The Necks

Voted for:

Hanging Gardens (1999)



Travel (2023



Aquatic (1994)



-seven more for a top ten:

Chemist (2006) (love it just as much, but I got to follow my own rules:)
Unfold (2017)
Three (2020)
Piano Bass Drums (1998)
Bleed (2024)
Open (2013)
Townsville (2007)

I love what I know of The Necks, and I too think of it as PA worthy.

While I don't know most of these albums, I voted for Hanging Gardens which I find incredible. So second vote there. I also very much like Drive By, Body and Three and enjoyed Travel a lot. I really like the jazzy post-rock qualities of various The Necks.

And in The Body, which I should have mentioned in my three tracks topic over 40 minutes long, I like the Krautrock sounds. And Drive By for there too. Awesome.

Edited by Logan - 5 hours 25 minutes ago at 09:22

^ I know you linked to this album in that topic. It's jazz plus.

Can they do the Can can?

https://youtu.be/qE8g2W0mWOY?si=dyRdCg1-4YhUZF5Q&t=1463

Yes they Can.

Let's see what the new album holds too from this year. In or out of PA, great band regardless that I find has music fit for this site.

By the way, not suggesting mutiny, but I wish some of us could get together and create our own site sometimes. One that embraces a wider diversity of progressive and art music. I'd love to work with all who have posted in this topic on some project at least.

Edited by Logan - 4 hours 51 minutes ago at 09:56

It was via PA'S very own Sean Trane that I acquired my first CDs by The Necks a couple of decades back. I now own most of their discography in one form or another and I have seen them live in London a couple of times. As for narrowing it down to my three favourites, that's a very tall order. I will go with
Hanging Gardens
Piano Bass Drums
Unfold

Hanging Gardens is perhaps the most PA friendly, and sounds a bit like parts of In A Silent Way
Piano Bass Drums is a good example of their long form live improvisations, with no electronic instruments or overdubs.
Unfold is my favourite of their releases featuring 3 or more tracks in the 15 - 20 minute range.

Overall their discography is remarkably consistent, and there isn't anything that I wouldn't recommend.

Syzygy wrote: Hanging Gardens is perhaps the most PA friendly, and sounds a bit like parts of In A Silent Way

I'd say sidelong pieces such as "Signal" from Travel (but most of the album really) and "Bloom" from Three (actually most of Three as well) both have more in common with Post Rock then with Jazz Fusion. Maybe that's a little surface level, but I associate quite a bit of their output with Post Rock. Something in the way they tend to groove steadily along - or drive, that just "rocks".

^ I should relisten to Body

Logan wrote: ^ It's a wonderful album. I hope that any who might think it's only jazz might listen to, say, that track from about 24 minutes in. That album is a slam dunk (no-brainer) for PA to my ears

Indeed. I don't know why I haven't really noticed before what I hear now (but it's not the first time I've experienced something like this:).

^ Yes. And it's kind of what I meant when acknowledging that I'm probably hearing some surface level similarities. I do not think they actually are Post Rock as such. The effect their music has on me often feel quite similar though. It rarely remind me of experiencing other jazz. Maybe some of The Necks music is Post Rock in the way that Herbie Hancock's Crossings is jazz Rock Fusion. Meaning that the music came from a different mindset, and they've probably never attempted to create music in that (or any) specific style. Although the music itself is indifferent, a listener may still find a place for them in a (for them) familiar neighbourhood. Like when Silly Puppy hears things in early Durutti Column that makes him claim that they "created Post Rock". Vini Reilly and his band, much like The Necks carved out their own sonic space that they operate within. Then online nerds like me come in much later and insist that whatever band is this or that genre.

That said, I refuse to believe that a good chunk of "Body" isn't the least bit inspired by Neu!/Harmonia type of Krautrock, though (much like a lot of Post Rock is).