How long would I need to listen to The Necks to get them to perch happily at the top of my Last FM most listened to artists chart?  Let’s see.  Up there currently we’ve got Tim Hecker with around 200 plays.   So that shouldn’t be too hard, should it?  Or it wouldn’t be if the Necks didn’t have a penchant for releasing one-track hour-long albums. I figure that at my average listening rate per day it would probably take me over a month.  However it would be a month of the most sublime improvising piano/bass/drums trio on the planet, so it might be worth a go.

Yes, the Necks have retreated from the commercial sell-out that was last year’s three-track Chemistry (20 minute tracks?  Pop music).  However, they haven’t thrown the bushbaby out with the bathwater.  Live recording Townsville is much more accessible than previous one trackers such as Aether, Mosquito and See Through – there is more going on here, more melody, more dynamics, more progression.  It still somehow manages to sound like a huge half-hour intro melting into a huge half-hour outro – almost like climbing a dome-shaped mountain, you never know where the top is.  Rubato piano from Chris Abrahams crystallises around Tony Bucks’ pulsing cymbal into beautiful runs up the keys; Lloyd Swanson adds bowed double bass to accompany this shift in altitude.  The piano playing gets faster and knottier, while Buck splashes around in rarified fashion, then chunks of notes break free and tumble down the hillside.  The sound of bells that accompany the descent are most likely Buck marshalling some yaks to help carry the immense weight that the track managed to build up.

Having listened to this for the last couple of weeks as well as having just seen them live, I’m currently completely in awe of the Necks’ majesty; they cast a shadow over much else I’ve listened to this year.  Townsville is the sound of a pioneering group at the peak of their powers.  Get this, and get some oxygen for the journey.

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