The Necks are an Australian

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

trio formed in 1987 by founding mainstays Chris Abrahams on piano and

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and

Lloyd Swanton Lloyd Stuart Swanton (born 14 August 1960) is an Australian jazz double bassist, bass guitarist, and composer. Swanton was a member of Dynamic Hepnotics in 1986McFarlan'Dynamic Hepnotics'entry. Retrieved 21 February 2010. and co-founded jazz ...

on bass guitar and double bass. They play

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

al pieces of up to an hour in length that explore the development and demise of repeating musical figures. Their double LP studio album '' Unfold'' was named by

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

as "one of the top 20

avant AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and gallerie ...

albums of 2017." In 2020, The Necks was listed at number 49 in ''Rolling Stone Australia''s "50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time" issue.

History

The Necks were formed in 1987 in Sydney by Chris Abrahams on piano and

, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and

on bass guitar and double bass.The Necks related entries at

Australian Rock Database The Australian Rock Database was a website with a searchable online database that listed details of Australian rock music artists, albums, bands, producers and record labels. It was established in 2000 by Swedish national Magnus Holmgren, who had ...

: * The Necks (1987–present): * Chris Abrahams: * The Sparklers: * Stephen Cummings: * Dynamic Hepnotics: In 1983 Abrahams (ex-

Laughing Clowns Laughing Clowns, sometimes written as The Laughing Clowns, were a post-punk band formed in Sydney in 1979. In five years, the band released three LPs, three EPs, and various singles and compilations. Laughing Clowns' sound is free jazz, bluegr ...

) on keyboards and Swanton on bass guitar were founders of the Benders, a jazz group, with

Dale Barlow Dale Barlow (born Sydney, Australia, 25 December 1959) is a jazz saxophonist, flute player and composer. He has a Masters of Music degree begun at City College New York under Ron Carter and completed at ANU Canberra. He has received ARIA Awards, ...

and Jason Morphett on saxophones, and Louis Burdett on drums; which disbanded in 1985. Abrahams had formed the Sparklers in 1985, a dance pop band, with Bill Bilson on drums (ex- Sunnyboys), Gerard Corben on guitar (ex-

Lime Spiders Lime Spiders were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with Mick Blood on lead vocals. He was later joined by Tony Bambach on bass guitar, Gerard Corben on guitar, Richard Lawson on drums, and David Sparks on guitar. Their debut ...

), Ernie Finckh on guitar,

Melanie Oxley Melanie Susan Oxley is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and primary school teacher. Oxley was a member of the dance pop group, The Sparklers (from 1985 to 1989), which in October 1988 released their debut album, ''Persuasion''. Since ...

on lead vocals (ex-Sweet Nothing), and her older brother

Peter Oxley Peter Oxley was the bass player for 1980s Australian pop-rock band The Sunnyboys. He is credited with writing two songs with The Sunnyboys: "The Stooge" (from the 1984 album ''Get Some Fun'') and "You Don't Need Me" (from the 1983 album ''Indi ...

on bass guitar (ex-Sunnyboys). Abrahams left in 1987 before that group's first album, ''Persuasion'' (October 1988). Buck had been a member of a number of groups: Great White Noise (1983), Women and Children First, Tango Bravo and Pardon Me Boys; prior to forming the Necks. In 1986 Swanton had been a member of Dynamic Hepnotics. According to Australian musicologist,

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the '' Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

, the Necks "issued several albums of abstract, improvised, jazzy mood music." François Couture of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described how they "usually start playing a very basic melodic and rhythmic figure, and then keep going at it for an hour, gradually introducing microscopic changes and variations. Some critics have compared them to Krautrock groups like Can and Faust. Others find similarities in the works of minimalist composers like LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, even Philip Glass." The band has been described as "offending (successfully) against tradition for the past quarter of a century, oing somostly by occupying the spaces between accepted positions and obstinately refusing to obey genre rules". The group issued their debut album, ''

Sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

'' on the Spiral Scratch label in 1989. It consists of a single track of the same name, which is just under an hour long. Couture noticed that "The difference between ''Sex'' and the many other CDs they would record afterwards is the purity: The trio's hypnotic repetitive piece relies only on piano, bass, and drums; no electronics, extra keyboards, samples, or lengthy introduction." Aside from their work within the group each member has undertaken side projects, recording session work or as a touring band musician. Abrahams formed an ongoing duo with Melanie Oxley (1989–2003), which has released four "moody, emotive soul/pop albums" from ''Welcome to Violet'' (October 1992) to ''Blood Oranges'' (April 2003). All three have worked for

Stephen Cummings Stephen Donald Cummings (born 13 September 1954) is an Australian rock singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of Melbourne-based rock band the Sports from 1976 to 1981, followed by a solo career which has met with critical acclaim but ha ...

, both collectively and individually.

Live performance

The Necks performances are always improvised, with the instrumentation of piano, double bass, and drums/percussion (with the occasional exception, e.g., when Chris Abrahams played the

Melbourne Town Hall Melbourne Town Hall is the central city town hall of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and is a historic building in the state of Victoria since 1867. Located in the central business district on the northeast corner of the intersection between ...

pipe organ instead of piano). Geoff Winston of ''London Jazz News'' described how "Each performance by he Necksbegins with a blank page which one of the trio will start to fill in to commence the journey, an uninterrupted set of around forty to sixty minutes. There are no rules, no agreements about who will take that lead and about how the discourse will evolve. The only criteria that apply are those of their own impeccably high standards." Typically a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing a simple figure. One by one, the other two will join with their own contributions–all three players independent yet intertwined. As the 'piece' builds through subtle micro-changes, the interaction of their instruments creates layers of harmonics and prismatic washes of sound that lead some to apply the genre label '

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

jazz'. ''

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quiet ...

'' Kate Hennessy found that "any Necks' show is a make or break experience. Some find it cathartic, others buckle and ever the twain shall chafe in the washout. The trio's routine is to play two improvised sets using just piano, double bass and drums: one set relatively calm; the other dispensing sound of escalating intensity for a long hour. Jazz by name but not by nature – if jazz denotes songs that spark at intervals into fine displays of musicianship and tricky timing, after which one claps, drinks, and feels pretty good about the world and the talent in it. No, The Necks plunge listeners to the kinds of violent psychological depths few other bands can achieve at all, let alone all acoustically."

Studio albums

Studio albums by The Necks are also based on improvisations, but the recording process can involve multiple takes and sections which are then edited together into a single composition. Studio recordings often involve extra instrumentation beyond the core piano, bass and drums, including samples, organ (Abrahams), electric guitar (Buck) and appearances by guest musicians. The Necks have never attempted live performance of studio recordings. When they were approached to perform their debut album ''

'' as part of a series of "classic albums" concerts Chris Abrahams pointed out "That's not how we make music. It would make no sense."

Soundtracks

Their soundtrack for '' The Boys'' (1998) was nominated for

ARIA In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

Best Soundtrack Album,

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

Best Musical Score and

Australian Guild of Screen Composers The Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) is a not for profit organisation, which was established in 1981, "to represent the interests of Australian screen composers by developing and promoting employment opportunities, undertaking educationa ...

Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for ''What's The Deal?'' (1997) and ''In the Mind of the Architect'' (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000).

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

'' (Spiral Scratch, 1989) * ''

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

'' (Spiral Scratch, 1990) * '' Aquatic'' (Fish of Milk/Shock, 1994) * ''

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Shock, 1996) * ''

Hanging Gardens The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tre ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Shock.ReR Megacorp,1999) * '' Aether'' (Fish of Milk/Shock/ReR Megacorp, 2001) * '' Drive By'' (Fish of Milk/Shock/ReR Megacorp, 2003) * ''

Mosquito/See Through ''Mosquito/See Through'' is the eighth album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks first released as a 2-CD set on the Fish of Milk label in 2004 and later on the ReR label internationally. The album features two hour-long tracks, titled ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2004) * ''

Chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Shock?ReR Megacorp, 2006) * ''

Silverwater Silverwater is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Silverwater is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district on the southern bank of the Parramatta River within the local governme ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2009) * ''

Mindset Mindset is an "established set of attitudes, esp. regarded as typical of a particular group's social or cultural values; the outlook, philosophy, or values of a person; (now also more generally) frame of mind, attitude, ecte: anddisposition." ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2011) * ''

Open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2013) * ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2015) * '' Unfold'' (Ideologic Organ, 2017) * ''

Body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anima ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Northern Spy, 2018) * ''

Three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Northern Spy/ReR Megacorp, 2020)

Live albums

* ''

Piano Bass Drums ''Piano Bass Drums'' is the fifth album and first live album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks released on the Fish of Milk label in 1998. The album features a single track titled "Unheard", performed by Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanto ...

'' (Fish of Milk/Shock, 1998) * '' Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab'' (Fish of Milk/Shock, 2002) * ''

Photosynthetic Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in c ...

'' (Long Arms, 2003) * ''

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

'' (Fish of Milk/ReR Megacorp, 2007) live album, recorded on 15 February 2007 live in concert at the Riverway Arts Centre in Thuringowa City, Northern Queensland. * '' Live in Berlin'' (memory stick video, 2019)

Soundtrack albums

* '' The Boys'' (original soundtrack) (Wild Sound/MDS, 1998) * '' Strade Trasparenti'' (Staubgold/2011)

Other appearances

* "Royal Family" on ''Beyond El Rocco'' (Vox, 1993) – soundtrack to Kevin Lucas' documentary on Australian Jazz * "Chemist" (live performance) on ''Highlights From The ABC TV Series Studio 22'' (ABC Music, 2002) * "Hall" on split-single 7" with Hards-Ons (We Empty Rooms, WER#25, 2014) *''Drift'' project by Underworld (2018 - 2019) - appear on "A Very Silent Way", "Appleshine Continuum" and "Altitude Dub Continuum" * ''

Leaving Meaning ''Leaving Meaning'' (stylized as ''leaving meaning.'') is the fifteenth studio album by American experimental band Swans. It was released October 25, 2019 on Young God and Mute. A double album, ''Leaving Meanings songs have been mixed separately ...

'' by ''

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

'' (Young God & Mute, 2019) - appear on the songs "Leaving Meaning" and "The Nub"

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

(APRA). , - ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, , " Drive By" (

, Christopher Abrahams, Anthony Buck) , , Most Performed Jazz Work , , , - ,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, , "

" (Swanton, Abrahams, Buck) , , Most Performed Jazz Work , , , - ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, "Body" (Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck, Lloyd Swanton) , Song of the Year , , -

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...

. The Necks have won two awards from six nominations. , - , 1998 , ''The Boys'' , Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album , , - ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, ''Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab'' , Best Jazz Album , , - , 2004 , ''Drive By'' , Best Jazz Album , , - ,

, ''Mosquito/See Through'' , Best Jazz Album , , - ,

, ''Chemist'' , Best Jazz Album , , - ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, ''Silverwater'' , Best Jazz Album , , -

Helpmann Awards

The

Helpmann Awards The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. The annual awards recognise achievements in the disciplines of musical t ...

is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group ''Live Performance Australia'' since 2001. Note: 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. ! , - , rowspan="2",

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, ''FOOD COURT'' (with

Back to Back Theatre Back to Back Theatre is one of the leading contemporary Australian theater companies engaging with disability on stage. The company is based in Geelong, Victoria creating its work nationally and touring around the world. The work produced by the ...

) ,

Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work __NOTOC__ The Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia ...

, , rowspan="2", , - , ''FOOD COURT'' (The Necks, Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck & Lloyd Swanton) ,

Helpmann Award for Best Original Score The Helpmann Award for Best Original Score is a musical award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) at the annual Helpmann Awards since 2001. In the following list winners are listed first and marked in gold, in boldface, and the nominees ...

, , -

National Live Music Awards

The

National Live Music Awards The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse and successful live industry, celebrating the diversity and success of the Australian live scene – recognising the best vocal talents and musicians alongside ...

(NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016. ! , - ,

National Live Music Awards of 2019 The National Live Music Awards of 2019 are the 4th annual National Live Music Awards. The nominations were announced on 22 October 2020 and the awards ceremony was held on 4 December 2020. For the first time ever, all State and Territory catego ...

, The Necks , Live Jazz Act of the Year , , , -

References

External links

The Necks home page

– 25-minute performance for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

television in 2006. Includes MP3 and

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

.
The Necks performing at The Factory, Sydney in March 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Necks, The APRA Award winners ARIA Award winners Australian jazz ensembles Australian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1989 New South Wales musical groups Northern Spy Records artists Private Music artists