No Neck Blues Band - Ever Borneo! LP+7"
(Seres/Sound @ One)
If there's one thing that the No Neck Blues Band definitely knows how to do, it is crank out material at a pretty crazy rate. This is something that they've demonstrated time and time again over the length of their career so far. Despite that sort of past output, it's been a little while since they've decided to officially release anything. Last year's bootleg LP Re: Mr. A. Fan excluded, their last release was Sticks and Stones... a few years ago. The band has played around in NYC at about the same pace as usual as they have continued to work on their groove to the best of their abilities. Returning to vinyl, the band has come up with a relatively short album spanning a number of different styles. Rather than stick to their predominant formula of the past that has been to crank out releases full of long, jam-filled explorations, the band has sandwiched numerous short musical excursions between a couple of longer pieces this time out. The results are quite nice.
"Twinkle" starts the album off with a bang. The communal percussion, sounding not too far unlike a late-night drum circle, grooves away in the background while some funky keys are laid over the top of the mix. From time to time a horn or whistle will also filter in and help fill out any excess space. About half way through the track, pretty much everything fades away except for the keyboard work and central drums. This atmospheric jam works, minimalist or not. The extremely brief "Second Columbus Pt 1" follows and it continues within the bands overwhelmingly percussive blueprint for success. The ringing of metal on metal occasionally pierces the rhythm, but the beat remains the same. The tempo quickly changes on "Bluecraft" where a catchy guitar riff drives the moment forward. This is one moment where some of the shorter tracks on this LP indicate perhaps an excess of editing. Standing at a hair over two minutes, the track is really hitting its stride when it ends. Perhaps the band wished to borrow a page from the less-is-more book of philosophy, but, even at three or four minutes in total length, the track would have been far from being too long. Such a minor complaint. "Ever Borneo!," the longest track from the first side of the LP, simmers along for a while at a very slow boil before fully emerging. The tracks steady percussive element slowly begins to fragment and form a more and more elaborate rhythm. The A side finishes off with another brief take, "Accepting the Gift and Gently Saying Goodbye." It is a short excursion that is reminiscent of some of the milder intermediate grooves from such past albums as ...Ken's Electric Lake and The Birth of Both Worlds—open, low-key and largely free.
The album's B side starts off with the noisy and eclectic "And Here is Your Key." With lots of banging and gonging sounds, it sounds as if the band is holed up in a kitchen somewhere rather than in any sort of position where they could record themselves. This banging and gonging flows directly into "Future Master" and the pace slows down almost immediately. Layered electric guitars and low chanted vocals help build this track up from a low drone into an electronic storm by the time that it reaches its frenzied conclusion. There are moments in this one that get quite intense. "Second Columbus Pt 2" follows the album's overwhelming trend and settles into the quasi-tribal realm where this band so often dwells. An effect-drenched guitar eventually joins in the fray here, competing with the wavering vocals for the listener's attention. The album wraps up with "Tacomind," a six minute excursion to the outer-reaches of No Neck territory. From whistles to gongs, chorus-like squealing human voices to tribal drums, just about everything from the band's repertoire is involved here. The tracks moves from an early cacophonous beginning into an orderly beast that shakes and shimmies along, daring you to quit paying attention. A definite standout track and a great one to end the album on.
Lastly, in a statement that is old hat for NNCK releases, this LP is a physical item of beauty. The folks at Seres have done a fantastic job on packaging, forming the LP sleeve with the sort of cloth binding seen on hardbound books. Both sides also feature heavy embossing onto the cloth, with one of the sides also displaying inset full-color artwork. In addition to the LP of Ever Borneo! (s@1 #60 for those of you keeping track), the sealed records also come packaged with one of two different "related" 7"s. The choices, 7"s by either Mount Analog or Hog's Hole, both feature many of the NNCK players in addition to some members of Sunburned Hand of the Man.
The No Neck Blues Band has delivered yet another slice of their characteristic free-wheeling vibe in Ever Borneo! While it's hard to exactly pinpoint what sort of music it is the bad is putting out (Is it from a drum circle? Is it the communal spirit that the Dead, Fahey and others have always been chasing? Is it just noise?), for those who are initiated and into their output this new LP represents another chapter in the ongoing tale. The mix of so many shorter tracks amidst longer ones is something that the band has not done in a while and it provides a different feel for the band. These shorter escapades are fun and interesting, but the band's strength still lies in their extended jams. Word has it that they'll be releasing yet more albums soon. Let the tide never end.
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