The Necks- Townsville

I heard this album driving home one day around about midday. The drive was probably about 10 minutes long. Instead the drive took an hour which roughly the length of this monstrous, free jazz masterpiece. I was completely encapsulated and unable to move from my car. Any song, let alone album that stops me from leaving my shit bomb (but much loved) of a car is worth my praise. By far this is my favourite album from 2007.

Briefly for those that don't know The Necks they are a free-form experimental jazz group from Australia. The group consists of Chris Abrahams on piano, Tony Buck on drums and Lloyd Swanton on bass. The three are concerned with exploring improvisation and the removal of ones self from the music making process. Chris Abrahams said on ABC radio this year that ‘the point is to avoid those conscious, ego driven decisions’ and any performance that has a feeling of premeditation is regarded as substandard to ones that don’t. This is music without cognisant suggestion though the only way to explain it is to do just that. I’ve heard many descriptions such as it’s like seeing a world in a grain of sand, the shrilling of birds or a cluster of mountain goats from the Himalayas. The fact that the three avoid applying these worldly connotations to their music actually allows the listener to find these analogies more easily. Without egotistical input the movement of the music follows a natural progression that is mediated by human imprecision.

The album consists of one hour long piece recorded just outside of the Australian town of Townsville. The band records all their live performances but they believed that this one had an exceptional form and progression. Chris also mentioned that fact that when they arrived the concert standard Yamaha that they asked for was not delivered. Instead he used a much older piano and thankfully this meant a unique performance. In some sections he precedes to give the piano a great workout, pushing the keys to their limits to create a distortion that isn’t typical of a piano’s range.

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