The Necks
Vertigo
Release Date: Oct 30, 2015
Genre(s): Jazz
Record label: Northern Spy
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Vertigo from Amazon
Album Review: Vertigo by The Necks
Excellent, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Over 17 previous albums, the Necks have explored as many different kinds of space and texture the piano trio format (occasionally with electronics) would seemingly allow for. But Australia's longstanding avant-ambient jazz unit, while having an instantly identifiable sound, has never made the same record twice -- even though they typically employ a single, set-length track in doing so. Unlike their Northern Spy debut, 2013's airy, gentle, and drifting Open, Vertigo is a dark, brooding, sometimes dissonant -- and occasionally explosive -- outing.
Based on rating 8.0/10
It shimmers and drones, and it never seems to end. Necks’ latest outing, Vertigo, posits that a 40-plus minute track can still seem lean, despite an array of the composition’s sections unloosing stuff as unrelated as sci-fi whirring and a batch of key-plunking that sounds like it might emanate from underwater. For the last quarter century, the Australian trio—ostensibly set up like a small jazz combo; keys, bass and drums—has worked around the edges of improvisation, courting just about any genre it sees fit to incorporate; a bit of noise, some instances of minimalism, whatever else is handy.
Based on rating 4/5
Contrary to what you may have heard, Vertigo is not actually the fear of heights. It might sometimes appear with the condition formally known as acrophobia, but on its own, it’s simply the (often nauseous) sensation of moving when you’re not moving. People subjected to its emanations suddenly feel as though they’re spinning and swaying, even though they might be completely stationary.
Based on rating 7.7/10
The Necks have developed a near-mythic status. For a quarter century, they've been building hour-long piano/drums/bass pieces that overflow with the tension of contrasts—beauty versus bedlam, melody versus discord, momentum versus inertia. Live, the Sydney trio do it off the cuff, shaping tiny themes with familiar tools into improvised monoliths. Though the Necks draft more concrete plans for their records, they wield that same sense of wonder when they’re composing.
Opinion: Very Good
The Necks — Vertigo (Northern Spy)<a href="http://thenecksau. bandcamp. com/album/vertigo">Vertigo by The Necks</a>New Zealand trio The Necks sit at the crossroads where free improv and intricate composition collide; that is, the lines are blurred and the point where one ends and the other begins are almost unrecognizable.
'Vertigo'
is available now