10 The Necks

The Boys

WILD SOUND, 1998

You say: “On a par with the Kronos Quartet scoring Requiem For A Dream.” Michelle @shellinthesky, via Twitter

The sheer durational heft of most Necks tracks can be daunting; their shorter pieces usually clock in around 20 minutes. For that reason, this soundtrack to a chilling Australian thriller might be a decent place to start, with seven tracks and a couple of them clocking in under four minutes. Longform intensity is missing, of course, but the three passes at the main theme are especially good illustrations of the trio’s gift for noir-ish unease, and of a regular Chris Abrahams studio trick – stately piano lines overdubbed with crepuscular organ. 1990’s Next also features shorter tracks and is a real outlier, with limber punk-funk (the title track) and a Gil Evans gravitas to the horn-assisted standout, The World At War.

9 The Necks

Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab

FISH OF MILK, 2002

You say: “Particularly wonderful, but that could be because it cost me a fortune to locate and import.” Paul Simpson @MrPaulSimpson1, via Twitter

The revelation of a Necks live performance can never be recommended enough, and many bootlegs circulate on the internet: aBBC Radio 3 session with radical saxophonist Evan Parker is well worth hunting down. Of their official live releases, the very approachable Piano Bass Drums (1998) and Townsville (2007) are great, but this 4-CD box is the one: a study in how the trio guide recurring tropes into infinite new shapes, night after night. Start with Athenaeum, and hear them travel from lyrical elegance to somewhere abstracted and dissonant, with such ease you’ll barely notice the transitions.