Album: The Necks <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Chemist, RER

This latest album from the Australian improvising trio breaks with their habit of recording single hour-long pieces that unfold slowly like a flower to reveal the beauty within, in favour of three tracks of roughly 20 minutes apiece. As bassist Lloyd Swanton explains: "These pieces are calculatedly different, and the contrast is important." Which doesn't mean they've turned folk, or mod, or that the contrast is striking: they're still operating in the territory where Reichian minimalism meets the chamber jazz of Eberhard Weber and the unhurried patternings of Morton Feldman, with waves of piano rippling over a loping 7/8 groove set in a bed of organ and guitar noise on the opener "Fatal". Its expansiveness is contrasted by the bricolage of electronic tones that announce "Buoyant", with piano and then bass imparting greater volition before a more urgent drum groove helps it coalesce. Finally, "Abillera" opens with three minutes of solo double bass, before piano, guitar and drums build up a subtle undertow. The perfect meditative music for these hot summer days.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Fatal', 'Buoyant', 'Abillera'