The importance of the New Zealand’s Flying Nun label has been quite fairly recorded, particularly through the works of such seminal bands as The Chills, The Clean, The Bats and some not so widely known as, for example, 3D’s.
The label came out with quite an extensive catalog of 500 titles - albums, EP’s, singles, even an odd cassette here and there. These days though, if you want these, you’ll need to search the cut-out bins (if you are extremely lucky), or more probably, collector’s shops and sites and will have to fish out some serious cash.
Luckily, the Flying Nun label has been revived, and it has started a reissue program. While to the knowledgeable collectors some of these re-issues are quite obvious the solo /Bressa Creating Cake/ album from 1997 might be a slight surprise.
I have to confess to being a Flying Nun aficionado myself, but the one slipped by me the first time around. Listening to this renewed, extended version (five additional tracks to the original 15), I realize that a great band slipped by almost everybody, except maybe in their native New Zealand.
While the band’s name might sound surreal, it isn’t, at least not on the surface. The music definitely is, particularly the lyrics, but it is all in the most positive way possible. The band and album name actually came from the band’s stage names. While the names of the original band members might not be familiar, Joel Walton, Geoff Maddock and Edmund McWilliams surely came up with an outstanding album.
Verging anywhere from psychedelia in all its known forms up to progressive elements, but those that do not have any self-indulging purpose, /Bressa Creating Cake/, is an engaging album from the beginning to end, the five extra tracks certainly included.
The band's lyrical flair is particularly impressive, its surrealism at moments reaching that of the inimitable Captain Beefheart, which is a great achievement in itself. Take this for a measure:
“Sky got red
Over the hill here
Green house, blue house, my house
Landed into nothing under the sky” (“Palm Singing”)
Still, it is the musical inventiveness and diversity that rule on this album, and I’m thankful to Flying Nun for reissuing this quietly brilliant album.
