ALBUM REVIEW: The Necks – Travel

Northern Spy

Released: 24.02.23

For most of their 35 year career, Necks albums were just one track, exercises in exquisitely sustained tension. With 2017’s Unfold, they shifted to shorter pieces, still built around their simple but endlessly malleable bass/drums /piano setup. And so it is with Travel, their Northern Spy debut.

Built from a series of daily improvisations, it’s also one of their best yet. Opener Signal pulses like Rhythm & Sound, the piano riding the dubby rhythm. Forming is more fractured, a skittering dialogue between the trio. The organ on Imprinting adds to the In A Silent Way vibe, although with a little more menace and closer Bloodstream feels like the extended intro to something epically prog. This is deliciously deep listening and its definitely worth your time.