REVIEWS
ROTTEN
MEATS
Well if a sound ever
suited the environment it was
played in – it would be
this recent live recording from
Nurse with Wound. From the inside
cover alone the venue looks bleak
and gothic with the terrible desolation
of an Edger Allan Poe novel.
Apparently, according to the website
it’s a late 17th century
psychiatric hospital converted
to a museum crammed with pickled
pathological specimens and other
grisly medical curios (see Jpaul23's
pictures to get a better idea),
just the sort of place which you'd
expect the deformed ghosts of
the mentally ill to still inhabit.
The live track really encapsulates
this atmosphere perfectly - a
intense shifting drama of ill
ease. It must have felt positively
eerie to experience on the night,
just imagining all those vaporous
cries/moans echoing through the
darkened interior of the museum,
leaves me shuddering - an haunting
image akin to the creepy Danish
drama Kingdom Hospital, wordless
moans bubbling in formaldehyde.
Clocking in at 65mins, this improvisation
concocted from Salt Marie Celeste
and Echo Poeme is full of creeping
shadows, sickening nautical creaks
and half smudged details. Lovely
to hear the demented vocals of
Diana Rogerson again, enjoyed
them rebounding through my skull
in slow circular disintegration.
Also like the way the track’s
undulating core stays with you
like an indelible stain well after
the audience’s rapturous
applause has subsided, in fact
I really felt like clapping along
with them - marvellously eerie.
Track two sounds like a fresh
variation on the echo poeme series.
Love those ceremonial chimes and
that climbing tension that culminates
in some blissfully harsh sonic
peaking - sounding not un-similar
to Satan clearing his throat.
This interrupts Freida Abtan’s
thought provoking vocals and crowns
its finish in the same raspy overload...
The
Bonus disc cleverly entitled A
Handjob from the Laughing Policeman
is a remix extravaganza. A wicked
1 track re-work of Free Death
/ African Mosquito / Two Golden
Microphones / Shipwreck Radio
and probably many more obscure
ones buried within. Wandering
close into Coil territory the
first half got me moving around
the room like an unhinged pixie
- a crooked disco classic for
sure… where as the second
half was more, chilled... a dub
workout with some lovely grating
freight train metal and spacey
washes. The latter end is a slight
return to the first disc with
‘Indernacht…’
on infinite loop, a whispering
apparition in wharfside fog, accompanied
by short wave flutterings. Stapleton’s
voice can be heard through the
murk repeating the syrupy words...
it’s
coming out of the void
echoing itself
doubling itself
over and over
...
all to a mellow ring modulation
with the words – ‘Well
there you are’ bringing
the disc into a silent conclusion.
Cloudboy June 06, 2006
VITAL
WEEKLY
Apart from two or three
concerts in the eighties, Nurse
With Wound was never a live band,
and probably for good reasons.
Whatever Steve Stapleton generated
was highly studio based, always
with a varying bunch of players
on board. Yet in 2004 he over-viewed
a live mix, by Colin Potter, of
the 'Salt Marie Celeste' work
for the Dutch Earational festival
and that experience was so much
fun, that Nurse With Wound are
a live band, and for good reasons.
Surrounded by players, such as
Andrew Liles, Matt Waldron, Colin
Potter and Diana Rogerson, Stapleton
is comfortable in bringing a live
version of Nurse With Wound's
studio trickery. And perhaps technology
is easier these days.
In May 2005 the group played their
first concert in Vienna (and mind
you, with a group of such a diverse
background, it's not likely they
will play a lot of concerts),
which was loosely based on two
older Nurse With Wound pieces:
the former 'Salt Marie Celeste'
and 'Echo Poeme', two pieces that
show the special qualities best:
poetic and soft, loosely based
on guiding theme's that give the
players the opportunity to let
sounds swirl in and out of the
mix. An occasional blink here
and there, leaving space in between.
A bit more loosely organized than
on a regular studio work, this
is however a particular strong
piece. Also strong is the much
shorter studio piece
'In Swollen Silence' that circles
around the voice of Diana Rogerson
-
just like the good ol' days.
As a bonus, there is a limited
amount of CDs to go with the first
few
hundred, called 'A Handjob From
The Laughing Policeman'. 'Conceived
by Nurse With Wound. Mixed by
Colin Potter', is the only thing
on the cover. Drums play an important
role throughout these forty some
minutes, and miniature electronics
swirl in and out. A much more
forceful work than the 'Soundpooling
#3', but essentially the idea
is the same. Despite this being
a studio-work, there are some
crudities built in, and thus forms
a good pair with the live CD.
With Nurse With Wound you are
in for surprise, but it never
fails the listener. FD
BRAINWASHED
Written by John Kealy
Monday, 26 June 2006
For the most part recorded live
in Vienna, this album is a consolidation
of Nurse With Wound’s most
recent output into one piece.
The results speak for themselves;
the different resources integrate
with each other perfectly to give
an exceptional piece of music.
Soundpooling contains two tracks.
The first, “Soundpooling
#3,” is the performance
from Vienna. The performance is
described as an improvisation
on Salt Marie Celeste and the
Echo Poeme releases. There are
also elements of Angry Eelectric
Finger scattered throughout the
performance. The combination (or
pooling to use the language of
the album) of these different
compositions works extremely well;
the whispered intonations from
the Echo Poeme material sounds
like they were made to accompany
the creaky, creepy drones of Salt
Marie Celeste. In fact, the vocals
sound much better here than they
do on the “proper”
releases; the oceanic background
makes them sound erotic and mysterious.
As
the improvisation progresses,
it moves into completely new territories
with only odd bits of sound acting
as points of familiarity. The
music is far more active and engaging
than I was expecting. Explosions
of noises that sound like they
were spliced from a number of
old records and cultured on a
dish in dark, damp basement rock
the atmosphere. I can only imagine
how uneasy the audience must have
felt listening to this in the
flesh considering the lab coat
uniform of the performers and
the fact that the venue was an
anatomy museum.
The
second track is a new studio recording
named “In Swollen Silence.”
It is an almost calming break
after the tension of the live
recording. Freida Abtan’s
performance and text is evocative
and for the most part very beautiful,
there are moments where the beauty
is shattered by the sentiments
of the words: “your shadow
ripped from you.” Stapleton
throws a few curveballs during
this piece that take me by surprise
each time I listen to it (I won’t
elaborate as they are best experienced
first hand). Soundpooling would
have been a fine release if it
just contained the live performance
but the inclusion of “In
Swollen Silence” caps off
the album nicely.
The
bonus disc that came with initial
copies of Soundpooling is a one
track studio piece with the delicious
title of A Handjob from the Laughing
Policeman. It contains a lot of
the material recorded by Stapleton
and Potter in Utvaer for the Shipwrecked
Radio albums. It opens with a
busy array of electronic noises,
processed voices and before a
groovy drum beat fades in and
slows the pace down. This drum
beat disappears and is replaced
with an exotic, tribal beat. All
the while, typically Nurse With
Woundish noises, ranging from
sea gulls to indefinable tones,
eddy and churn around the beats.
It is a nice companion to the
Shipwrecked Radio discs but not
something I’d be kicking
myself for missing.
|
