2017 marks 30 years of Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck and Lloyd Swanton – known collectively as The Necks – pushing the greater boundaries of their instruments and forming a fascinating hive mind that is able to build up empirical soundscapes from scratch.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of watching the trio in the live environment – from the corners of smoky jazz cafes right up to the illustrious theatres such as the one they inhabit this very afternoon – knows that no two Necks performances are ever even nearly the same. Coincidentally, it’s today when that is more pertinent a point than ever – the Drama Theatre is hosting the band for two back-to-back sets, with a further two scheduled for later in the evening.
At times, it genuinely gets to the point of fading in and out of consciousness.
As the lights dim and lead The Necks to their respective stations across the stage, one feels as though they’re getting in on the ground floor by attending the early performance – everything is fresh, in the moment and new, and it’s difficult not to see that as an exciting prospect considering the calibre of company this audience has found itself in.
The first set begins with Abrahams gently picking out piano notes, leading Buck to tend to a unique backdrop – not the drum kit, but a series of bells and chimes at his feet. Once Swanton creaks in with scarce, picked-out bass notes, the voyage is well and truly under way. Buck’s percussive drive adds a shimmering, shaky freeness to the performance’s exterior, while Abrahams slowly but surely builds up his playing to a grander and more intense scale. Their collective honing in on a single key is hypnotic – at times, it genuinely gets to the point of fading in and out of consciousness as the drone of the instrumentation flutters and groans.
After a brief intermission, it’s Swanton who begins set number two. This one appears to rely slightly more on jazz in a less avant-garde medium, but that in no way makes it any lesser to its predecessor. The scratch of Buck’s brushes against the snare adds a flutter to Swanton’s down-tuned double bass playing, which ranges from bellowing low notes to pitched harmonics chirping from the top end.
With a floor tom roll and a piano descent into burbling cacophony from Abrahams, the afternoon draws to a close. Ever humble, Swanton says only one thing: “Thank you very much.”
Photo: Camille Walsh Photography
The Necks played the Sydney Opera House on Sunday June 4.
