Claypipe - Sky Wells

NZ underground mainstays Anthony Milton and Clayton Noone return with the first Claypipe record in seven years and remind us once again that the water running the other way down there is not without wider significance. Sky Wells sounds distinctly tied to the lathe culture that defines a huge swathe of NZ music and creative approach, yet it's experimental nature is also adjoined to often very accessible and melodic sensibilities. There's keening and nagging songs buried just one layer beneath a gentle fog of woody creaks, natural world hiss and haunted drones, always brought back to an emotional centre via the human voice. Flying Nun and, particularly, Xpressway have form for this kind of thing, and you can certainly hear the ghosts of This Kind of Punishment and The Cakekitchen's atonal lullabies, while the folk communals of, conversely, both Pumice and that recently reissued Jay Clarkson album both come to mind at various points. No doubt that Milton and Noone are making experimental music here, but it's rare you hear it communicated with such an obvious human touch, the world they've created feeling both intimate and alien. More vital action from C/Site. Edition of 200.