- Hymn For Konori
- Shatterin' Man Falling
- Mandrake Memorial
- Stoned Age (E.F.S. No ß?!>>°<<)
- Tickling That Great Pudarkus in the Sky
- Psychedelic Underground
A Nurse with wound live album? Yes it is a bit of strange concept, you would think the very nature of Nurse would preclude any such live excursions. But for a couple of years between 1984 and 1986 Nurse did perform eight times in venues across Europe, bringing with them a whole range of characters from the post industrial scene of the time. Including John Balance (Coil), David Tibet (C93), Annie Anxiety, and the Wallis family ,Diana Rogersons ex husband Chris and their daughter Ruby. On this disk are six tracks recorded at various locations. None include known song titles, and all are really improvisations on themes from past Nurse albums. There has been some amount of post production and editing done, so the sound quality isn’t too far off the sound of the early albums. Despite it’s slightly chaotic style this album is really quite good.
It opens with 'Hymn for Konori' which begins with some distant metallic drones and sweeps before massed groans and voices begin to swell the scene. It’s quite similar to the first track of Homotopy to Marie. The groans are interrupted by some metallic smashing before some typical Nurse sonic mutations break in. More groans and tweaks meander around before some violent bass plucks signal entry to the second track 'Shatterin’man falling', which is very percussive and noisy, and definitely the most Industrial sounding of the tracks. It must have been very noisy at the gig by the sound of this track, like being in some infernal out of control cement mixer. I detect some of the sounds from 'Spiral Insania' particularly some high pitched squeals and bird like calls. After about seven minutes the track takes a slightly more mellow turn with the noise taking a back seat to what sounds like a heartbeat rhythm and some crazy shrieks and cries from Stapleton in the background.
The third track 'Mandrake Memorial' begins sounding like something off 'Merzbild Schwet' with distant harmonic drones and voices, the occasional use of toys or percussive implements, but punctuated with some blasts of grating racket, before it settles down again. The female chanting in this track gives it a quite eerie quality. I would probably characterise this track as a hybrid between 'Dada X' and 'Astral dustbin dirge'. A very Ghostly piece.
'Stoned age', is quite unique for the band at the time since it is almost entirely percussive. Hard rhythmic drum beats, (live not programmed) and some kind of eastern sounding instrument in the background. The drums are edited to speed up and slow down. Very strange track this, lots of random drumming and strange effects here, not like any Nurse track of the time, I thinks there maybe some trumpet involved too. I suppose if I had to compare it to any Nurse track it would be 'She alone hole and open', but to be honest the whole thing has an almost tribal feel to it.
'Tickling that great pudarkus in the sky' seems very much like Stick That Chick & Feel My Steel Through Your Last Meal off Automating vol 1, but in this composition there are some rather morbid sounding violin playing and drones. This track sounds like it had a fair bit of editing after the performance, the mix is very good and it holds together better than the other tracks on the album. The last few minutes of the album get very spooky when what sounds like rats begin to crawl about your ears while a dark oppressive drone and mechanical crash approaches. This track could have formed part of a full regular release, it does seem very much like a studio track rather than a live improvisation.
The last track 'Psychedelic Underground' is another noisy improvised track, this time sounding very live, but still having a clear sound. This track in fact sounds almost exactly like a cooker being thrown down a spiral staircase and is a bit of a blunt instrument compared to the dark subtlety of the previous couple of tracks. At one point it sounds like someone has brought their motorbike on stage and is giving the engine a bit of a work out. Thankfully this track is less than five minutes long.
So in conclusion a very unique album for the band and one for both collectors and casual fan alike.
