For their 19th album Travel – their first since Three, which was released just prior to the pandemic back in 2020 – Australia's mighty Necks have gone back to the principles that helped create what is perhaps their most critically and commercially successful album, the 2017 double Unfold. On that record, the trio chopped their (typically) hour-long, open-ended improvisations into shorter 20-minutes-or-so chunks; and so it is here, with four pieces across four sides of vinyl (or one CD).

The trio apparently began each day of recording this latest album with a 20-minute unplanned improvisation, and the tapes rolling. Bassist Lloyd Swanton says this mixture of improv and discipline has benefitted their music: “It's a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it.”

The title, Travel, is entirely appropriate, as each track constitues a musical journey (with the final destination uncertain, of course). Thus the opening ‘Signal’ begins with a compelling bassline, which is then explored over 21 minutes by Abrahams and Swanton; ‘Forming’ is a swirl of crystalline piano and shimmering cymbals, given tensile strength by Swanton's bass thrum; ‘Imprinting’ is built on a kind of stripped-back ‘tribal’ rhythm, spiked with guitar harmonics and electric piano runs; and the closing ‘Bloodstream’ is powered by an ominous, hanging keyboard motif.

The Necks' music is sometimes criticised for ‘not going anywhere’, but that is to miss the point. As ever, Travel – their best album since the aforementioned Unfold – is all about the journey, not the destination. Beautifully recorded and mastered, with packaging to match, this is well worth seeking out, especially on vinyl.