Clinkerfield
A Head Full of Rain And A Heart Full of Puddles
Green Media/ MGM


I have to say that I knew little about Clinkerfield prior to picking up this album, and I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting from the Melbourne 4-piece other than a cool CD cover to put on my shelf, but the CD inside that album cover actually turned out to be pretty good.

There's just something cool about a band that choose to record the album on which the rest of their careers will be judged by in a run-down farmhouse in central Victoria. From the muted opening chords of Rain In The Vein (in which you can actually hear rain on the tin roof of the room in which they're recording.) you are struck by the genuineness not only of the music but also the musicians playing it. This is obviously not a band to be constrained by genre but rather a group of musicians who go where the music chooses to take them, and the songs range from Tom Waits-inspired polkas to simple, violent folk songs strangely reminiscent of Nick Cave.

There is a dark, playful ambience to this album, very lo-fi in it's style but laced with intricacies and some truly mesmerising sounds, enhanced by the feeling of constraint created by some of the locales used to record the music. At times it can all sound a bit cheap, but the sheer musicianship of this band and their ability transport us into their world more than makes up for a few inconsistent production values. Let me assure you, by the time your ears are blasted by the solo in Bonnie Come And Save My Soul, you will know that this album is the sort of thing that might get stuck in the CD player rather than on your mantelpiece.

Dane Hirsinger