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| Pitchfork |
 Even among the topmost tier of hallowed indie rock labels, it's tough finding an imprint that's permeated underground music's subconscious as profoundly as Flying Nun. Founded in 1981, when punk's initial explosion was still ricocheting around globe, the Christchurch, New Zealand-based label put its faith in scrappy, locally grown pop-- music that was heavy on the jangly guitars, but generally low on polish, bands like the Clean, the Bats, the Chills, and the Tall Dwarfs.Virtually every decent guitar record pressed in the three decades since has owed some sort of debt to the Kiwi jangle pop-- see Galaxie 500's On Fire, Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted, or Yo La Tengo's Painful. I'm convinced that "Pink Frosty", from Fugazi's End Hits is a nod to the Chills' spooky post-punk classic, "Pink Frost", though I've never taken the initiative to verify it. (But, come on; listen to them back to back and tell me that they aren't similar.) More recently, bands such as Real Estate, Woods, Vivian Girls, and Crystal Stilts (basically, anything on Brooklyn-born record label Woodsist) have picked up the torch for the jangle-pop side of imprint's oeuvre. It would wrong to label it a revival, though. In 30 years, the Flying Nun sound has never slipped too far from the conversation. Tally Ho is Flying Nun's greatest-hits record, released partly to honor the label's 30th birthday. A 2xCD set, the compilation bundles together tunes from across the label's catalog, from late-1980s classics to material gleaned from more recent signings. Flying Nun is no stranger to comp records. The label has already gathered together its out-of-print singles (Where in the World is Wendy Broccoli?), lauded its contributions to the indie-pop landscape (Speed of Sound), celebrated at least three birthdays with label-history-spanning mix CDs (10th, 21st years) and, for the 25th anniversary, an exhaustive 4xCD box set....full text |
| Nzherald |
| In the past Flying Nun has released some top-notch compilations. The first, Tuatara from 1985, documented the early years of the fledgling label, in 1990 In Love With These Times showcased its growing diversity from the jaunty pop of the Bats' North By North to the dirge and groove of Bailter Space's Grader Spader, and the part-cover, part-original tracklist of 2002's Under the Influence was a fitting tribute for its 21st shindig. Greatest Bits, the 40-track compilation released to coincide with the label's 30th birthday, is similar to In Love With These Times, because it captures the catchy, ingenious and strange sounds of the roster. In the liner notes, founder Roger Shepherd says the songs on the first disc fit loosely into the pop category, and indeed tracks like Chris Knox's Not Given Lightly, George by the Headless Chickens, and The Chills' Heavenly Pop Hit were top of the pops in their day. The second is made up of those who "tested different boundaries". There is a particularly muscular, and sometimes extreme 12-song stretch that starts with the gloriously grinding pop of Snapper's Buddy and ends with the mangled math rock of the Subliminals' United State, with harrowing contributions from the Dead C (with the distant dissonance of I Was Here), the agitating majesty of the Skeptics' And We Bake, and HDU's searing Schallblute in between....full text |
| Insound |
| Flying Nun Records released The Clean's "Tally Ho!" single in 1981, and it soon became the rallying cry of a charge that still continues. Thirty years on, Tally Ho! seems a fitting title for what is the first "best of" compilation the label has ever put together. This two-disc set collects material that falls under the broad category of "pop music" as well as that which pushed boundaries and did not sit comfortably within the popular market. At the same time, the two discs overlap a great deal, and together they showcase an important and creatively powerful artistic output that remains relevant today. It's 30 years of Flying Nun's very own "greatest bits."...full text |
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