Like the Living Theatre sitting in with the Magic Band throwing a rave, performances felt like open forums where anything could happen from chaotic confrontation to the opposite with moments of introspective beauty. Live performances were often unannounced and many times took place outside of the traditional venue system where the band would perform in public parks and rooftops. Sounds veered from the recognizable to the indecipherable, sometimes simultaneously. The recordings were puzzles unto themselves via the early non-idiomatic AMM meets the Arkestra throwdowns of Letters from the Earth to the melted hoedowns of later recordings that almost approached the blues of their name. The group appeared in the early 90s from the shadows of lower Manhattan at a time the underground was retreating from anything reeking of grunge and all its spawn to take cover in marginal musics such as free improvisation, 20th century composition, psychedelic rock, folk music from around the world, and music concrète. A singular entity, NNCK drew deeply from varied reference points to meet at a nexus where musical, artistic, literary, and performative impulses intersected. Shrouded in mystery, they championed improvisation as sound/action/thought as well as a seeming desire to perpetuate obfuscation via beautifully packaged records that arrived with little to no information as to the “hows” and “whys”. Anonymity and ambiguity reigned supreme. In this current era of hyper-accessibility and media oversaturation that the No Neck Blues Band (NNCK) ever existed at all feels like a waking dream.
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