Thursday 7 March 2024

In Love With Those Times (Flying Nun Records 1981–1988)

 


This compilation was inspired by the excellent Matthew Goody book, "Needles and Plastic: Flying Nun Records, 1981–1988", which goes into great detail about every Flying Nun release from the years 1981 to mid 1988. All artists on this compilation are featured in the book. Finding some of the more obscure releases did prove quite difficult. I managed to find online some vinyl rips of singles/EPs which have never been reissued by the label. Big thanks go out to 'thehappyone' for some of those rips, especially the releases by Ritchie Venus & The Blue Beetles and Marie and the Atom. A handful of the vinyl rips I'm also responsible for. A few of these more obscure releases have been reissued on other labels, or self-released, such as the EPs from Vibraslaps and Phantom Forth. Other artists such as Mainly Spaniards & Scorched Earth Policy have released anthologies from which the respective tracks have come from, though some of these have been brickwalled to hell! Scorched Earth Policy probably the worst offenders here...

Among the better-known artists who have appeared on several Flying Nun compilations, I have selected a few personal favourite songs that have not been featured before on those comps. Hard to believe that one of The Clean's finest songs, "Anything Could Happen", has never appeared on any of these comps, apart from the couple of band anthologies released so far. This compilation has been a real labour of love, spending several weeks trying to find these very rare releases. Some I really would love to find some day, for example: The Jumblies – "Stuff Of Dreams", Spines – "Idiot Sun", 
Not Really Anything – "Watched a World" and The Moas – "Spaz Out!"

There are some releases I did track down which I haven't included on this compilation, due to my personal dislike of them. I had the sole album by The Fold many years ago, really could not get into it, selling it soon after purchase. Listening to them just recently my opinion of the band hasn't changed at all. You also won't find here Netherworld Dancing Toys, Stiff Herbert and a few others which can be found in the book. One small surprise (for me anyway) was including a track from the much derided 2nd Gordons album. Notoriously difficult to find a copy, with good reason. It really isn't very good! Listening to it just recently though, it isn't almost as awful as I remember it, and included here is one of the better tracks.
Note: Axemen - "Womin of Love" isn't a bad rip, that's exactly how it sounds on the album! This is also one of the more listenable tracks on that album so you got off lightly...

I hope you enjoy my latest Flying Nun compilation, as ever origin of each track & year of release is tagged in the music files and in the download file. Cheers!


Disc 1:
  1. Crystal Zoom - Dunedin Sound on 45 (3:26)
 
2. The Pin Group - Columbia (3:52)
 
3. Die Bilder - Girl at Night (3:12)
 
4. Vibraslaps - Crooked Lines (2:56)
 
5. The Clean - Anything Could Happen (2:35)
 
6. Ritchie Venus & The Blue Beetles - Bleeding Heart (3:29)
 
7. Fetus Productions - Fetus Productions (4:43)
 
8. The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Fish in the Sea (3:28)
 
9. The Exploding Budgies - See You Around the Stones (3:12)
10. The Verlaines - Phil Too? (4:36)
11. Alpaca Brothers - It's No Joke (4:07)
12. Peter Jefferies & Jono Lonie - Thief With the Silver (2:04)
13. Marie and the Atom - Orange Towel Song (3:18)
14. Mainly Spaniards - Secretaries' Lunch Break (3:29)
15. Scorched Earth Policy - Sunset on the Loading Zone (3:23)
16. All Fall Down - Actifed Blues (4:27)
17. The Stones - Funky Conversations (3:36)
18. Ballon d'Essai - Testimony to Paradise Street (4:01)
19. Expendables - Say Cheese (3:03)
20. Gordons - Joker (2:36)
21. The Orange - No Reason to Hide (3:01)
22. The Rip - River / Chasm (3:45)
23. Bird Nest Roys - Joringel (3:18)

Disc 2:
  1. The Chills - I Think I'd Thought I'd Nothing Else to Think About (2:06)
 
2. Bailter Space - El Whizzo (And Then) (4:58)
 
3. This Kind of Punishment - The Men by the Pool (3:24)
  4. The Great Unwashed - Born in the Wrong Time (2:16)
 
5. The Max Block - Came in a Can (2:55)
 
6. Jay Clarkson - Penelope (4:28)
 
7. Look Blue Go Purple - 100 Times (2:36)
 
8. This Sporting Life - Difference (2:52)
 
9. Tall Dwarfs - Carpetgrabber (2:03)
10. Able Tasmans - I See Now Where (1:59)
11. Axemen - Womin of Love (2:29)
12. DoubleHappys - Moss Monster (3:16)
13. Phantom Forth - March (3:54)
14. The Terminals - Turning Every Word Around (3:18)
15. Sneaky Feelings - Everything I Want (3:43)
16. Eight Living Legs - Don't Do That Near Me (4:27)
17. Goblin Mix - Coleridge (2:58)
18. Dead Famous People - Take Your Leather Jacket Off (3:05)
19. Naked Spots Dance - Governed by You (2:35)
20. Children's Hour - Slaughter House (4:11)
21. Straitjacket Fits - All That That Brings (4:12)
22. Graeme Jefferies - Prisoner of a Single Passion (4:42)
23. Headless Chickens - Run, Sheep, Run (4:04)
24. The Bats - Round and Down (2:17)

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