The Clean: Mister Pop

New Zealand's The Clean have been a casually wonderful band since the late '70s, with their wonderful pop songs, ragged approach and a minimal number of tracks needed or used in the studio. Guitarist David Kilgour was in issue #22 and initial tracking was by Gary Olsen at Marlborough Farms in Brooklyn (also in issue #22 oddly enough!). The liner notes are obscure, so I dropped a line to David: "Maybe only one initial track from Gary's made the cut, though we 'demoed' some ideas. Most recording was done in the basement of a small, old church hall in central Dunedin, NZ." NZ legend Tex Houston (see Tape Op book #1) mixed the album at his Dunedin home studio. Mastering was by Jeff Lipton at Peerless in Boston. The Clean can be catchy, funny and serious at the same time, like with "Are You Really On Drugs?" - or they can stretch out instrumentally (Velvet Underground-like), as on "Moonjumper". It's a band that doesn't have to be a band, yet they play at being a band so well. (www.mergerecords.com)