Look Blue Go Purple - Still Bewitched

The Quietus

Some philosophers purport that geographical isolation is a more fertile base for creativity than the bustle of a beehive of activity. Nothing suggests that to be true more than the revered outpost Flying Nun Records; a label with a back catalogue that’s arguably more of an indelible influence on the indie music of the last 30 years than anything that was coming out of the UK at the same time.

Cut off from their UK contemporaries in the first postpunk era, a group of New Zealand bands - many based in the South Island city of Dunedin - applied the self-sufficiency of punk and used it to write pop songs. Much like the UK indie pop scene of the mid- to late 80s, these bands were informed by the Byrds’ jangling guitars, 60s pop melodies and particularly the messy, light/dark dynamics of the Velvet Underground.

Generally, Flying Nun was very much a boy’s club: made up largely of bands with few or no female members, Look Blue Go Purple were the only all-female group on the label. This was something of a non-issue for the band and everyone involved at Flying Nun: women were active participants in a very creative and politically active era, charged with post-sexual revolution and determination to create anything but typical male music. Essentially, Flying Nun opposed the idea that gender had anything to do with rock ‘n’ roll, and rightly so.

Of course, amid a roster of bands with short and snappy, self-effacing names - The Bats, The Clean, The Great Unwashed, The Chills - Look Blue Go Purple were bound to stand out. Musically, they were not necessarily pioneers; they were informed by the women of UK punk - primarily The Slits and The Raincoats - whose influence was manifested in a shambolic approach to playing instruments, lyrical defiance and an unashamedly female take on pop music.

Their sound also focused on a type of gentle pop that the likes of the Chills became renowned for. Their punk spirit was manifested in their DIY ethos, while other bands - particularly The Clean - were much more musically indignant early on in their careers, utilising abrasion and chaos to denote a more overtly punk sensibility. Look Blue Go Purple were the band that defined Flying Nun’s softer, more ‘pop’ inclinations, something that’s seldom recognised among Flying Nun aficionados, presumably because their existence was rather fleeting in comparison to other bands on the label. They weren’t very prolific, and never released an LP, which prevented them from finding a foreign audience despite two of their three EPs reaching the New Zealand top 30.

Over time, however, Look Blue Go Purple have proved to be an important band of indie pop's golden age, boosted by a heightened interest in Flying Nun. Still Bewitched collates the group’s three EPs and unreleased live rarities, making it compulsory listening for Flying Nun obsessives and those who’ve yet to be acquainted.

The collection traces the group’s trajectory from start to finish, beginning with the staunch, simplistic post-punk of their first EP, which flirted with experimentation - see the whirling synths of ‘Safety in Crosswords’ and ‘Circumspect Penelope’ - and concluding with a folk-rooted, whimsical take on traditional pop music. ‘Cactus Cat’, their best-known song, gets tantalisingly close to guitar pop perfection, but the later version of the band expanded on their earlier propensity for experimentation: see the spoken word, new wave tribalism of ‘Hiawatha’ and the subtle, fluttering brass inclusions on ‘Winged Rumour’.

The seven previously unreleased live tracks here were handpicked by the band from their final years and showcase their effervescent live presence, but more noticeably, their rejection of complacency and refusal to settle on one sound. The Raincoats’ abstract influence is particularly prominent on ‘A Request’ while ‘Juxtaposition’ displays a tougher rockabilly quality and a brilliant repetitiveness that’s not unlike The Fall in their prime. The live recordings show Look Blue Go Purple at their best: playful, melodic, and far less timid than their recorded output would have you believe.

Still Bewitched demonstrates the group’s relevance in 2017: listened to out of context, you could be forgiven for mistaking Look Blue Go Purple for a new band and Still Bewitched as adhering to the indie pop formula rather than helping to create it. Through an emphatically lo-fi production, primitive instrumentation and a generally detached disposition, they envisaged the dominance of what the genre would eventually become. Make no mistake, Still Bewitched is a snapshot of New Zealand’s DIY scene of the 1980s and indie pop’s pinnacle. Look Blue Go Purple should now get the credit they deserve, and be remembered for what they are: vital proponents of a vibrant, inspirational scene that was, and still is, significant to many people.

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In the late 1970s, punk swept through the UK and washed away any remaining mop-top mods. In Dunedin, New Zealand—among the furthest possible cities from London—kiwi punks applied this self-sufficient ethos and wrote pop songs. Their lo-fi jangle pulled from the Byrds’ ’60s pop melodies, the psychedelia of Pink Floyd circa Syd Barrett, and the Velvet Underground’s corporeal dronings. It would be dubbed the historically influential Dunedin sound after a 1982 compilation from its most iconic label, Flying Nun Records. Two of the bands on that comp, the Chills and the Verlaines, along with their Flying Nun labelmates the Bats and the Clean, would come to define New Zealand’s mid-1980s indie rock scene. Amid all these humbly named acts, Look Blue Go Purple—Francisca Griffin (formerly Kathy Bull), Norma O’Malley, Kath Webster, Denise Roughan, and Lesley Paris—were bound to stand out.

Like their optimistic, kaleidoscopic moniker suggests, Look Blue Go Purple poured vivacity into a scene that was already chock full of cheery, sparkling songs. But unlike a majority of their peers, the quintet never released an LP, which prevented them from finding a foreign audience despite their mainstream success on the New Zealand pop charts. Still Bewitched, a recent compilation of Look Blue Go Purple’s three EPs and unreleased live rarities, promises to expose a new crowd to the band’s enchanting style.

After forming in 1983, Look Blue Go Purple debuted with a tight, distinct sound on 1985’s Bewitched EP. The five women fused the gentle guitar pop that was then well-established by their Dunedin/Flying Nun labelmates with the post-punk experimentation of the Slits and the Raincoats, and to a lesser extent, Swell Maps and Television. Three of Bewitched’s four tracks each focus on a different sound: the whistling synths of “Safety in Crosswords,” the new-age flute and staggered drumbeat of “Vain Hopes,” and the cloudy chill of “As Does the Sun.” But it’s “Circumspect Penelope” that gathers these elements together and affirms Bewitched’s pleasant distance. “She’s been waiting 20 years/And you just walk in/Telling stories of the sea/She should hate you, your Penelope,” the band bitterly scold The Odyssey’s titular character, whose wife has been waiting years for Odysseus’ return. Thanks to the crystalline sound of O’Malley’s organ, Webster and Roughan’s saccharine guitars, and the tight interplay between Griffin’s bass and Paris’ quick crashing drumbeat, Look Blue Go Purple’s condemnation is by far the poppiest, catchiest track on the EP. But their layered vocal harmonies seem to be the murmurs of sirens from a world beyond.

When Look Blue Go Purple returned the next year for LBGPEP2, the band shed their winter coats for a bright new life. A whimsical song like “Cactus Cat” would have been a shock on the staunchly post-punk Bewitched, but on the LBGPEP2 it feels right at home. “Cactus Cat”’s sun-streaked bubblegum style flows into “Grace,” a hypnotic, lilting tune about a girl whose beauty has faded from her namesake to something far more foul. “100 Times” and “Winged Rumor” recall Bewitched’s subdued mysticism thanks to the former’s hushed, airy chorus and the latter’s reverential flute. But the gossamer feel of both songs give way to a ramshackle groove, something Bewitched’s songs never achieved. The spoken-word incantation “Hiawatha” is the band’s most new wave song, though its punctuations of shrill synths and howls surpass in imagination anything their peers were making.

“Cactus Cat” in particular propelled LBGPEP2 to No. 26 in New Zealand’s pop charts in January 1987. The band used the track’s popularity to address a topic that had haunted their press. At the end of the song’s succulent-stocked music video, an anonymous interviewer queries whether there are any difficulties being a female band. “Only the presumption that it means something, that it’s a bunch of females together,” says Webster. “But we just happen to be five musicians who get on well and play music together but it can be a hassle.” Look Blue Go Purple never labeled themselves as feminist, nor was the content of their music remotely political. The only people who seemed to find the band’s gender worth noting was the media; players in the New Zealand indie scene considered it a non-issue. Women “were very active participants in a very creative and politically active era, charged with post-sexual revolution and determination to create anything but typical male music,” says the Chills’ Martin Phillipps. That said, “[It’s] rock’n’roll, gender has got nothing to do with it,” Griffin concludes in the video.

Shortly after the release of 1987’s This Is This, Look Blue Go Purple broke up to pursue other personal and professional ventures (notably, Paris became the manager of Flying Nun). The quintet’s final release is their most indie pop record, and echoed the concurrent work of England’s C86 bands like the Shop Assistants and the Pastels. The bouncy “I Don't Want You Anyway” makes rejection seem fun while the docile “Year of the Tiger” could be a Sarah Records cut. Perhaps because of its spare compositions, for the first time the band’s eloquent lyrics are placed in the limelight. “I’m a fool to believe in love and its channels/I’m a fool to believe in it at all,” Griffin sings on “In Your Favour.” But by the end of This Is This, Look Blue Go Purple fall into the same pattern as LBGPEP2 and return to the sleepy melancholy of their first EP.

Still Bewitched ends with seven unreleased live takes handpicked by the band from their final years—all originals except for an impassioned cover of folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Codeine.” The most intriguing of these are the funky sleuthing “Spike” and “A Request,” which show the Raincoats’ abstract influence more discernibly than any of their official releases. The inclusion of these tracks on the compilation is a refreshing peek at what Look Blue Go Purple sounded like in their prime: a little mythical, a little goofy, overflowing with wistful indie pop hooks and eloquence. Without Look Blue Go Purple, any definition of the Dunedin sound is insufficient.