Album Details
Following on from the success of the ARIA Award-winning `Chemist', The Necks reset the bar again with the release of their new live album, `Townsville'. Fans worldwide of this extraordinary band who have been lucky enough to catch them live will know that no two Necks concerts are the same. For over two decades now, The Necks have been stepping on stage with absolutely nothing pre-arranged, yet managing to generate huge blocks of sound lasting for anything up to an hour. The miracle is that they are able to so consistently conjure music of such coherence and remarkable beauty. In `Townsville', recorded live in concert earlier this year at the stunning new Riverway Arts Centre in Thuringowa, Northern Queensland, we hear a piece that shimmers and coruscates in wave after wave for the best part of an hour. Many of The Necks' concert creations eventually shift into a discernable groove, but `Townsville' floats exquisitely in a state of suspended rhythm from start to finish. The effect is remarkably like watching waves crashing onto a shore, and manages to simultaneously convey serenity and purpose. Bassist Lloyd Swanton, who provided the motif which begins `Townsville', says he was as in the dark as the other two Necks that this was the direction the piece would take. "One of the deep joys for me, after twenty years of making music with this group, is that we're still completely unable to predict where our pieces will go. I think that's one of the things that our audience loves about The Necks.
