The Necks: Disquiet

No other act on the planet is experiencing a renaissance quite like The Necks. Whether it be from the vaults or their live performances across the globe, this decade has seen Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton and Tony Buck embark on their most active period in their 39-year existence as a trio.

The Necks have always enjoyed freedom of movement through the kind of improvisational intuition that almost has to be seen to be believed. Abrahams, Swanton and Buck ceaseless refiners of their craft, and together not only are they are a titan, but a true one-of-a-kind. If last year’s Bleed was The Necks delivering their brand of doom jazz in shorthand, then Disquiet is at the other end of the spectrum. It’s a tour-de-force. Their Anna Karenina.

In many ways, Disquiet is a celebration of the trio. A best of without being just that, and in a world where everything moves at speeds that the human mind simply isn’t designed to handle, it’s a brave move to release a musical voyage that commands a good proportion of one’s day (three hours and nine minutes to be precise, or 13.12 percent of the day for those who are into that sort of thing). It’s The Necks’ crusade again mass culture’s insidious trait for instant gratification, and while some may dismiss Disquiet purely by its duration, more than anything, it feeds into the punk ethos that The Necks undertake here.

It begins with Rapid Eye Movement, and as Abrahams gently works across the keys, suddenly a brooding portal opens for the listener to pass through. It’s heady, but despite its darkness, The Necks are unshackled by everything anything around them. Swanton’s bass is like an instruction from the abyss that echoes all the way into orbit, and as Buck’s drums grow louder like the footstep of a giant drawing closer, at the half-an-hour mark the composition unravels like the rumbling of an earthquake in slow motion.

What could have been split into three full-length releases alone, Ghost Net is the epic moment of 2025 that envelopes the world of improvisational composition. Like his performance on Bleed, once again Buck leads the line. Playing to three different click tracks during an hour and fourteen minutes, it’s The Necks making punk a sound rather than an idea or a way of life. Beginning with something akin to Lynchian lounge-jazz psychedelia, the trio’s wingspan reaches ridiculous new locales, as Ghost Net’s second stanza resonates with a kind of Bark Psychosis Scum vibe with new acidic inflections.

Causeway is yet another pivot. Beginning with subtle plinking that sets the kind of atmosphere situated at the heart of post-rock, Swanton’s bass line is like a stab through the dark as The Necks move into new, narcotic depths. Abrahams’ performance folds into Buck’s hard-hitting drum rolls, and as Swanton once again drops in with a thrumming bass line, it creates a tension likened to a heart exploding through the ribcage.

Final piece, Warm Running Sunlight, is somewhat more fractured. Buck and Swanton, combining for something that sounds like the framework to an Einstürzende Neubauten song. Completely untethered, and it’s this freedom that once again sees The Necks as close to the essence of punk as they’ve ever been. And from here, they continue to pull new tricks from the bag – this time with additional field recordings where chants and the sound of exotic animals revelling in their natural habitat stir under the mix of this intoxicating brew of doom jazz.

Meticulously shaped and designed to precision, on Disquiet, The Necks reveal every one of their personalities from their past, pulling them to new places within their sound world. It’s epic stuff, and as far as The Necks have ever travelled.

Given their live activity this decade, as strange as it sounds, Disquiet may be the first taste of The Necks on tape for some listeners, which is a feat in itself 39 years on from their debut, Sex. An ocean-sized adventure awaits these listeners, while those long-standing aficionados have an their own adventure of dissecting The Necks twentieth studio release. One that is perhaps their greatest accomplishment of all.

Disquiet is out now Northern Spy. Purchase from Bandcamp.