Look Blue Go Purple

Still Bewitched

FLYING NUN. CD/DL/LP Welcome return of Dunedin’s lesser-sung girl band. Auckland’s austere postpunks Marie & The Atom represented New Zealand women on Flying Nun’s defining 1985 compilation Tuatara, the year Look Blue Go Purple made their first record (they were included on the subsequent CD update). But hailing from NZ indie stronghold Dunedin meant LBGP’s soft-swirl jangle – a blueprint shared with early Chills – is more fondly remembered, even if the quintet’s split in 1987 before making an album did little to bolster their legend. With their democratically shared vocals mixed back into the instrumental mesh (where keyboardist Norma O’Malley’s flute added another lilting layer), the hazy, reticent mood of their three EPs tapped the plangent core of NZ ’80s indie. As Does The Sun (from debut Bewitched), Cactus Cat (LBGPEP2) and I Don’t Want You Anyway (from the posthumous This Is This) are all prime LBGP, while the eight unrecorded and previously unreleased live tracks confirm their strengths.