Having been writing songs and performing them (solo and with bands) for over a decade, Clarkson's individual style is well honed indeed. Her music is strikingly original, the songs strong enough for numerous listenings. Previous albums give testament to this: her band Breathing Cage won the Rheineck Rock Award in 1989, resulting in the critically acclaimed Misericord album, and in 1993 Flying Nun released Packet, an excellent retrospective compilation of songs taken from Clarkson's solo album and Expendables releases.

A graceful singer, Clarkson is also a talented guitarist and Kindle is abundant with memorable guitar lines. The accompanying keyboards are simple yet effective, and the (perhaps unexpected) use of a drum machine varies from being humorous and cheesy on some tracks to surprisingly haunting on others.

The album begins with 'Wheeling', an infectious number which rolls along happily, and closes with the brooding and grandiose 'Absolute Poverty'. Lyrically, the songs often conjure up characters both displaced and ironical: there are whiskey priests, unforgiven clowns, nosy parkers.

Most of the songs on Kindle were composed in 1998. The home-studio manner in which the tracks were put down was a solitary process Clarkson chose and enjoyed. She mixed the songs with Chicken Jacques' Johannes Contag and Radio One's Evan Sunley-James. The CD is out now on Arclife, the non-profit label of Arc Cafe (http://coffee.co.nz). Kindle is the sixth release by Arclife; still available are the original Arc Music of Dunedin compilation, Mėstar Mėstar, Kitset Testpot, and Suka Spitwinterspit all from 1998, and the Arclife live compilation released in June 1999.

Kindle is being promoted live with an illustrious group of local musicians consisting of Kitset's Peter Hobbs on keyboards, Mink's Johannes Contag on 2nd guitar, Suka's Heath Te Au on drums and, recently returned from overseas, Tane Griffin on bass.

Jay Clarkson can be contacted through jayclarkson@hotmail.com