Depending on how you read it, legendary New Zealand rock trio The Clean have worked collectively together during four phases in their 23-year history, or the members sometimes pursue and explore other aspects of their creativity, using The Clean as a springboard into those individual areas.

In any case, singer/songwriter/bassist Robert Scott(also of The Bats, The Magick Heads, solo, and of his new band Harmonic Deluxe), guitarist David Kilgour (also of his own band David Kilgour And The Heavy Eights), and drummer Hamish Kilgour (also of The Mad Scene and Bailter Space) have recorded a new studio album in Dunedin and Auckland.

Titled ‘Getaway’, the LP will be released this year by Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Merge Records for the US, Matador Europe for the UK & Europe and by the band’s long-time label Flying Nun Records in New Zealand/Australia.

The album recordings took shape over the extended visit by resident New Yorker Hamish, when the band were invited to perform at the Dunedin Sound Expo during October last year.

Along with a magical set at Sammy’s in Dunedin, The Clean travelled up to Auckland and performed two packed nights at the Kings Arms, along with a pit-stop in Hamilton. A couple of shows at Bar Bodega in Wellington went down a treat - bar owner Fraser McGuiness had demanded a visit from the only Flying Nun band who hadn’t yet passed through his doors!

There seemed to be plenty of days in and around these gigs that had been left free for potential Clean recording time...which is just what they did.

The Clean's pre-eminent place in Flying Nun lore comes down to two factors — their unchallengeable position as The Band That Started It All 15 years ago, and the group's absolute dedication to free-flowing chemistry and musical experimentation in the pursuit of creating incredible records. The importance of the former and the influence of the latter over a huge stream of musicians in New Zealand and around the world ever since cannot be under-estimated.

No other Flying Nun band has thrown so much variety at a tape recorder and seen it all stick. First time round, between 1981 and 1983, The Clean gave us the two EPs, Boodle Boodle Boodle and Great Sounds Great, two singles, Tally Ho and Getting Older, and a slew of odditties that eventually appeared on the perfectly titled release of the same name. A decade later, they were back together at their cruisiest best for the album Modern Rock, and in 1996, Flying Nun unveiled The Clean's musical adventure into Unknown Country.

The Clean have proven themselves masters of musical innovation, three guys who can only amaze when they come together and throw all their ideas down on tape.

And as a mood of supreme grooviness is all pervading on Getaway, The Clean can be found at their most timeless in 2001.

Hamish, his brother David and Robert Scott found plenty of instruments to play themselves, while Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo – who were also attending the Dunedin Sound Expo, contribute drums and guitar on two of the tracks found here.

The band has the magic and the quality of heart that makes this music worthwhile. For those of us who've grown with all this, The Clean, late in the afternoon, late at night, or first thing in the morning, sound...elemental.

The Clean story is on-again off-again purely by design — it suits The Clean's creative desires and keeps them clear of the machinery that threatened to interfere with that process from the moment they threatened to get awfully popular awfully quickly 20 years ago. This latest chapter is the most interesting yet.