| Vertigo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 30, 2015 | |||
| Recorded | 2015 | |||
| Studio | Studios 301, Sydney, Australia | |||
| Genre | Improvised music | |||
| Length | 43:57 | |||
| Label | Fish of Milk FOM00017 Northern Spy NS 067 ReR Megacorp RER NECKS 11/12 | |||
| Producer | The Necks | |||
| The Necks chronology | ||||
| ||||
Vertigo is an album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks first released on the Fish of Milk label in 2015 in Australia, on ReR Megacorp in Europe, and on the Northern Spy label in the US. [1] [2] [3] [4]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 79/100 [5] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10 [6] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |   [7] |
| Allmusic | [8] |
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, awarded the album a score of 79, based on 7 reviews which is considered as "Generally favorable". [5]
Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin said the album "often finds the trio at their finest, delighting in their instrumental ideas like they’re dancing" and stated "Though the Necks occasionally slip into predictability across this session, Vertigo epitomizes their career-long unpredictability, or their ability to start at one point and arrive somewhere entirely unexpected. Vertigo is a minor Necks record, destined to stand forever in the shadow of the 2013 opus Open . But, after a quarter century, the trio’s explorations still sound as ecstatic as they do limitless. That, at least, is another minor miracle". [6]
In JazzTimes Mike Shanley noted "Vertigo, presents a streamlined performance by the trio, since it fades out after 43 minutes. At the same time, they use the shorter length to toy with their usual minimalist approach". [9]
Tiny Mix Tapes' Simon Chandler observed "Vertigo somehow manages to absorb for its entire running time. ... the beauty of Vertigo is that they take her nowhere. For all their passages through sustained hums, tinkling waves, jittery guitars, and unfathomable bass, their only destinations are yet more points of departure" [7]
Thom Jurek reviewed the album for Allmusic explaining "Vertigo is a dark, brooding, sometimes dissonant -- and occasionally explosive -- outing. The 43-minute work is informally split into movement-like halves, though its sense of fluidity is constant, no matter what arises in the proceedings -- and there is plenty. Vertigo's guidepost is a single drone that runs throughout, allowing the musicians a centering device for their various rounds of improvisation and interplay". [8]
Spin reviewer Colin Joyce commented that "There’s anxiety and ecstasy in equal measure across the single 44-minute track, piano parts that repeat and intersect with the heartbeat throbbing basslines the cicada roars of cymbal rolls. These are the parts that should, in theory, coalesce into shapes and patterns that feel familiar, but the Necks are true trance soul rebels, dizzy abstractionists bent on meditative delirium — the sort of frazzled centered headspace you settle into after sitting and thinking for far too long. It’s even freer than free jazz, equally likely to open your mind or make you totally disassociate". [10]
Paste's Dave Cantor wrote "It shimmers and drones, and it never seems to end. Necks’ latest outing, Vertigo, posits that a 40-plus minute track can still seem lean, despite an array of the composition’s sections unloosing stuff as unrelated as sci-fi whirring and a batch of key-plunking that sounds like it might emanate from underwater". [11]
Composed by Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck and Lloyd Swanton
The Necks are an Australian avant-garde jazz trio formed in 1987 by founding mainstays Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. They play improvisational 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 as "one of the top 20 avant albums of 2017."
Boris is a Japanese experimental music band formed in 1992 in Tokyo and composed of drummer Atsuo, guitarist/bassist Takeshi, and guitarist/keyboardist Wata. All three members contribute vocals. Boris has released more than twenty studio albums on various labels around the world, as well as a wide variety of live albums, compilations, EPs, singles, and collaborative albums. They have collaborated with acts such as Sunn O))), Merzbow, Keiji Haino, and guitarist Michio Kurihara.
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Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I is the sixth full-length studio album by the band Earth, released on Southern Lord Records. Cello is introduced as a new instrument, along with the usual ones being used since the album Hex. Dylan Carlson describes the album as more melodic and riff oriented. The second part of the album was released in 2012. The album illustrations were created by Stacey Rozich.
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Who Is the Sender? is the fifth studio album by English singer, pianist and songwriter Bill Fay, released by Dead Oceans in April 2015 by Dead Oceans. The second album track, "War Machine", was released in February 2015. The closing track, "I Hear You Calling ", was originally recorded for Fay's 1971 album Time of the Last Persecution.
Primrose Green is the second studio album by American musician Ryley Walker. It was released in March 2015 under Dead Oceans Records.
Luminiferous is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band High on Fire, released on June 23, 2015, through Entertainment One Music. The album was produced by Kurt Ballou who handled production on the band's previous release, De Vermis Mysteriis (2012). The gap between these albums is the longest for High on Fire.
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Grief's Infernal Flower is the third album by American doom metal band Windhand. The album was released on September 18, 2015 via Relapse Records. It was named the 17th best album of 2015 by Consequence of Sound.
Modern Lore is the fifth studio album by American jazz guitarist Julian Lage which was released in February 2018 by Mack Avenue Records.
The Other Side is an album by pianist Tord Gustavsen 's Trio released on the ECM label in 2018.
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Body is an album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks first released on the Fish of Milk label in 2018 in Australia and on the Northern Spy label in the US.
Unfold is an album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks first released on the Ideologic Organ label in 2017 as a double LP and download.
Three is the twenty-first studio album by Australian improvised music trio The Necks released in 2020.
Occasional Rain is a 1972 studio album from American musician Terry Callier. Released by Cadet Records, it is Callier's second album and the first in the trilogy that he recorded in short succession for Cadet with producer Charles Stepney. It has received positive critical reception.
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