So I like The Necks very much. That much we know.

Very much an ‘always the same / always different’ sort of proposition, this is a group who seem so consistently able to find new ways to wring extraordinary sounds from the guts of their basic piano / bass / drums set up, it’s almost frightening - but for ‘Vertigo’ at least, the novelty arises initially from something more palpable. Namely, the fact that, after several decades of functioning as a natural ‘CD band’, it feels strangely perfect to actually have a Necks album whose two twenty minute-ish ‘sides’ are designed to fit so nicely on a vinyl LP. They’re moving (backward) with the times I guess. Kinda weird when you think about it, but hey – as long as rubes like me keep happily dropping twice as much for forty minutes of big plastic disc as we would for eighty minutes of little shiny one, you can’t fault ‘em on the economics.

Anyway, side # 1 kicks off in notably sinister fashion, with droning bowed bass rumble, cascading dissonant piano chords and short outbursts of falling-down-the-stairs drums gradually coalescing into a kind of fugue that puts me in mind of dark, nocturnal alleyways - towering tenement shadows, a distant moon stuck between vertical lines, enlivened by the occasional shock of crooks knocking over trash cans [uh, that’ll be the drums then – down-to-earth ed.].

Only after a good ten minute or so do some beautifully complete, melodic phrases begin to creep into Chris Abrahams’ trademark ‘falling raindrops’ piano runs, suggestive of peace and normalcy, reminding us that, onerous and threatening though it may be, this state of mild anxiety is a constant - as natural as any rainforest idyll.

Gradually – always gradually of course with these guys – knob-twisting, siren-like electronics start to slide in from god knows where and the piece develops into some kind of long-form crescendo, an extended string ‘suspense chord’ ringing out as if The Terminator just materialised in that same alleyway, before things fall away again to leave what sounds like a frantic, rotorblade tremoloed tape loop, over which the musicians continue to circle each other as if waiting to be the first to jump out and shout ‘boo!’

And, basically, I could carry on like this through ceaseless paragraphs of blather, but I don’t know exactly what that would prove. Suffice to say that, for the attentive listener, there a surprise round every corner on ‘Vertigo’, and we haven’t even got to side # 2 yet.

For what it’s worth, the second half is an inexplicably calming experience, despite the prominent presence of a continually repeated sound –courtesy of some of Tony Buck’s array of homemade percussion devices, I’d imagine – that puts me in mind of someone digging a grave in the centre of a cathedral in the dead of night, to say nothing of what I assume to be additional effects processing adding drifting clouds of distortion and artificial reverb. Oh, and there's a killer locked groove at the end as well. (I swear, the first time 'round, I listened for over five minutes before noticing anything was amiss.)

Where 2013’s ‘Open’ was a masterpiece of calm, there’s a heavy feeling of unease about this one that never really lifts, surpassing even the rattling urban chaos of 2011’s ‘Mindset’ (one of my favourite prior Necks discs) whilst still somehow remaining rooted in the organic rise and fall that they’ve made a career out of perfecting, even amid the jarring jolts, handbrake turns and abrasions.

Possibly not so suited for getting yr ambient groove on and dropping off to sleep as some older Necks outings then, but I increasingly feel like the group are at their strongest when working in this slightly more risk-taking and aggressive (relatively speaking) mood, making ‘Vertigo’ another unmitigated aural thrill ride for us of the sprawled-on-the-floor-eyes-closed-with-headphones set.

Listen & buy straight from the band via bandcamp.

Labels: best of 2015, The Necks