Music Review: The Necks – Sex

The Necks
“Sex”
Fish of Milk / Private Music /Shock
1989

I didn’t always have eclectic taste in music. There was a time when my CD collection consisted of whatever KROQ happened to be playing that day. Thankfully, those days are dead and gone. I like to think I posses a hint of taste and refinement now.

To that end, I would like to share with you all one of my most cherished things: The Necks.

These guys are hot shit. They’ve been nominated and won a slew of awards throughout the world, and are spoken of in hushed and revered tones by their peers.

Unclassifiable, they stand somewhere between jazz, art rock, fusion and techno. I say techno… simply because despite the fact they all play live instruments, the progression and instrumentation is more evocative of a minimal techno session than something put out by Blue Note.

The Necks consists of pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer Tony Buck. And together they make magic happen.

I was first introduced to them by KCRW. It was somewhere past 2am, and I was driving home from a party. The sky was cold and clear, and I tuned in at what must have been a quarter of the way through “Sex.” It’s important to note that the album is a single, hour-long, track. I pulled up outside my house twenty minutes later, but the track wasn’t done yet… So I kept driving.

“Sex” is an excellent primer. While AMG thinks of it as typical and average within the scope of their work, I think of it instead as a great place to start: Although these guys are classified as “experimental” Jazz, they’re quite accessible. Much easier to get into than, say Bitches Brew, or any Alice Coltrane stuff. They take a motif, a riff, and repeat it for an hour, evolving in the slightest way throughout the track. But much like other “experimental” music, it has a timelessness that transcends. For an album put out almost 20 years ago, it’s still fresher and newer than anything else out there.

The execution is extremely simple: a pianist, a bassist and a drummer. No “bridge,” no chord changes, nothing but the moment. And yet somehow it remains constantly engaging, never dull. You probably don’t believe me when I say it, but they really do manage to keep the same musical phrase fresh, despite repeating it for an hour straight.

Ultimately, the title “Sex” is quite apt: much like sex, it’s meant to be savored for an extended period, taken slowly and gently, evolving ever so slightly, building. Perhaps a bit more cerebral than actual sex, this album is the perfect companion to a small, intimate evening, be it between lovers, friends or simply alone.

Sadly, the album is not easy to find. I know Ameoba has one or two copies, and you may just find one floating around Borders. It was released in the US in 1995 on the Private Music label and again in 2003 on Shock. If not, you can always order it direct from the band, which is what I ended up doing.