Look Blue Go Purple blossomed in Dunedin, New Zealand alongside many of the seminal Flying Nun bands (The Chills, The Clean, Bailter Space, etc.) of the mid-'80s. This quintet featured an impressive line-up of eccentric-pop ladies some of whom earned considerable credibility in their other projects. Denise Roughan went on to front the brilliantly shambolic 3Ds, Kathy Bull soon found herself on Xpressway and Norma O'Malley later founded Chug. But here in Look Blue Go Purple, the sound was very much of the quintessential bittersweet jangle-pop. Their strummed minor chords on multiple guitars gave further credence to the aphorism that everybody who bought a Velvet Underground album also started their own band. The vocal harmonies from Roughan, O'Malley and Kath Webster spiral around the rough and ready numbers float with an ethereal haunt that countered the laconic urgency of the arrangements. While Look Blue Go Purple were an all-women band and immensely inspired by the DIY prowess of The Slits and The Raincoats, they were irked to be lumped into the discourse of gender politics. No mere token chicks playing rock and roll with their boyfriends, Look Blue Go Purple were a great band that were prescient what came from Lush and Galaxie 500 and even the Ride-inspired shoegaze band Blind Mr. Jones (thanks to both bands exemplary use of the flute as an accompanying instrument).
The band produced three EPs for Flying Nun in the span of a couple years, then called it quits in 1988. All of the original EPs had become highly collectible; and this anthology marks their first collective return to vinyl.
