- Umbrella Link
- She Alone Hole and Open
- Ostranenie
One of the most difficult Nurse albums to review since so much happens across it’s fifty minute run time. Recorded only a year after the debut, 'To the quiet men…'has it's sonic head based somewhere between that debut and 'Merzbild Schwet', which was released at the same time as this album. There are two tracks, (actually three but 'umbrella link' and 'Ostranenie' are joined on the Cd version) both spanning about twenty five minutes. The first is quite reminiscent of some of the material on 'chance meeting…' but a lot more minimal, with large areas of space for the strange dissonant sounds to resonate. It begins with a freaky guitar solo and someone taking some pictures, before the track settles down to a base of clanking, intermittent percussion and the occasional studio trick, a delay, reverbed, panned sample ect. After a few minutes, a very forward mixed tape of a man groaning and heaving fills the scene, this may represent the cries of Rudolf Warzkogler, who according to the CD inlay killed him self in the name of art by successive acts of self mutilation. Who knows. The track at times becomes a bit tedious, when the ever present metallic percussion and effects start to get a bit repetitive, but usually something jumps out of you to get you back into the mood. Some Tibetan oboe, or Conch courteously of Jac Berrocal.
The second track, is definatly shifted towards the material on 'Homotopy for Marie', and some of the material on 'Merzbild Schwet', it’s a vast spiralling collage of tape manipulations and various studio recorded industrial and percussive elements. I couldn’t begin to describe all the madness that flies across your speakers as this track progresses. Piano, some children’s music box, a man talking about nurses, it goes on and on. After about fourteen minutes, the cascade stops and some hard struck piano chords crash in. In between are excerpts from some film or TV show. It’s all a bit mad really, but never dull. Not very controlled, and it lacks the careful restraint and compositional style of 'Schwet' or 'Homotopy...' but is still very engaging and often disturbing. In all an interesting release, charting Nurses move into tape and audio collage, and a great addition for anyone who loves the old nurse records.
