Ducks Battle Satan

There is an extraordinary pointlessness to me  posting on a Nurse with Wound record. I’ve nibbled a the edges of their vast (and mainly deleted) back catalogue and still feel that I haven’t really got a handle on what they do. This record made by Best of 2008 list. I didn’t post on it last year because I’ll be fucked if I can really describe it in terms of there previous work. So I’ve decided to just review it on its own merits. The common approach from most reviewers seems to be focusing on its noirish/lounge aspects but such descriptions are misleading. Are there  jazzy flourishes on this? Sure, but the best stuff is truly odder than what you may have been lead to believe. The first  remarkable moment arrives on Track 3, the superbly named The Funktion of the  Hairy Egg. Almost dub, almost trip hop, mildly ambient but with barnyard noises and electronic fuckery. For the next 14 minutes it’s a pretty wild ride. Black Teeth arrives next and fuck me if it doesn’t sound like Tom Waits. Seriously. The next track returns to a jazzy theme and what sounds like a field recording of the  rigging creaking of a tall ship over which is sung a torch song performed by a waif. Congos turn up on another track  and another starts off like the Peter Gunn theme. Yet despite it’s loungish feel, tracks are overlayed with the experimental noise and avant garde approach that Nurse With Wound are known for. None of the  NWW records I’ve heard sound like the each other so Huffin’ Rag Blues may be as good a place as any to if you’re new to the band. Its highly accessible and an absolute blast.

This entry was posted on March 1, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Music, nurse with wound with tags Music, nurse with wound. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.