The Necks-Vertigo (2015)

The Necks-Vertigo (2015)

“Actually, actually, when he first put us into hypnosis, he didn't know what he was going to get.”

Betty Hill

By: Ghost Writer

The Necks are a powerful band from Australia, wonderful instrumentalists who immerse into complex multi part suites which seem to put the listener in trance thanks to the amazingly deep musical constructions developed by the band, featuring the explosive drumming of Tony Buck, a world recognized drummer, and the almost hypnotic keyboard arrangements of Chris Abrahams.

Vertigo, their 2015 40 minute plus recording is in pure The Necks' tradition a single piece recording with the band prodigious mix of well-crafted multi part, multi rhythm music and severs improvised passages that give testimony of the band telepathic interplay, starting with the deep droning keyboards of Abrahams, his initial lived remind me if the great French zeuhl band Magma, one is just waiting to hear the maniac screams of Christian Vander, but instead is the sparse drumming of Buck which starts anchoring the tune against the massive drone sounds of Abrahams equipment, Buck us never shy if making massive appearances, as he brutally drums his way into Abrahams dense sound waves, but don’t expect Buck to get was on beats, as he is no funk machine but an expert first rate colorist who uses his instrument for more things that just keeping the beat, here, his drums and cymbals are used in closer fashion to Abrahams percussive descending menacing piano lines.

Later Vertigo starts mutating, Abrahams piano keys start sounding like a heavy rain while Buck's drums get thunderous and explode suddenly in continuous fashion, the band is no shy when it comes to experimentation and start to get heavily hit by Lloyd Swanton double bass, here the bands gets really cosmic and their sound starts to bust into stratosphere, buildings great deal of tension between Buck hissing drums and Abrahams´eerie keys, all this while Swanton bass acts like a beating heart in the middle of a black mass.

Right in the middle, Buck starts sounding desperate and his drums start getting really aggressive, massively aggressive, but here Swanton starts creating a weird effect that in a way starts to suck all sound, the trio slowly starts to create a powerful void lead by Swanton instrument and signaled by Abrahams fading electric piano, with Vertigo entering a second phase in which there is more room and the trio let their instruments ring and resound, they embrace an interesting mix of sound and silence, with silence becoming the fourth member of the band here, reminding me of the very interesting experiments of Miles Davis in his Karlheinz Stockhausen inspired phase, sounds here become completely out of this world, as Swanton gives the piece the dark embrace of its instrument, with Abrahams amazing almost underwater lines and Buck monotone cymbal crash signaling a tortuous way ahead.

But Vertigo mutates once more nearly at the end, it slowly becomes a painful dirge, something that crawls and slowly emerges from the shadows, it sounds like the darkest music on Nico recordings, perhaps The End, and one is just expecting for Nico's cavernous voice to appear, but instead we get heavier hitting from Buck.

Vertigo is an amazing trip from really adventurous experimental music to otherworldly sounds, an experience apt only for the most fearless listeners.