompromising release. This double CD features two supra- minimalist, breathtakingly audacious, hour-long sound and texture nano explorations--each of them hugely compelling and therapeutic listening.

“Mosquito" and “See Through" each last a fraction under 62 minutes and are powerfully reminiscent (you'll ...

The Necks: The Boys

by Simon Calle
October 2, 2004

If you're looking for minimalism in jazz, just listen to the Australian trio The Necks. The music of this band formed by pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck and bassist Lloyd Swanton, is characterized by its simplicity in forms. By continuously repeating phrases constructed from a few notes, the trio creates a musical ambience whose tension varies when small changes made by any of the group members transform the basic melodic line.

The Boys , which is drawn from the ...

The Necks: Drive By

by AAJ Staff
December 25, 2003

In many ancient cultures music is a tool for trance. Repeated figures, varied ever-so-slightly, can beckon you into a form of meditation where the outside world doesn't matter nearly as much as what lies within. Traditional drumming from Ghana, for example, centers itself around rituals relating to birth, spirits, and death. Westerners absorbed this idea in a very ass-backward way when modern classical composers like Steve Reich incorporated minimalism into a framework of repetition. The idea has been taken further ...