Skip to content
Premieres

Stream the Necks’ ‘Open’: One 68-Minute Track of Transcendent Ambient Jazz

The Necks 'Open' Album Stream

Australian slowpoke-jazz cult heroes the Necks have been creating mesmerizing, slowly unraveling improv for 25 years, but have enjoyed a recent revival thanks to some rare Stateside gigs, a Nick Cave co-sign, and a living legacy in bands like Bohren and der Club of Gore and Dale Cooper Quartet. Their 17th record, Open, their first in a partnership with NYC label Northern Spy, is a beaming, wall-to-wall gorgeous 68-minute journey of haunting mosquito buzzes, cymbal washes, nail-biting drum rolls, jingling chimes, and pianos that resonate and chime. With the speed of sunlight moving across a field, it’s jazz for Eno heads, ambient for improv fans, and a mollasses-slow chillout that works like sludge metal (only friendlier). Get lost in the whole thing below, and pick it up on Northern Spy on October 29.

The streaming period has ended for this release.