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REVIEWS
BRAINWASHED
Written by John Kealy
Sunday, 27 July 2008
In a situation that is not entirely unexpected, the latest
album from Steven Stapleton has caused much controversy
amongst fans with opinions ranging from it being one of
his best to it being one of his biggest turds. Even here
on Brainwashed, opinions were mixed with the review here
concluding that "disappointment" sums up the
album to my own view that it is pretty damn good. This
12" will probably not change many people's views
of the album, it is an aside that those who are enjoying
Huffin’ Rag Blues will dig but I am not so sure
about those who found it hard to stomach.
Two
of the album’s tracks get reworked on The Bacteria
Magnet. The first is “Cruising for a Bruising,”
one of the better offerings on Huffin’ Rag Blues
whose motorik beat and collage of noise sounds like Faust
covering Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” (which
would be a very lovely thing if it were to happen). Unfortunately
the mix on The Bacteria Magnet is not quite as captivating.
It is a bit flaccid here, lacking the oomph of the album
version. It is like listening to the same song coming
from someone else’s car as they drive frustratingly
slow in front of you.
However, this is
the only stumble on the 12” and from here on in,
things are mightily interesting. The alternative mix of
“Thrill of Romance...” works far better than
the Huffin’ mix. The twisted spin on MOR jazz is
menacing and mesmerising; Freida Abtan’s vocals
seem almost dead, the emotion stripped down to a lonely
husk. The music moves from being a fairly standard double
bass and organ arrangement to a progressively stranger
buzzing and whirring swirl of sound.
The two non-album
pieces are both of a high quality. “Bei Mir Bist
Du Schön” takes the slow, jazzy romance song
and turns it on its head. The pulsing noise (out of time
with the vocals) and the shimmering Lilith-esque drones
make for quite an unsettling experience. “The Bottom
Feeder” is more like old school Nurse than any of
the other pieces here. It is a chaotic mess of sound,
switching between destroyed rhythms and aural abstractions
that make Nurse With Wound the constantly rewarding beast
that it is.
The old time rock’n
roll and surf influences along with the sheer strangeness
of Stapleton’s arrangements bring to mind David
Lynch’s appropriation and warping of '50s and '60s
American pop music in his movies to make the surreal situations
seem more familiar than they should be (such as the prostitutes
dancing to “The Locomotion” in Inland Empire
or the jitterbug scene at the start of Mullholland Dr.).
Maybe because Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti have done this
sort of thing so well for so long that Nurse With Wound’s
move in this direction does not sound so fresh. I know
Stapleton has tried something similar before with Sylvie
and Babs but to my mind, this is a Lynchian approach to
those rock’n roll and lounge standards. The Bacteria
Magnet and Huffin’ Rag Blues are a great experiment
but I wonder if this is a temporary digression by Stapleton
or whether he will be working with similar sources for
a long time (and if so, does this style have the longevity
to warrant another album)?
KFJC
Track One, Side A: The Bacteria Bitch Mix of Cruisin’
For A Bruisin’ would be a great track to play if
you wanted to assault listeners during the morning or
evening drive, (that is if it weren’t for the naughty
language) tires screech, sirens wail, chaos abounds in
a catastrophic aural onslaught, ok maybe I have gone to
far, no wait it is the collective that is NURSE WITH WOUND
that has gone too far, leaving skid marks on your eardrums
and broken glass in your face.
Track Two, Side A: Total departure from first track. Picture
yourself if you will in David Lynch’s world of the
film Blue Velvet…a chanteuse is forced to sing for
you while a man in black inhales nitrous oxide in the
corner…Woman singing with sparse piano and all sorts
of ominous atmospherics. CREEPY.
Track one, Side B : More Lynchian undertones with stand
up bass, percusssion, effects and dreamy detached female
vocals “the night is cold and i am so alone, i would
give my soul to call you my own…” Very nice
and a bit reminiscent of Julee Cruise and the Wild At
Heart soundtrack.
Track Two, Side B: Another departure, noisey industrial,
vocal manipulations, whirling, crashing, looping, screams,
blurps and beeps, did I say noisey? Yeah, I almost forgot,
throw a music box on top, honk at it and smash it with
your fist. This nurse will help with your wound, after
she inflicts it.
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