Album cover for Time to Go - The Southern Psychedelic Moment: 1981-86. Photo / Supplied
Album cover for Time to Go - The Southern Psychedelic Moment: 1981-86. Photo / Supplied
Flying Nun regularly did very fine compilations in its original heyday - right from 1982's seminal Dunedin Double EP, through to the 1985 classic, Tuatara.
This 20-track retrospective, though, is more an archaeological dig of sound as it attempts some dot-joining between bands that mattered (the Clean, Chills, Gordons, amongothers) with the label's lesser lights of its formative years.
It comes with a past-is-a-different-country liner note essay by compiler Bruce Russell, which asserts the bands here were part of a post-81 tour and post-punk call to arms combined with a rediscovery of 60s psychedelia. All of which might be a bit of a long bow being stretched, especially given the Nunnery's largely apolitical songwriters.
But it's hard to fault Time to Go's eclectic and neatly remastered choice, which opts for a mix of forgotten obscure gems (the Playthings' scratchy Sit Down; the Builders' Russian Rug among them) with reminders of magic psychedelic pop moments (the Chills' Flamethrower; Sneaky Feelings' Not to Take Sides; Look Blue Go Purple's As Does the Sun, the Great Unwashed's Obscurity Blues).
It all makes for a diverting alternative take on the alternative label's early history.
