Unknown Conspiracy

Rip It Up, Issue 230, 1 October 1996, Page 12

Unknown Conspiracy

‘I married Isis on the fifth day of May, but I could not hold on to her very long I So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away, to the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong...’

When I learned the new album from 1 my dull little geekophile musiciologis together: Bob Dylan and the Clean — It was 16 years between Dylan playing his neoGuthrie folk in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and recording ‘lsis’ with its ‘unknown country’ line; it was also 16 years between the Clean testing the waters to crowds at Coronation Hall and then releasing an album called Unknown Country, Dylan was inspired by beatniks, the Clean wrote a song called ‘Beatnik’; both bands have dealt with a sadeyed lady, its just that Dylan’s one came from the Lowlands; the Clean recorded an obscure song called ‘Mudchucker Blues’, Dylan recorded an obscure song called ‘North Country Blues’ (everyone knows there’s lots of mud to be chucked in the North Country); Dylan recorded in Richard Nixon’s America, the Clean recorded in Roger Nixon’s dining room. I felt so proud of myself to have discovered this great mystery in the evolution of rock ’n’ roll (it’s sitting around finding these things out which makes me a geekophile and prevents me from roller-blad-ing around Oriental Bay with the ‘in crowd’). But care I not for the slings and arrows of the ‘in

he Clean was titled Unknown Country : mind went into overdrive. It all fitted a conspiracy discovered.

crowd’, I had my knowledge and by God, I was going to confront David Kilgour with it. I knew the secrets he, brother Hamish and Robert Scott had been keeping all these years, the secret that they had been in cahoots with Mr Zimmerman and were not only members of Flying Nun’s flagship band — catalysts for musicians from Southland, New Zealand, to Stockton, California, to form their own rock ’n’ roll combos — but they were also leaders of the 1960 s folk explosion in America. ‘Hal,” I thought to myself, rock and investigative journalism, I felt like Woodward and Bernstein combined...

Okay, Mr Kilgour, what’s the beef? What’s with Unknown Country? Are Kilgour, Kilgour and Scott really Peter, Paul and Mary? To my surprise/disappointment/amazement David was not aware that ‘unknown country’ was a line from a Dylan song (I didn’t press him on being a member of the 1960 s folk rock movement). “It was actually Hamish who came up with the title, so I guess you’d have to ask him what it

means. But I think it is about moving into new territory, doing something new and unknown to us,” says David. Unknown in some respects — to use the term ‘experimental’ may give the impression the Clean have gone down the Phillip Glass road, which is not the case, but there are a few journeys into uncharted waters: song snippets such as the dreaming-in-quicksand waltz of ‘Tweezer’, or the mandolinfuelled Internationale of ‘Balkans’. I put it to David that for fans who associate the Clean with pop songs as glorious and minty-fresh as ‘Getting Older’, ‘Billy Two’ or ‘Draw(ing) to a (W)hole’, the idea of the Eastern ravaged soundscape. of mandolins might seem a bit foreign (in both senses). “We were as surprised as anyone with how some of the songs ended up. I don’t know if it will be everybody’s cup of tea, but I really like it. It’s ended up how I thought Modern Rock (the previous Clean album, released in 1994) was going to sound, but instead it took one direction and this took another.”

Still, there are plenty of Clean-esque pop songs to keep the faithful skipping the streets from morning to night: ‘Clutch’ is another display of Robert Scott’s mastery of the sub-three-minute genre, bouncing like a Morrie on the highway; ‘Chumpy’, which grooves like a dune buggy full of Martian teenagers — Space Age surf pop; and ‘Twist Top’, another keyboard-led probe into the world of heavenly pop, where the Clean once again team up with fellow Flying Nun stalwart Martin Phillipps. But wait. Like all the other musico-geekophiles I rushed for the sleeve credits thinking I didn’t remember seeing Mr Phillipps’ name mentioned beside the track listing, only to discover he went by the name of Buzz — a hark back to the old days when seven-inch singles were thrown about at parties, not kept in glass cases. It does make you wonder about the musical relationship with the buddies in crime, and what chemistry exists when the likes of Phillipps and members of the Clean get together. “We’ve been playing together for so long it’s possible to just pick up our instruments and be basically on the same wavelength. I don’t know if the writing comes as easily, but we tape everything and see how it works out.

“We record everything quickly, this album especially so because Hamish had to go back to the States. Usually we’ll record the track and then put the vocals over the top, it becomes a bit of a race for the microphone, which I’m last to, but everything’s done quickly to try and keep the freshness.” Which brings me to my favourite track, the breezy yet mysterious ‘Franz Kafka at the Zoo’. The title may give the impression of East European doom and gloom, Wim Wenders and sideways

looks, but the song is less Kafka and more CS Lewis, a musical fantasy offering a more rosy sequel to ‘The Murder Mystery’, in which Hamish narrates a host of literary characters over a lush soundscape. It is this comfortable ability to create something new and exciting to the listener, while still satisfying their own creative instincts, that lets the Clean get back together for these occasional musical journeys. Because of that, and experience, the band have done away with much of the pressure that would normally be placed on them by both themselves and the waiting public. “We’ve revived the Clean as a unit because we feel at ease working together and we can do really whatever we want to. We all have other bands and projects, the Clean is a side project now, which is great because, for us, it lets us explore another part of this thing called rock ’n’ roll." That thing called rock ’n’ roll will take Hamish back to New York, where he plays and records with his American-based band, Mad Scene; Robert is working on a new Magick Heads album; and David is due to record another solo album to follow the others. Unknown Country is the second of a three-album deal between the Clean and Flying Nun; David says the next album would ideally be recorded more slower, with the band taking a month or two to write before laying down the tracks. Whatever the method, the Clean will continue to inspire us for some time to come. But if you listen to Hamish’s lyrics for ‘Twist Top’ (a fantastic song that’s beginning to sound more like a New Zealand version of a New York era Lou Reed tune with each listening), one might get the impression he is less fond of us than we are of him. Check the line: ‘Three-million people can be wrong...’ Is that about us? David: “I’m not sure, you’d have to check with Hamish, but it could be some nod towards a certain part of the New Zealand psyche. He also says there are about three-million people living on Manhattan Island, so it could be about them.” Hey, let’s stop worrying about our own shortcomings. The future’s getting close. As the election is approaching, I ask David who will get his two ticks. “Jim,” he says. “Which one?,” I ask. “Oh, Anderton, I don’t think about the other one. Jim’s okay, I think he’s a socialist at heart. And besides, there's rock ’n’ roll in his family.” Rock ’n’ roll politics and MMP, perhaps the Clean really are in alliance with Bob Dylan, ’cause whatever happens, the times, they are a changin’.

JESSE GARON