The Necks

Silverwater
Fish of Milk/ReR Necks 9

Aptly described as mesmerizing, the sonic currents created by Australian trio The Necks sweep listeners along without complaint during any one of the band’s hour-long, time-suspending performances. The audience at the trio’s Music Gallery show in late January could testify to that. Yet Silverwater – named for an industrial suburb of Sydney – pulses with even more textures, since with overdubbing and granualization multiple and fungible sonic layers can be exposed.

That means that the swelling and jabbing organ tones played by Chris Abrahams that quiver throughout this one-track CD to reach a crescendo of almost visual three-dimensional polyphony, sometimes operate in tandem with knife-sharp piano chording – also played by Abrahams. Additionally, samples and patching split Tony Buck’s percussion skills so that rhythmic tambourine shakes, thick press rolls, ratcheting wood scrapes and a steady backbeat are heard all at once. Holding the bottom are the rhythmically powerful and chromatic spiccato runs of bassist Lloyd Swanton, occasionally doubled by overdubbing.

Suffused with contrapuntal clinking, chording and clattering, the extended improvisation here becomes a nearly opaque interlude of frozen time made up of bonded organ washes, bass thumps and percussion cracks. That is until steadying piano chords and the drummer’s shuffle beat isolate the different tinctures of this musical color wheel, allowing the narrative to loosen and separate into sections. The ultimate straight-ahead theme is then divided among low-frequency keyboard tinkles, spanked cymbals and solid bass string plucks.

--Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #5

February 6, 2010

The Splinter Orchestra

The Splinter Orchestra
SPLITREC 17

Mating the minimal in sound with the maximal in personnel, this CD by Sydney, Australia-based Splinter Orchestra is instructive in that it demonstrates how subdued 26 musicians can sound in performance. Blending triggered electronic impulses and improvisers’ uncompromisingly extended tropes, the assiduous five-part suite also encompasses a couple of blazing, tutti explosions. But the fortissimo ferocity of those outbursts, plus their short duration serves to underscore the reductionist ethos of the rest of the program.

Built up from a series of whooshes, squeals, clicks and drones, the Klangfarbenmelodie rarely isolates one pulse from another. Interesting enough, those players who do stand out are ones, such as keyboardist Chris Abrahams, bassist Clayton Thomas and flautist Jim Denley, who have previously recorded solo CDs. Among the corrosive sounds stacked on top of one another are ones that gradually leach into each other’s sonic space. Abrahams’ cross-pulsated metronomic lines are rhythmically propulsive. Thomas’ thumping bass line makes its presence felt among the timbral extensions of motor-grinding and clicking laptop and synthesizer oscillations, scraped and tangled percussion ratcheting and the swelling, portamento horn breaths.

At one point Denley, who recorded solo in his country’s rainforests, manipulates flax to expand the cohesive but limited spectral scope. He saws harsh textures through the undifferentiated horn breaths and tangled percussion taps with the same decisiveness with which he crunched through the underbrush.

A CD whose subtle progression rewards careful listening

-- Ken Waxman

In MusicWorks Issue #101

July 2, 2008

The Necks

Townsville
ReR Necks 8

Kapital Band 1

Playing By Numbers

Mosz 017

With terms such as ambient and minimalist sloppily and frequently bandied about, their correct connotation becomes as blurred as the sound often is during purported performances of the musical genre they’re supposed to represent.

The advantage of CDs such as The Necks’ Townsville and Kapital Band 1’s Playing By Numbers, however is that they’re ingeniously designed by musicians who concentrate as much on the details of creation as the overall structure. The discs also demonstrate that homespun, unfussy and discreet sonic creations should be expansive, not static or flimsy. Furthermore, although each band may be slotted in the same sub-section of musical creation, each pursues a different itinerary to reach its defined objective.

Australians, the three members of The Necks have been operating within the restricted freedom of unpremeditated improvisation for almost two decades. Yet the nearly 54-minute, single track that makes up Townsville is both consistent and unique. The consistency relates to the high standard which the band has set for itself over the years. However this floating nocturne is unique because it’s gradually revealed as a showcase for pianist Chris Abrahams, with the in-the-pocket groove of bassist Lloyd Swanton and inventive percussive fills, courtesy of drummer Tony Buck, subtly coloring his keyboard fantasia. Most other Necks’ discs focus on Swanton’s sturdy string stropping.

Although the applause is excised, Townsville was actually recorded live in concert and merely mixed and mastered afterwards. In contrast, Playing By Numbers is a totem to recording studio wizardry. Vienna-based Nicholas Bussmann, initially a cellist, and Berlin resident Martin Brandlmayr, ordinarily a percussionist, play all the instruments on the CD’s three tracks, except for flute. The resulting timbres from cello, guitar, marimba, voice and drums were sutured in the studio and extended with found urban street sounds. Wisely, the two have decided that when they perform live, contributions from other instrumentalists – including Buck, who is now a Berliner – will fill out the presentation.

That astute realization is likely why Playing By Numbers impresses while many other studio creations reek of dial and DAT manipulation. More to the point, both men have a history of playing live, Brandlmayr, with among others, the bands Radian, Trapist and Polwechsel; and Bussmann, who also composes for radio, theatre and film, with no-input mixing board manipulator Toshimaru Nakamua as Alles 3.

Conversely, mixing board manipulations are seamless and buried within the presentation in the Playing By Numbers. That means that among the harmonic confluence of cello swipes, vibraphone patterning and guitar plinks, triggered electronic wave forms that resemble winds whistling through a deserted ghost town, watery seascape and advancing and receding beach front tides color, but don’t overpower the presentation.. Unconnected ripples, retreating footfalls and languid sound snatches also play a part in creating sfumato-like transitions on the tracks.

Hypnotic minimalism arising from a bell-and-vibe configuration, percussive rhythms that encompass a single slap, or a descending, distracted rim shot. Meanwhile sweeping guitar string rotation enlivens the proceedings enough to confirm that humans are behind the CD’s creation.

Another human process detracts from the overall presentation however. On the final track a disembodied voice that sounds as if it’s broadcasting from beyond the grave repeatedly verbalizes a series of banal phrases in a monotone. Only when electric piano slides, bass guitar plucks and a final drum tap replaces the vocal mumbles dopes the tune to come back to life. For some reason appending deadpan vocals to a performance has become popular with many Teutonic reductionists.

Happily no one attempts to sing on The Necks CD, recorded in an arts centre in Thuringowa, Australia. In contrast, with the audience response deleted, this instant composition seems to be solidly of and about itself. Suspended in aural ether, it undulates through a series of intricate twists and turns as it meanders to the finale. Interconnections among the trio members are such however, that the piece manages to inventively accelerate from adagio to andante and beyond without any noticeable interruption or showboating.

Beginning with Abrahams’ organic note clusters in almost equal temperament, framed by Buck’s cymbal rattling and Swanton’s thumping bass the initial shape seems both romantic and impressionistic. Yet as the pianist’s tremolo cadences rustle and are rearranged harmonically, the portamento waves quicken and harden. While all trio members subtly shift the rhythm, this isn’t done in harmony, but in triple counterpoint, which each instrument’s line polyphonically unique. Never static, the performance gets busier and thicker until Abrahams’ overlay of cascading rococo detailing from one hand, and low-frequency chording from the other becomes evident.

Constantly in motion, the fragile theme advances not just because of the pianist’s waterfalls of notes, but also from the bassist’s rubato string shifting and the drummer’s drum top slapping. Guitar-like reverberations and echoes characterize the penultimate variation which depends on the confluence between the shifting, strummed chords from Abrahams’ piano and Swanton’s thick bass string patterns. Meanwhile, as the resulting cadences get denser, it’s apparent that underneath the others’ output Buck’s bounces and ruffs have made the tune louder, faster and more assured – almost double the tempo at which it began. Brought to a fitting climax with the pianist’s multiphonic arpeggios, the finale is signaled by a quick theme recapitulation and cymbal reverberations that melt timbres into suspended silence.

Although these are two notable efforts of prototypical modern improv, Townsville has the edge, since no one raises a voice in a song variation.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Townsville: 1. Townsville

Personnel: Townsville: Chris Abrahams (piano); Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Tony Buck (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Playing: 1. Playing By Numbers* 2. Playing By The Night in Vienna 3. Counting the Waves

Personnel: Playing: Erik Drescher (flutes)*; Martin Brandlmayr and Nicholas Bussmann (live and remixed cello, guitar, vibraphone, bass, marimba, voice, drums and pre-recorded live sounds)

March 6, 2008

Kapital Band 1

Playing By Numbers
Mosz 017

The Necks

Townsville

ReR Necks 8

With terms such as ambient and minimalist sloppily and frequently bandied about, their correct connotation becomes as blurred as the sound often is during purported performances of the musical genre they’re supposed to represent.

The advantage of CDs such as The Necks’ Townsville and Kapital Band 1’s Playing By Numbers, however is that they’re ingeniously designed by musicians who concentrate as much on the details of creation as the overall structure. The discs also demonstrate that homespun, unfussy and discreet sonic creations should be expansive, not static or flimsy. Furthermore, although each band may be slotted in the same sub-section of musical creation, each pursues a different itinerary to reach its defined objective.

Australians, the three members of The Necks have been operating within the restricted freedom of unpremeditated improvisation for almost two decades. Yet the nearly 54-minute, single track that makes up Townsville is both consistent and unique. The consistency relates to the high standard which the band has set for itself over the years. However this floating nocturne is unique because it’s gradually revealed as a showcase for pianist Chris Abrahams, with the in-the-pocket groove of bassist Lloyd Swanton and inventive percussive fills, courtesy of drummer Tony Buck, subtly coloring his keyboard fantasia. Most other Necks’ discs focus on Swanton’s sturdy string stropping.

Although the applause is excised, Townsville was actually recorded live in concert and merely mixed and mastered afterwards. In contrast, Playing By Numbers is a totem to recording studio wizardry. Vienna-based Nicholas Bussmann, initially a cellist, and Berlin resident Martin Brandlmayr, ordinarily a percussionist, play all the instruments on the CD’s three tracks, except for flute. The resulting timbres from cello, guitar, marimba, voice and drums were sutured in the studio and extended with found urban street sounds. Wisely, the two have decided that when they perform live, contributions from other instrumentalists – including Buck, who is now a Berliner – will fill out the presentation.

That astute realization is likely why Playing By Numbers impresses while many other studio creations reek of dial and DAT manipulation. More to the point, both men have a history of playing live, Brandlmayr, with among others, the bands Radian, Trapist and Polwechsel; and Bussmann, who also composes for radio, theatre and film, with no-input mixing board manipulator Toshimaru Nakamua as Alles 3.

Conversely, mixing board manipulations are seamless and buried within the presentation in the Playing By Numbers. That means that among the harmonic confluence of cello swipes, vibraphone patterning and guitar plinks, triggered electronic wave forms that resemble winds whistling through a deserted ghost town, watery seascape and advancing and receding beach front tides color, but don’t overpower the presentation.. Unconnected ripples, retreating footfalls and languid sound snatches also play a part in creating sfumato-like transitions on the tracks.

Hypnotic minimalism arising from a bell-and-vibe configuration, percussive rhythms that encompass a single slap, or a descending, distracted rim shot. Meanwhile sweeping guitar string rotation enlivens the proceedings enough to confirm that humans are behind the CD’s creation.

Another human process detracts from the overall presentation however. On the final track a disembodied voice that sounds as if it’s broadcasting from beyond the grave repeatedly verbalizes a series of banal phrases in a monotone. Only when electric piano slides, bass guitar plucks and a final drum tap replaces the vocal mumbles dopes the tune to come back to life. For some reason appending deadpan vocals to a performance has become popular with many Teutonic reductionists.

Happily no one attempts to sing on The Necks CD, recorded in an arts centre in Thuringowa, Australia. In contrast, with the audience response deleted, this instant composition seems to be solidly of and about itself. Suspended in aural ether, it undulates through a series of intricate twists and turns as it meanders to the finale. Interconnections among the trio members are such however, that the piece manages to inventively accelerate from adagio to andante and beyond without any noticeable interruption or showboating.

Beginning with Abrahams’ organic note clusters in almost equal temperament, framed by Buck’s cymbal rattling and Swanton’s thumping bass the initial shape seems both romantic and impressionistic. Yet as the pianist’s tremolo cadences rustle and are rearranged harmonically, the portamento waves quicken and harden. While all trio members subtly shift the rhythm, this isn’t done in harmony, but in triple counterpoint, which each instrument’s line polyphonically unique. Never static, the performance gets busier and thicker until Abrahams’ overlay of cascading rococo detailing from one hand, and low-frequency chording from the other becomes evident.

Constantly in motion, the fragile theme advances not just because of the pianist’s waterfalls of notes, but also from the bassist’s rubato string shifting and the drummer’s drum top slapping. Guitar-like reverberations and echoes characterize the penultimate variation which depends on the confluence between the shifting, strummed chords from Abrahams’ piano and Swanton’s thick bass string patterns. Meanwhile, as the resulting cadences get denser, it’s apparent that underneath the others’ output Buck’s bounces and ruffs have made the tune louder, faster and more assured – almost double the tempo at which it began. Brought to a fitting climax with the pianist’s multiphonic arpeggios, the finale is signaled by a quick theme recapitulation and cymbal reverberations that melt timbres into suspended silence.

Although these are two notable efforts of prototypical modern improv, Townsville has the edge, since no one raises a voice in a song variation.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Townsville: 1. Townsville

Personnel: Townsville: Chris Abrahams (piano); Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Tony Buck (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Playing: 1. Playing By Numbers* 2. Playing By The Night in Vienna 3. Counting the Waves

Personnel: Playing: Erik Drescher (flutes)*; Martin Brandlmayr and Nicholas Bussmann (live and remixed cello, guitar, vibraphone, bass, marimba, voice, drums and pre-recorded live sounds)

March 6, 2008

THE NECKS

The Boys - music for the feature film
ReRNECKS4

HOUSE BAND
Cycle Maintenance
Louie Records 033

Coming from completely different places -- not to mention continents -- because of a similar instrumental make up, these CDs end up with more similarities than differences.

What is even odder, however, is that THE BOYS is a studio amplification of the music Australian trio The Necks improvised for the 1998 feature film of the same name, while CYCLE MAINTENACE resulted from spontaneous sessions from a quartet of Portland, Ore. musicians early in 2004.

Both CDs have a similar number of short and medium length tunes -- a departure for the Necks who usually play one composition for an hour at a time -- and all 15 pieces encompass the same sort of rhythmic impetus. With overdubbing the Necks play a couple of instruments each -- Chris Abrahams piano and organ, Lloyd Swanton bass and electric bass and Tony Buck drums and percussion. That gives the group similar textures to those produced by the House Band featuring Mark Bjoklund on piano, keyboard and percussion, Page Hundemer on bass and loops, Mike Klobas on drums and Dave Storrs on drums, keyboard and briefly trombone.

In the end, however, BOYS is a more pleasurable listen than MAINTENANCE. Shorter by almost 18 minutes, soundtrack demands seem to have given the trio a shape and structure often missing in the American quartet’s live work. Described as being the results of “recorded sessions” that took place from January to April, judicious editing could have produced a much stronger disc.

Not unlike what would happen at a Necks performance today, the soundtrack CD’s main theme is stated by Abrahams’ piano. But the short, hypnotic cadenzas keep repeating and recapitulating here because of soundtrack necessities. Furthermore, in retrospect, it appears that the sound is more wedded to early jazz-rock than what the band produces today.

Because of this concept, Swanton adds echoing fuzz-tone electric bass lines at certain junctures, while Buck’s rat-tat-tat percussion includes the sort of strident back beat he would now avoid. Oscillating reverb from add-on electronics is still part of his repertoire, though, and here it brings additional color to the alternately menacing and atmospheric tones that outline the theme.

What’s most surprising, though germane to the performance, is the organ washes that the keyboardist uses as pedal point ostinato beneath his trebly chord groupings. Scene setting, the quivering tones bring back memories of 1960s rock organists, most intimately the riff construction of Traffic’s Stevie Winwood.

Recapitulation of the sparse four-note theme extended by floating piano chords saves the CD from a faux rock banality. A lighter rhythmic impetus courtesy of Swanton’s unvarying bass line and Buck’s shaken and scraped percussion add sophistication to the foot tapping.

Foot tapping and plenty of percussion adventures characterize the other CD as well. But as proficient as some of the playing is, the overlong structure and constant noodling from all concerned weaken the performance. Especially unfortunate is the decision to let the pieces on the second half of the CD run overly long. Nine minutes plus is pushing it for the penultimate three, while 16 minutes is far too long for the final track.

Close associates, the four musicians have been involved in local rock, pop, jazz and improv contexts over the past 20-odd years. Each is more than a fewer steps elevated from journeyman rockers, which is what also makes a track like “Commotion in the Ocean” so frustrating. Between the wah-wah bass line, keyboard glissandi and overcooked drum pulse you’d think one of those rock-funk-(pseudo)jazz bands like the Dixie Dregs or Sea Level had been reborn. Going from foot tapping to head banging is a poor strategy for the four and nothing -- not even Storrs’ brief, spewing trombone solo -- can rescue a tune whose every note seems electronically overloaded.

Luckily among the incessant vamps there are some memorable moments. If “Push and Pull” didn’t appear to want to camp out in jam band territory most of the time, there could be more appreciation of its virtues. These include Native Indian-like percussion slaps and the rattles of cymbals and small instruments, not to mention phrase-making comping from one keyboardist and high frequency riffs from another. And are those references to John Coltrane’s “Cousin Mary” and Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” that are briefly audible among the licks?

Spooky lines that merge tick-tocking concussions with glass armonica-like sounds are elsewhere as are portamento pitchsliding from the dual keyboards and extended percussion workouts on woodblocks, gongs and bells that bring forth suggestions of gamelan ensembles and other ethnic groupings. Additionally, Bjoklund’s showcases on his own and the group compositions highlight some bright, impressionistic cadenzas. He’s very capable of producing flashing lines and contrasting dynamics, whose seesaw rhythms are set off by sine wave reverb from higher pitched keyboards vamps, plus percolating friction and scratches from the double drummers. But too often when his output isn’t wedded to standard funk patterns, it turns dainty and impressionistic, downshifting the entire band to disconnected licks.

All of the musicians -- especially Storrs -- have been involved in superior sessions. It would appear that the maintenance needed for this cycle should have included more of a game plan. That organization is likely what make THE BOYS, while imperfect as well, much more notable.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Boys: 1. The Boys I 2. He Led Them Into the Wold 3. Headlights 4. The Boys II 5. The Steps of Champions 6. Fife and Drum 7. The Boys III

Personnel: Boys: Chris Abrahams (piano and organ); Lloyd Swanton (bass and electric bass); Tony Buck (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Cycle: 1. Wide Wise 2. Sideways Portal 3. Commotion in the Ocean 4. Wind Down Summit 5. Push and Pull 6. See Look Stare There 7. Big Stretch 8. Full Cycle

Personnel: Cycle: Mark Bjoklund (piano, keyboard and percussion); Page Hundemer (bass and loops); Mike Klobas (drums); Dave Storrs (drums, keyboard and trombone)

January 17, 2005

JON ROSE/CHRIS ABRAHAMS/CLAYTON THOMAS

Artery
The NOWnow

RODRIGUES/UEBELE/ RODRIGUES/OLIVEIRA
Contre-Plongeé [six cuts for string quartet]
Creative Sources

By Ken Waxman

August 16, 2004

Turbulence and silence, rapidity and languorousness, are the attributes that separate each of these string-driven sessions from one another. Yet the precise methodology and sophisticated experimentation of the seven musicians involved, makes it obvious that contrapuntal chamber music is a plastic enough form to be successfully adapted to pure improv.

The musicians here hail from two port cities -- Sydney, Australia and Lisbon, Portugal -- and are all trained traditionally enough to know of the regard followers of so-called classical music hold string groups, especially if they’re playing say, Beethoven or Schubert. Yet the unorthodox explorers aren’t content to have this major contribution to musical culture shoved into a sound museum.

Non-standard instrumentation helps the cause on both CDs. The Portuguese quartet is led by Ernesto Rodrigues on violin and viola, who has played with local flautist Carlos Bechegas and Italian saxist Gianni Gebbia among others, and who cites electronic music as an influence on his acoustic violin playing. The other group members, violinist Gerhard Uebele, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and José Oliveira on acoustic guitar and inside piano, have extensive playing history with local and international improvisers

The Aussie trio is sparked by the extroverted soloing of British-Australian Jon Rose on violin and tenor violin. Another member, who variously plays organ, harpsichord and piano here, is Chris Abrahams, one-third of the country’s microtonal free music ensemble, The Necks. On bass and preparations is Clayton Thomas, who holds down the bottom on these six instant compositions. Making the group a string quartet on one long track is Clare Cooper who similarly prepares her concert harp.

When the penultimate cut of CONTRE-PLONGEE is “Cut 3” and the disc begins with “Cut 2” you figure there has been some rearrangement after the fact. However the four musicians possess such a communality of improvisational thought that no awkward fissures are apparent. What is conspicuous by its absence, though, is the sort of virtuostic clamor that longtime experimenters like Rose specialize in on the other disk. Instead, the Lisbon installation is organic, with even the extended techniques such as col legno and sul ponticello used subordinated to pointillism rather than displayed for histrionic statements. Call this a symphony of scratches.

Like most reductionist music, of course, there are many instances when particular timbres can’t be attributed to specific instruments. On “Cut 2”, for instance, wood banging resonation is heard, and at the end of “Cut 3” there’s a basso voice that could come from a tugboat whistle, though no oral instruments are cited. Similarly “Cut 4” features cymbal-like resonation from something other than percussion, and throughout the CD, a spreading mechanical glissando shimmers in the background.

All during the program, prolonged silences give way to insect-like plinks, squeals and scratches, often as the result of pizzicato as well as arco activities. Oliveira, who works frequently with Ernesto Rodrigues, may feature his guitar here, but the suspicion remains that some of the flailing flat picking and rasping come from one of the other strings or internal piano wires.

Other favorite tones include a pizzicato continuum that backs rotating bottom tones, wood rending scrapes, spiccato raps on the lower strings, intermittent plucks and single fingertip prods on a string instrument’s necks for split-second sound-making.

All of this cumulates in “Cut 6”, where solo flat picking and what sounds like paper being crumbled meets motorized cylindrical tones and the internal ruffling of piano strings. Bell-ringing touches from beneath the guitar’s bridge and high-pitched, tinkling piano notes meld polyphonically with the col legno bowed instruments until the piece concludes with silence.

As brash as the other quartet is understated, the trio of Rose, Abrahams and Thomas charges out of the gate on the nearly 19½-minute first track, “The Superior Mesenteric”. Featured are lacerating bull fiddle movements and steady arpeggios from the forte piano which turn to double, then triple time, trying to keep up with the near-demonic accelerated bowing from the violinist. After a while, Thomas swoops across his lowest-pitched strings as Abrahams attempts some -- purposely? -- campy 18th century harpsichord fills, though neither gesture retards Rose’s accelerated bowing.

At this point it appears as if the fiddler has two bows in use, one for the top of his instrument’s strings, the other for the bottom. Soon he turns right into hoedown mode, building up to a tremolo crescendo of sounded string tones alongside grating, col legno raps. As Thomas follows along, moving from arco to pizzicato and back again in an eye blink, Rose introduces clawhammer banjo-like frailing that soon threatens to become as mechanical as a dobro’s licks. Near boogie-woogie and prepared piano timbres are contributed by the pianist, but as much as he and the bassist try, keeping up with the violinist is like trying to harness a typhoon. Rose’s lines go past presto to prestissimo, past staccato to staccatissimo and past forte to fortissimo. As a climax and crescendo he redirects the layered sounds of all the strings into tasto timbres and the piece ends with Abrahams chiming, right-handed dynamic clusters.

Cooper’s harp tones added to those of the other three for “The Ascending Aorta”, is a stark contrapuntal example of the difference in string quartet conception between the Australians and the Portuguese. The harpist, who regularly plays with Thomas, creates an ostinato made up of an assembly line of strokes -- that is when she isn’t producing a steady slide from the highest register of that 27 string instrument downwards. Abrahams contributes warbling calliope-like timbres from his keyboard as Thomas inserts knitting needles, clothespins, mallets, sticks, cellophane and cardboard strips between his strings to add subterraneous resonation and percussive shuffle bowing to the mix.

Instructively, Rose’s output on this cut stays defiantly near traditional and moderato, leaving the slaps and passing tones to the others. Jus before the finale, he lets loose with a speedy ponticello line, but the aural memory that’s more prominent is of an eerie continuum of near church organ undertow plus buzzing scrapes and reverberating slaps from the 31 other strings.

As a trio the three can call up any technique and style on a moment’s notice and alter it just as quickly. That means that Abrahams creates a fantasia of semi-classical cadenzas in one place, and with the same intensity play a boppish run or exhibit what sounds like the manipulation of aluminum pie plates colliding with the internal piano strings. Similarly, Rose produces a vibration that could come from a reed instrument on one tune, Paganini-like double stop harmonics and flying staccato elsewhere, or ease out flat picking like a Bluegrass mandolinist in a third instance. Thomas can sound like a buzzing, arco string section if he wishes, and produce poised grace notes, basso tones and frenetic wood slaps with the same speed and finesse.

In other situations, Rose has played with Free Jazzers such as drummer Kevin Norton and trombonist Johannes Bauer, and Thomas with multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore and tubaist Joseph Daley, so the most original departure from the norm here is “The Feeding Lumbar”, which could be termed the trio’s “jazz” track.

Including walking bass, piano fills and double and triple stopping from the violin, it finds Abrahams exposing restrained dynamics and just-as-restrained chordal patterns to play a contrasting melody in opposition to Rose’s slurred and chicken-clucking fiddle lines. Thomas keeps the time steady until eventually, the piece ends with dagger-sharp tones emanating from both from both the violin and the piano.

Traditional chamber music followers probably would deny that designation to these CDs. But the committed musicians here are giving that old form new life, or is it lives?

August 16, 2004

COOPER-MOORE/TOM ABBS/CHAD TAYLOR

Triptych Myth
Hopscotch 14

THE NECKS
Drive By
Fish of Milk RER NECKS3

Piano, bass and drums combos have been one of the defining configurations of improvised music for more than five decades. But as these two exceptional trio sessions prove, with the right ideas and techniques, there’s still plenty that can be done with this traditional form.

Microtonalists, Australians The Necks do cheat a little bit on DRIVE BY. Using all the resources of a modern studio, keyboard man Chris Abrahams is able to doubletrack himself on piano, electric piano and organ, while drummer Tony Buck adds different percussion and samples. But seemingly tireless bassist Lloyd Swanton still uses his acoustic model to shape the rhythmic foundation of the one, more than hour-long piece that makes up the CD.

Triptych Myth, a trio of committed New Yorkers doesn’t stray that far out. Although the three -- pianist Cooper-Moore bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Chad Taylor -- have shown off their skills on additional instruments in the past, the instrumentation on their debut CD is as strict as on one of Oscar Peterson’s 1960s LPs.

Hypnotic as all get out, multi layered DRIVE BY begins with a snaking electric piano lines and whistling electronics, succeeded by metronomic, repeated acoustic piano cadenza, a throbbing organ vamp and a kicking drum backbeat. And that’s all in the first five minutes.

Soon, over a background of hollow, echoing tones, the pianist introduces the theme and its ancillary variations, while pulsating Morse code-like organ riffs soon segment the descending piano clusters. As the sounds intensify there’s much tension and very little release. With studio wizardry Abrahams -- and the others -- plays both soloist and accompanist roles.

Masters of understatement, mostly unobtrusive Buck and steady fingered Swanton are able to shift and accelerate the tempo almost inaudibly. That is until you realize that the backing instrumental riffs have become different when the sampled sounds of yelling and shouting children’s voice are added to the mix.

Warmer and still slightly quicker, the kids’ sounds presage intensified rhythmic tautness that accompanies the reoccurring piano motif that holds the piece together. Soon, as Buck begins cross sticking and Swanton’s beat stays forthrightly solid, the pianist redoubles his dynamics and feeds harder organ or electric piano chords into the mix. Oblique and unidentified oscillating waves shoot from one side of the soundfield to the other, as Abrahams ends his solo with repeated right handed piano flourishes. Shortly afterwards the bassist and drummer gear down the rhythm. It’s succeeded by what sounds like some exotic fowl warbling, and that continues for another 30 seconds after the formal music fades away

Listeners should feel as if they’ve gone on a physical journey, and one that is so mesmerizing that it has cleansed them in the process.

If DRIVE BY starts off slowly, then the other CD explodes like a blaze in a firecracker factory. Reminiscent of the go-for-broke rhythmic lyricism of Herbie Nichols, pianist Moore begins with blurred right handed runs that with extra pressure evolve to strummed and cascading chords. Soon he’s covering the keyboard with high- frequency repeated phrases, Abbs counters with a walking bass line and Taylor with flams and ruffs.

At intervals varying the production with reggae backbeats or Monkish runs, the three exhibit their facility with ballads, burners and rhythm tunes. Both the bassist ands the drummer get solo tracks to themselves, but ones which fit in with the overall conception rather than excuses to flaunt technique. Throughout the CD, you hear how Triptych manages to utilize the jazz tradition without being enslaved by it.

On “Spencer’s Eyes”, fort instance, the pianist shows that in spite of his fire elsewhere, he can capably handle a mid- tempo ballad. He plays a simple, light-fingered rondo while most of the action is expressed in Taylor’s busy paradiddles, cymbal smacks and understated mallet work.

“Susan”, on the other hand, is a carefully voiced and modulated swing fest, featuring jaunty interface between the three musicians. Using repetitive chording the pianist hunkers down on vibrating note clusters as he increases his dynamics, piling half-remembered quotes from other tunes into the mix, before cycling back to the main (Herbie) Hancockian theme. Finally this distinctive foot taper ends with drum rebounds and a powerful bass line.

“Spatter Matter” is more exciting still, as Moore, intent on subtle swing, unveils

flashing chords and chiming runs, then after double timing produces a waterfalls of splayed notes. His finger pressure is so fine that high frequency tremolos seem to dance off the black and white keys. Before a quick, to-the-point solo from Abbs, Moore sneaks over to the right hand side for some quick jabs, then using contrasting dynamics, reprises the theme one last time even quicker than before.

Musically there’s practically nothing displeasing on the trio’s debut CD. If there are bungles, it’s that the tracks have been numbered incorrectly, so that a couple of the “Stop Time” minute-long, break tunes appear out of sequence.

Other than that, either of these sessions can be held up as an indication that old forms like piano trios can certainly learn new tricks.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Drive: 1. Drive By

Personnel: Drive: Chris Abrahams (piano, electric piano, organ); Lloyd Swanton (bass); Tony Buck (drums, percussion, samples)

Track Listing: Triptych: 1. Stem Cell 2. Nautilus 3. The Fox 4. Stop Time #1 5. Ricochet 6. Harare 7. Stop Time #2 8. Raising Knox 9. Spatter Matter 10. Stop Time #3 11. Spencer’s Eyes 12. Susan

Personnel: Triptych: Cooper-Moore (piano); Tom Abbs (bass); Chad Taylor (drums)

April 5, 2004

THE NECKS

Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab
Fish of Milk FOM 0008

For the uninitiated, hearing performances and CDs by the Australian trio The Necks are somewhat akin to looking at those cartoon quizzes that ask you to find the differences between two nearly identical pictures. Everything sounds very similar. But more contemplative exposure to the band’s work -- like careful examination of those pictures -- reveals a host of singular details, making The Necks’s creations not only exciting, but unique as well.

So it is with this oddly titled, 4-CD collection of live tracks. About 3¼ hours of music, each instant composition takes up one complete disc. Three of the shows were recorded in the band’s native Australia, one in Austria, and were transferred to CD with minimal postproduction and editing work. All can be heard as mesmerizing examples of ritualistic minimalism.

In common with some contemporary classical works, the idea seems to be that when subtle variations of certain patterns are repeated often enough, and for a long period of time, new formations and patterns suggest themselves. What’s more, any description of the band that tries to slot it into the ambient category is almost laughable. The soaring tumult the Necks bring to the tunes has about as much connection with so-called ambient sounds as laborers do with computer programmers.

Granted purported influences from experimenters as different as composers Erik Satie and Alexander Scriabin; British improv mainstay AMM; cosmic jazzers Sun Ra and Julius Hemphill; plus the earliest Pink Floyd instrumentals inform the band sound. But what else would you expect from three men whose playing experience has encompassed rock band Midnight Oil for pianist Chris Abrahams, jazzers like cornettist Nat Adderley and saxophonist Bernie McGann for bassist Lloyd Swanton and turntablist Otomo Yoshide and saxophonist John Zorn for drummer Tony Buck?

That said, the mesmerizing performance that best defines one aspects of the trio’s art is “Quay”, at nearly 54 minutes, the longest track -- and disc -- here. Recorded in Sydney, it also allows Abrahams more time in the forefront than the others. Beginning andante with piano chords that elongate while Buck scrapes a drum stick across ride cymbal to create shimmering, metallic sounds, flickering figures soon turn the theme to diminution as Swanton’s bass strings pick out a standard 4/4 beat. Between the cymbal echoes and scratches and wire brush pressure on drumheads, what sounds like sand slowly shifting and a foghorn (!) slowly move into audibility. Meanwhile, the pianist’s output moves from unabashed romanticism to jazz piano trio suggestion in a Keith Jarrett mold.

Midway through, the tempo starts to pick up as bass and drums break into a shuffle rhythm and Abrahams introduces a modern variant on boogie woogie, with his right hand repeating a rhythmic blues theme and his left producing a perpetual rhythm of eight notes per bar. Easing from andante to staccato, he begins to pitch slide as Buck pounds out an evenly accented rock-style rhythm. Soon arpeggios are flying from the piano with each note heard seemingly exhibiting its own overtones. The drummer and bassist combine for a funky variation on the Bo Diddley beat as Abrahams appears to be pounding every key he can, skipping over the molten flame of a beat created by Swanton and Buck.

“Raab”, recorded in Austria, provides a much different experience. Abrahams actually sounds as if he’s rephrasing a child’s rote piano lesson for a time. You can almost hear suggestions of “Frère Jacques” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” making appearances. Embellishments come from a simple bass round and what’s probably a mallet occasionally striking a ride cymbal. Abrahams begins creating tremolo accents while advancing a four-note pattern with his left hand, as Swanton’s woody pizzicato motion allows Buck to construct a new percussive figure. At this point, the pianist is embellishing the theme, playing the melody with one hand, then commenting on it with the other. Eventually, he gets into repetitive chords presaging the home stretch, as the theme gradually diminishes and pliant drum beats underline the final diminuendo.

Silences broken by a two-handed motion from Abrahams characterizes “Athenaeum” as well, though the overall theme seems more impressionistic than the others. Here the bassist’s foursquare beat is most prominent, with low frequency tremolos from the keyboard expanding as the piece advances. Midway through, a waterfall of keyboard notes introduces a high-pitched, sprightly new theme, with Swanton adding rococo ornamentation to the melody. Pressure from Buck’s bass drum and the bassist’s string tugging, contrast with Abrahams’ tinkling high notes to such an extent that at times you wonder if he’s playing variations on “Chopsticks”. Ultimately the four-beat rhythm disappears into descending motifs from all three musicians.

Most abstract and rhythmic of the four discs, “Homebush” builds to a crescendo from thunderous bass lines, repeated piano arpeggios and heavily accented drumbeats. Almost orgasmic in its centre, with glissandos from the piano turning modal, woody buzzes from the bass morphing into guitar-like strumming and Buck producing what appear to be Native American Indian tom tom rhythms. The end result seems to exist midway between Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” and the all-encompassing space chord that Sun Ra sometimes demanded from his Arkestra. However, the near military style tempo mixed with a foot-tapping beat advanced from the bass also characterizes the piece.

Summary definitions of The Necks’ art, the four-CD program is probably too much to absorb at one sitting, except for the most rabid Necker. However anyone interested in out-of-the-ordinary improvisations will find much to like -- and be impressed by -- on any of the discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1. Athenaeum Disc 2. Homebush Disc 3. Quay Disc 4. Raab

Personnel: Chris Abrahams (piano); Lloyd Swanton (bass); Tony Buck (drums)

February 24, 2003

THE NECKS

Hanging Gardens
RerNECKS1

THE NECKS
Aether
Fish of Milk FOM 007

Australia’s The Necks seem to occupy a musical space somewhere between the jam band groove of the U.S.’s Medeski, Martin & Wood (MM&W) and the ambient intellectualism of the U.K.’s AMM.

Deft at mood creation, the band’s CDs and live shows are all of a piece, consisting of only one composition that takes about an hour to reveal its many facets. Like AMM’s conception, the time period allows the band members to take a piece through all its possible permutations before it’s exhausted. Unlike the British group, though, they maintain a constant, often foot-tapping beat. While the endproduct isn’t as outrightly intellectual or discerning as AMM’s, it also isn’t submerged into an almost endless, unvarying groove like many of MM&W’s compositions, which often clock in at a radio-friendly few minutes.

Consisting of three of Down Under’s most in-demand musicians, the Neckers are also consummate studio pros, and on these sessions use this technical expertise to capacity, allowing the sounds of the more than one instrument which each plays to be heard live or overdubbed. Either of these discs could be a good starting point for Necking, but each highlights different facets of the group’s identity.

HANGING GARDENS, for instance, recorded in 1996 and 1999, is the prototypical trance-dance disc with repeated note patterns from each of the three recalling the sort of funk-jazz keyboard specialists like Herbie Hancock and Les McCann pioneered in the early to mid-1970s. AETHER, created in 2000, uses reverberating tones, amplified discordant noises and perfectly timed silences to build an ambient sound field, though with none of the bloodlessness associated with that term.

Although contemporary jazz figures in all of the band members backgrounds, together they temper that bedrock of instrumental virtuosity with the virtues that can be added from rock, pop, ethnic, pure improv and cinema soundtrack music,

Chris Abrahams has recorded solo piano albums and worked with rock groups, most notably nine months spent in 1993 as keyboard player with Australia’s political-rock export Midnight Oil. Bassist Lloyd Swanton, who also produces CDs and writes film music, leads his own group, The catholics, as well playing in Australian alto saxophonist Bernie McGann’s trio. Other employers have ranged from British pop star Sting to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, American blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon and such mainstream Yank jazzers as pianist John Hicks and tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan. Drummer Tony Buck has not only played with local -- pianist Paul Grabowsky and saxophonist Dale Barlow -- and American -- saxophonists Jordan and Ernie Watts -- jazz musicians, but has worked and recorded with adventurous musicians in Europe and Japan such as turntablist Otomo Yoshihide, violinist Jon Rose and saxophonist John Zorn.

If 60-minute CDs made the charts, HANGING GARDENS, with its hypnotic ornamentation could be a genuine pop hit. But then that would demand that Top 40 followers listen for 57 minutes more than usual. Awash with the sort of electric gestalt that characterized BITCHES BREW and other Ur-fusion efforts, the CD is even more impressive, considering that all the sounds are made by three musicians, not the 13 Miles Davis used. The instant composition is also built up from the bottom with the basso ostinato supplied by Abrahams’ six-note, right-handed piano cluster and Swanton’s almost concrete-strong 4/4 time keeping. With the theme fading in and out, coloration comes from brushes used on Buck’s cymbals, some outright jazzy drumming elsewhere on the kit and later (overdubbed) organ washes and higher-key, offbeat, piano melodies. As the vamp intensifies, the tune, in a perverse way, suggests all that was right about disco music: the feeling that the rhythm is all-encompassing and like the yellow brick road will go on forever. Eventually after an electric piano coda, the music does fade to silence. But what a roller coaster ride it was while it lasted.

Relating HANGING to the speedy hedonism that’s associated with clubbing, makes AETHER a disc for romantic late-night pleasure, or maybe one to play the morning-after-the-night-before. Languid to the point of near-stasis, the tune which begins with ghostly Hawaiian guitar-like rustles and protracted periods of pure, non-Cagean silences, unfolds like a ripening blossom.

With elongated treble organ tones, simple keyboard decorations, deliberate bow scratch on cymbals and insistent bell-like metallic blows developing over a four-note continuum, it’s probably arco bass strokes which alternately create the violin-like or electric guitar sounds you hear, sense and feel. Cinematic in an amorous, soft-focus -- or it is soft-porn -- sort of way, the constant repetition of different, intersecting themes, recalls the unhackneyed early drone pieces of Terry Riley, LaMonte Young and other 1960s New York experimenters. Remember, of course, that at the time their music was used to accompany the many so-called underground films exhibited. As for the piece here though, by the time it vanishes into a vortex of swirling percussion, the music has literally occupied all possible hearing spaces.

AETHER, which is very likely a peculiar antipodean mineral or perhaps medieval spelling of ether, is surely meant to suggest the upper regions of the solar system, not flammable liquid. Taken into the ear all at once, the impression left is that it’s a film soundtrack waiting to be linked to a sprocket.

Whatever the intent of both discs, it seems accurate to say that the members of The Necks have created their own outstanding and original Down Under take on improvised music. For non-pop types at least, it’s these three, not three Brothers Gibb of the Bee Gees who make up Australia’s most noteworthy group musical export.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Hanging: 1. Hanging Gardens

Track Listing: Aether: 1. Aether

Personnel: both discs: Chris Abrahams (piano, Hammond organ, Rhodes electric piano, other keyboards); Lloyd Swanton (bass, electric bass); Tony Buck (drums, percussion, samples)

July 13, 2002