- Duelling Banjos >>Un-Natural Aesthetics<<
- Stick That Chick & Feel My Steel Through Your Last Meal
- Nana or a Thing of Uncommon Nonsense
- Fashioned to a Device Behind a Tree
- I Was No Longer His Dominant
- Ciconia
- Automating (Again)
The 'Automating' series was a chance for Stapleton to compile rare tracks released on obscure compilations over the years. Often this material was some of the best the band was producing in the mid to late eighties. This the first of the series contains some of that eighties material. The first track 'duelling banjos' is a percussive piece based around samples from a TV show or film where a man is telling his mother he wants to become a registered nurse. Most of this material is composed from bits of the songs on the limited 'Ladies home tickler' Disk. The dialogue is layered and looped and repeated in some quite bizarre ways along with some other dialogue including some German spoken parts. There are other electronic noises and effects that add to the mix. It is perhaps a bit long at over eleven minutes.
Stick that chick and feel my steel through your last meal', is a crazy exercise in surreal sound collage, very well produced and reminiscent of 'Quiet men…' and 'Homotopy to Marie' material. Clockwork toys, plucked strings and distorted objects build the freakish atmosphere. I think this is one of the best of these types of songs the band has done.
'Nana or a thing of uncommon nonsense' is a typical piece of Nurse humour using old children’s songs and easy listening to create a clownish carnival atmosphere. Probably recorded in the sessions for the Sylvie and babs Hi-thigh companion. Jolly stuff indeed. Unlike 'Fashioned to a device behind a tree' which has one of the strangest atmospheres of any Nurse song I've heard. It’s quite simple in composition but conjures up the strangest visions. Voices of a small child seemingly pleading for something and a man moaning, over the top of pitched mechanical sounds. Hmmmm, I think child molesters might be turned on by this, for everyone else it’s really very uncomfortable listening. Good stuff!!!.
Continuing on the joyless theme, 'I was no longer his dominant' is an abstract description of an interview/discussion or interrogation by two men. It’s not at all clear what’s going on here, but it described how one man, who narrates the piece looses control of the situation through the other mans control of silence, or something like that. The accompanying music is made up of low metallic drones and almost inaudible crackles. Like the previous track it has a very disturbed atmosphere.
'Ciconia' follows on from the last track using more upfront metallic drones and sounds before drifting off into some warped zoo populated with mutated animals, the sounds of which make up a large part of this song. The final track 'Automating (again)' begins sounding quiet and serene before some irate oriental woman begins singing and another chants behind her. Mashed up noise and vocal effects give this final, track a rather chaotic feel. In all a very good collection of rare Nurse moments, that would serve as a great introduction to their earlier work to a Nurse virgin.
