Pipe-eye - Inside/Outside (LP) - Cream Vinyl

Pipe-eye is Cook Craig’s playground away from the turbo-charged world of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and Inside/Outside is the release where that side project fully clicked into its own orbit. Issued on Flightless Records in 2019, it arrives like a private-press oddity that somehow slipped into the present day, equal parts whimsical and meticulous. The title tells you a lot. One half looks inward with clipped little themes and cosy textures, the other breathes out and lets the scenery roll by. It plays like a daydream with a map.

Craig is a Melbourne musician with a sharp ear for colour and space. Where King Gizz often blitzes, Pipe-eye lingers. Inside/Outside leans into short, largely instrumental pieces that feel purpose-built for a life lived among bookshelves, pot plants and sun-faded curtains. Keys wobble, guitars chime, bass lines bounce just enough to keep you shifting in your chair. The inside portion is all tidy vignettes that nod to vintage library music and lounge curios, though it never feels like a costume. Craig keeps the melodies clean and the arrangements unfussy, so the charm sits up front rather than behind a wall of concept.

Flip to the outside set and the palette subtly widens. You still get those concise runtimes and hummable motifs, but the mood tilts toward the horizon. There is a sense of air moving through the songs, a lightness that fits the title. He has a knack for building miniature worlds with only a few sounds at a time, then stepping away before the trick gets old. It’s a nice contrast to the cartoon skits and vocal goofs of Laugh About Life, the 2017 record that introduced a lot of folks to Pipe-eye. Inside/Outside feels like a response to that album’s loose humour, a way of saying the project can also live in a quieter lane without losing personality.

Part of the fun is how Craig frames melody. He likes singable lines, but he doesn’t push them with big choruses. Instead, he repeats a pattern just long enough to lodge it in your head, then pivots. It’s crafty, and it rewards repeat plays. If you’ve ever fallen for the dusty sparkle of old Italian soundtrack LPs or the soft-focus pop experiments of the late 60s and early 70s, you’ll hear kinship here, though the production is cleaner and the intent less arch. The pieces sit somewhere between cues and songs, which makes the record perfect for putting on at home and letting it tint the room.

As a player in King Gizzard, Craig has proven he can do polyrhythms and pedal-to-the-floor psych. Inside/Outside shows how dialled-in his taste is when he strips all that back. The album doesn’t chase big statements. It moves with small gestures that feel very human. That’s also why it suits vinyl. Sequenced as two distinct halves, it makes a lot of sense to hear the inside suite on one side, take a breath, then drop into the outside suite. If you’re browsing for Pipe-eye vinyl, this is the one that tends to hook people who think they only like the louder end of the Gizzverse. The Inside/Outside vinyl pressing on Flightless has become a bit of a talking point among local collectors, the kind of title you’ll spot behind the counter in a Melbourne record store when staff want something bright but unshowy.

For anyone looking to buy Pipe-eye records online, this album sits neatly alongside Cosmic Blip and Laugh About Life, and it helps complete the picture of where Craig was heading in the late 2010s. It’s also an easy recommendation if you’re piecing together a basket of vinyl records Australia wide and want something that plays well from morning coffee through to the last spin before bed. Pipe-eye albums on vinyl tend to vanish fast once a pressing wraps up, so it’s worth grabbing when you see a copy at a fair price.

Inside/Outside doesn’t try to reinvent anything. It sharpens a vibe, trusts brevity, and backs melody over muscle. That restraint is the point. Put it on and your place feels tidier, the light a touch warmer, the afternoon a bit more forgiving. Not many records can do that without raising their voice. This one does, and it keeps doing it long after the needle lifts.