Various Artists: Reaction: The Label 1979-1989 (Frenzy Music)

Alongside the on-going celebration of Flying Nun (through new albums and vinyl reissues), Rob Mayes making more and more albums on his Failsafe label available and Peter McLennan's excellent book on the Deepgrooves label (although the music remains frustratingly unavailable), there are whole areas of New Zealand music being brought back to attention, notably through the independent labels which gave the emerging artists a home.

Now comes this wide-ranging double album – 42 tracks – which elevates the Reaction label run by Mandrill studio's Glyn Tucker, who'd had a notable career as a musician, especially with the Gremlins in the Sixties.

Tucker could see what was happening in that exciting post-punk/New Wave era when groups like the Mockers, Penknife Glides, Car Crash Set, Satellite Spies and many others suddenly appeared and were embraced for their familiar originality.

They were pop with a contemporary feel.

This collection has material by all of those bands and many more. And what is immediately apparent is just how proficient at crafting well produced, angular pop these local artists were.

The opener by Marginal Era is probably the piece most will remember: it is This Heaven which was the theme to the seminal music TV show Radio With Pictures, appointment viewing for anyone interested in new music.

This Heaven

Thereafter are the snappy, minimalist sound of Penknife Glides with Nervous, Big Business World, Sound of Drums and It's Too Late (but not this writer's favourite Taking the Weight Off which was released on Warrior).

Nervous

There's also the Mocker's classic Forever Tuesday Morning. Also on the collection, Swear It's True, My Girl Thinks She's Cleopatra and Woke Up Today which confirm their somewhat whimsical pop smarts.

Here too is Paul Agar with Paul Agar and the Set (Look Into Your Eyes, Beat the Night the previously unreleased Be My Girl, Battle of Words and Mail It To My Heart) and as part of Marginal Era (that RWP theme and You Fascinate Me).

If Flying Nun had captured the student and alternative audience, Tucker – with Mike Chunn and Trevor Reekie – were more attuned to short, snappy radio pop.

Which brings us to the Crocodiles with their exceptional Tears and In My Suit, What You Gonna Do and the song which closes the compilation: New Wave Goodbye.

You can hear the influence of reggae and dub production post-Police (Satellite Spies' Private Detective) and there's some darkly challenging stuff here: Danse Macabre (Torch and Between the Lines) and Car Crash Set (Breakdown, Another Day, Imagination, Outsider) – both bands with Nigel Russell on vocals and synths bringing some of the era's social unease.

Outsider

The collection reinstates these acts into the overview of that period and it's especially pleasing to see Everything That Flies (Dianne Swann's band) here with Bleeding Hearts, As the Sun Goes Down and the eerily excellent Shoot Up.

Shoot Up

And let's not forget Blond Comedy (The Kids Are Crying, Generation Day), the Neons with their synth-coloured cover of the Zombies' Time of the Season, Blasé (Just Like the Old Days), Jack Pudding with the anxious Head Days of whom I can fairly say “never heard of him” and the same of Damien Kearns with the somewhat weird The More I Drink.

So from classy pop to emerging synth-pop (Satellite Spies, Blasé, Car Crash Set) and the heroic horn-driven Wild As The Wind by Marginal Era (also with Chapter One, Guns for Fun and Please Say Something), this is a tribute to Tucker, Reaction and a strain of local pop-rock which is still shamelessly enjoyable.

An education for some, a welcome return of old friends for others.

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This double CD is available through major record stores.