(2021) Nurse With Wound – Opium Cabaret
Review:
This edition features the full Opium Cabaret album plus 40 minutes of additional, previously unreleased studio material. Mastered at IC Studio London 2021. A loose, experimental project spearheaded by Steven Stapleton, Nurse with Wound explore abstract music – influenced by Krautrock, musique concrète, freewheeling jazz improvisation, and Throbbing Gristle but including a heavy debt to surrealists Dali and Lautréamont – with an overpowering release schedule of limited-edition albums and EPs. Stapleton has worked with an ever-changing list of collaborators, though Current 93’s David Tibet was the only frequent recording companion during the 1980s and ’90s; Andrew Liles and Colin Potter have both remained frequent contributors since then. While early releases such as 1979’s Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella were sparse and improvisatory, Stapleton’s work became more elaborate and conceptual beginning with 1982’s Homotopy to Marie. Subsequent works explored absurdist humor (The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion, 1985) and dark drone (Soliloquy for Lilith, 1988), while releases such as 1994’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Station showcase NWW’s more rhythmic side. During the 2000s, a series of radio broadcasts demonstrating the group’s mastery of elaborate sound manipulation, was issued as a trio of Shipwreck Radio releases, and 2008’s Huffin’ Rag Blues offered NWW’s skewed take on lounge music. The group’s output during the 2010s has included collaborations with Sunn O))) (The Iron Soul of Nothing, 2011) and multiple releases with Graham Bowers, as well as reworkings of other artists’ material, as on 2018’s NWW Play Changez les Blockeurs. Nurse with Wound began in London in 1978, and initially consisted of the trio of Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak. Their first three albums (1979’s Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella followed by To the Quiet Man from a Tiny Girl and Merzbild Schwet, both 1980) reflected a naked, minimalist slant with long periods of quiet suddenly interrupted by guitar chords inspired by the avant-garde wing of psychedelia/jazz-rock, chains, music boxes, and found-sound recordings. The sleeves of the first two albums included lengthy lists of bands and sound artists who had influenced NWW, most of whom are highly obscure. These eventually came to be referred to as “the Nurse with Wound list,” and have become regarded as a sort of shopping list among fans of experimental music. Released in 1981, Homotopy to Marie was the first NWW album to be recorded by Stapleton solo, and he regards it as their true debut. Featuring significantly more detailed tape edits and studio manipulations than their past work, as well as traces of humor, it would set the stage for the project’s subsequent ventures. Collaborations with Current 93 and Organum followed, as well as albums such as the whimsical The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion (1985) and the more spacious, meditative Spiral Insana (1986). Soliloquy for Lilith, a triple album of minimalist ambient pieces, appeared in 1988, and subsequently came to be regarded as one of Stapleton’s best works. The alarming Thunder Perfect Mind, a sister album to the Current 93 release of the same name, appeared in 1992. The 10″ EP Crumb Duck, a collaboration with Stereolab… [AllMusic]
Track Listing:
1. Floating Body (19:24)
2. Sleep Sweeping Down (19:55)
3. Pigment Drift (16:46)
4. Zonked (18:34)
Media Report:
Genre: ambient, experimental
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
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