Stereolab • Nurse With Wound - Simple Headphone Mind

[Wentworth Smith]

I'm likely going to see these on their upcoming tour but know very little about their back catalogue bar a couple of exceptions from the '90s. What should I listen to, to get a decent primer of what they are likely to play?

[chutnut]

I'm likely going to see these on their upcoming tour but know very little about their back catalogue bar a couple of exceptions from the '90s. What should I listen to, to get a decent primer of what they are likely to play?

Assuming you mean Stereolab rather than Nurse With Wound Ive got no idea what they'll play but I'd say Dots and Loops is probably the best place to start

[Dirty Boy]

Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Refried Ectoplasm are both nigh on flawless.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Refried Ectoplasm are both nigh on flawless.

Dirty Boy speaks the truth.

[jobotic]

Transient Random Noise Bursts for me Clive.


Actually for me, personally, it's Peng! but you've ain't me, personally.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

^ Those as well, in fact you can't go wrong with anything between Peng and ETK.  Space Age Bachelor Pad Music is a beautiful thing that never seems to get mentioned.

[sevendaughters]

I guess Transient is my favourite but I think I prefer Dots and Loops to any of the other ones that precede it. Margerine Eclipse is probably the first one where I thought 'ok, might be done here', Mary-less Stereolab don't hit me the same.

[fuzzyste]

To hijack the thread but ive been hammering Stereolab recently and Margerine Eclipse is a lovely little record that I keep coming back to.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

To hijack the thread but ive been hammering Stereolab recently and Margerine Eclipse is a lovely little record that I keep coming back to.

It was definitely a grower - one of the later albums that I wasn't too keen on at the time but I love it now.

I had ABC Music on last night, they were one of those bands that the Peel Session environment brought the best out of.  Those versions of Yper Sound and Spinal Column are even better than the official versions I reckon.  What a band they were.

[Famous Mortimer]

I have most of Nurse With Wound's stuff, but every time I try to listen to it, there's always something which doesn't quite work. "Homotopy To Marie" is fucking great, mind, and "Simple Headphone Mind" is excellent too, but there's just a bit too much...like Stapleton's petrified of making something and not releasing it. I just picked one at random and played "Automating vol. 3" and way too many songs sound like five different ideas whose only link was he had them around the same time.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

I've only scratched the surface with Nurse With Wound, but I really like Echo Poeme Sequence 2 - it must be the way he stretches and loops tranquil female vocals for me because I've always loved Strange Play Of The Mouth as well.  Any recommendations for more in this style?  His back catalogue is pretty daunting.

Another one I really like is disc one of the first Shipwreck Radio CD.
Funeral Music For Perez Prado could be a beautiful thing if it didn't have that high pitched tone running through it.
[/random NWW thoughts]

[jobotic]

The Man With the Woman Face.

(I think is the one I mean. Have to check at home).

[Dirty Boy]

Homotopy To Marie

It's not my favourite, but it's deffo one of the most downright disturbing albums i own.

Spiral Insana and Sylvie And Babs are my top tier NWW. Neither sound anything like Stereolab though.

[jobotic]

Somewhere he combined Echo Poeme with Salt Marie Celeste and it worked really well.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

Somewhere he combined Echo Poeme with Salt Marie Celeste and it worked really well.

Oh that's Soundpooling, I'd forgotten about that one. In Swollen Silence from the same album has one of the greatest jump-scares in recorded music.

Thanks for the Man With Woman Face - I really liked the second half of that.  (YouTube really know how to kill the mood with their ads though, don't they?

[badaids]

I like Stereolab, but I love Broadcast.

I will listen to this Nurse With Wound.

[Dirty Boy]

I love both of them, BUT you may be utterly befuddled with Steve Stapleton's deranged acid fever hell.

Start with the easy stuff at least.

[The Mollusk]

We need the legend @purlieu to crack their knuckles and preach the NWW gospel for us, they're a huge fan. Hope they feel well enough to come back and post more soon.

[jobotic]

Oh that's Soundpooling, I'd forgotten about that one. In Swollen Silence from the same album has one of the greatest jump-scares in recorded music.

Thanks for the Man With Woman Face - I really liked the second half of that.  (YouTube really know how to kill the mood with their ads though, don't they?

Beware The African Mosquito is so good.

I also love this. Think it's the tugboat sound

[jobotic]

I love field recordings that have been manipulated too and this is wonderful

I can't.. I can't speak Norwegian, I'm Eeeeeeeennnnnnnngggggggggllllliììiiiiiiiiisssshhhhhhhhh

[chutnut]

A lot have been mentioned already but these are my favs:

Salt Marie Celeste
Spiral Insana
Echo Poemes
Angry Eelectric Fingers
Soliloquy for Lilith
The Sadness of Things
An Awkward Pause
Automating vol 2

and this beauty

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

and this beauty

That sounds nice through my phone speaker, but if I play it on CD on my hi-fi thingy (granddad alert) there's a faint but unpleasant high pitched tone running through it. Can anyone else detect it or is it a bi-product of my tinnitus?

[The Mollusk]

I'm gonna have a wild guess and say that's intentional? Based on the weird disconcerting noises that creep in and out of Simple Headphone Mind I was of the impression that NWW likes creating unsettling or druggy atmospheres in his music like that.

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

I'm gonna have a wild guess and say that's intentional? Based on the weird disconcerting noises that creep in and out of Simple Headphone Mind I was of the impression that NWW likes creating unsettling or druggy atmospheres in his music like that.

I'm sure it is intentional (Stapleton's a brilliant producer, you can tell he gets it just the way he wants it), but for me it spoils something that could be really beautiful and immersive. The weird noises on Simple Headphone Mind are pleasant on the ear, they draw you in.

Following on from the Shipwreck Radio track posted by jobotic, I'll throw in my favourite (particularly from the 11-minute mark onwards):

[purlieu]

We need the legend @purlieu to crack their knuckles and preach the NWW gospel for us, they're a huge fan. Hope they feel well enough to come back and post more soon.

Oooh ok then I'll do a rundown.

'Band' era (aka fucking around)

Chance Meeting has become a kind of iconic experimental record, but honestly it's kind of... ok. The original trio basically just turned up with some instruments and noise-makers and fucked around for an hour. There's comparatively little tape manipulation or anything. An appreciation of free improv is absolutely necessary to enjoy this. To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl is similar, but with a lot more space that gives it more in the way of atmosphere. Heeman had left by this point, and John's contributions annoyed Steve, so it's basically the end of NWW as a band. Merzbild Schwet is credited to John and Steve, but it's really a Stapleton solo album, and is largely tape manipulation, lots of slowed down stuff and weird noises. It feels like a prototype for the next few albums. Insect & Individual Silenced is an odd one-off, featuring more (not very successful) early tape experiments and a really tedious bit of improv with Jim Thirwell and William Bennett. Stapleton hated it so much he destroyed the master tapes. Future NWW member Matt Waldron made his own remaster which eventually got released, and later versions of that feature an excellent remix of bits of the album called 'Tooth, Teeth, Milk, Teeth, Skin' which is one of my favourite NWW pieces.

The '80s (aka the best era)

Really, the run from Homotopy to Marie to Spiral Insana is flawless for me. I love the whole side-long sound collage approach in general, and those are the epitome of that. Homotopy is just wonderfully creepy, with so much going on that I'm still hearing new things to this day. And the first real appearance of silly oompah band music, one of Steve's favourite things. Gyllensköld, Geijerstam and I at Rydberg's is a wonderful but overlooked mini album, the first NWW to feature David Tibet (parts are basically a remix of Current 93's Nature Unveiled), generally harsher sounding than Homotopy, but with more humour too.

Sylvie and Babs is hilarious, I once described it as sounding like an episode of The Goon Show minus the dialogue. Spiral Insana might be my favourite, it tones down the 'throw everything at it' approach of earlier albums in favour of a more focused approach that's almost comparable with more conventional electronic music - recurring motifs include a gorgeous synth section, church organ stabs and an odd whirring machine. Later issues feature 'Nihil', a reworking of the album recorded after the Stapletons moved to rural Ireland, complete with field recordings that give it a strangely pastoral feel. It works superbly as an album closer, and the United Dairies CD version blends it in so well it's hard to imagine the album without it.

And then there's Soliloquy for Lilith, an album of drones accidentally created when Steve looped up guitar pedals and moved his hands over them like with a theremin. Everyone seems to love this one, so I won't let my general dislike of drone get in the way of that.

The four year gap between '88 and '92 was plugged with some compilations (There are loads of 12"s and splits from this era, which are also collected on compilations like Sugar Fish Drink, Large Ladies With Cake in the Oven, A Missing Sense and Funeral Music for Perez Prado. It's a really varied range of stuff, including a reasonably straight cover of Brainticket's 'Brainticket' (featuring Roman Jugg from The Damned on organ), some very heavily percussive pieces and Stapleton's first flirtation with whimsical exotica on 'Coolorta Moon'. Highlights from this era include 'A Missing Sense', 'Creakiness' and 'Swan Song') a live album (which is basically free improv stuff, although with a lot more atmosphere and space than the early records) and a soundtrack (Lumbs Sister, which is probably the darkest NWW record. I find it uncomfortable to listen to, it mostly sounds like a cacophony of human voices and medieval torture equipment).

The '90s (aka that bloody drum loop)
Thunder Perfect Mind is the start of Stapleton's ongoing collaboration with Colin Potter. He was ostensibly hired as an engineer, but his expertise in sound treatment led to him being listed alongside Steve in the credits. The difference in sound is palpable - the rough-around-the-edges darkness of the '80s material is replaced with a much brighter, smoother sound. 'Cold' is a parody of industrial music in the form of 20 minutes of rattling metallic machine noises (it's a lot of fun, but turns up in many other forms on compilation tracks and outtakes that it's become fucking tiresome at this point); 'Colder Still' is the real draw here, a half hour dark ambient piece which is incredibly evocative, from electronics as nighttime insects, to weird animal noises, waterphone drones and a subtle conga drum loop. Probably my favourite individual NWW track. It briefly intersects with Current 93's sister album of the same name.

1994's Rock & Roll Station began by Steve asking Colin to remix 'Colder Still', which focused on the percussive loop and became 'Two Golden Microphones', the leaping off point for an album of drum machine loops and sinister drones, including Stapleton on vocals. It's jarringly different to earlier albums, with a number of shorter tracks and what is largely recognisable as conventional music. The issue I have with the album is that it's just a bit boring: there are only about three ideas and they're used throughout the album. The outtakes disc Second Pirate Session is generally a better selection from this era, although it's still not a favourite.

And then 1996's Who Can I Turn to Stereo is effectively an hour long remix of 'Two Golden Microphones', stretched out to include seductive female vocals, guitar solos and all sorts. It's very psychedelic, exotic, and not a million miles away from some of the '90s ambient house stuff around at the time. One of my favourites, and a world away from how NWW had sounded only a few years before.

The final '90s album - other than a mildly interesting collaboration with violin player Aranos, which includes another reworking of 'Colder Still'/'Two Golden Microphones' - An Awkward Pause is the closest to a conventional rock album NWW have ever made. Even ignoring the novelty of the full band, David Tibet-fronted song 'Two Shaves and a Shine', it's a guitar-forward album, built around slowly droning chords and bluesy riffs, backed by drum machines and synths. The 25 minute 'The Penis Fruit Loop' is closer to the sound collages of old, but on the whole the album is barely recognisable as the same project that made the '80s records.

The '00s (aka wtf is going on)
There's a fairly linear progression to the direction earlier albums took, but the '00s feels like an era of experimentation and uncertainty. The first album, Man With the Woman Face, is a quiet, subtle electro-acoustic work, almost feeling like an intentional step back from the direction of the '90s. Then Salt Marie Celeste is an hour long, drone-led soundscape of the titular ship. The same year came She and Me Fall Together in Free Death, a disjointed record starting with a side-long krautrock jam, followed by an acoustic folky number sung by Stapleton, a musique concrete piece made from chicken sounds, and a computer voice reading some porn. It's the first NWW record that doesn't work at all, although some of its constituent parts are nice.

Then there's Angry Eelectric Finger, the record Stapleton and Potter couldn't finish, so they handed out to other experimental musicians to remix - all four versions (including NWW's original 'Zero Mix') sound so similar to each other than the whole thing feels like a bit of a waste of time. Then there's the Shipwreck Radio trilogy, created entirely from sounds recorded on a trip to a remote Norwegian island. There's some really brilliant stuff on the first volume (the two best examples have already been posted), but it all becomes very drone-oriented by the second volume, which is remarkably samey. The third is little more than the introduction voices timestretched for an hour. Then there was the Echo Poeme Sequence series of beautifully creepy ambient based entirely around spoken word.

The decade ended with the arrival of Andrew Liles, who kind of replaced Colin Potter at this point. The first album was Huffin' Rag Blues, a complete reversal of the sound experiments of the previous few albums, being an album of sultry jazzy songs. It would probably have been impossible without Liles's skills as a conventional musician, and is a lot of fun, if almost unrecognisable as NWW. Stapleton was also working on a hip-hop album with some female MCs, but it never got finished. The '00s ended on a commissioned work, Space Music, which, after a fairly violent opening, becomes a very quiet drone for an hour.

2010 to present (aka the live era)
In the late '00s, Stapleton decided to try live work for the first time in 20 years, and created a lineup generally based around himself, Potter, Liles and Waldron, occasionally changing and with guest musicians. The gigs started as live improvs around Salt Marie Celeste and Echo Poeme Sequence No. 2, over which newer layers were gradually added as the gigs developed. Perhaps because they were a better source of income, or perhaps because they were just more enjoyable, the live shows became the focus of NWW in the 2010s. A lot of live albums were released, mostly as CDrs available from gigs, but as time's gone on, an increasing number of official albums have basically just been recordings of gigs. These are generally unbroken 70 minute shows, with lots of drones in the background (usually in the form of WIP studio work) over which layers of noises and instruments are layered. Occasionally these work well for me - Barren is built around the excellent [SIC] album with Aranos, a spacious and atmosphere album - but on the whole they lack the precision and use of space that makes NWW studio albums so appealing.

Of the studio work of the era, there's a run of albums with experimental composer Graham Bowers which are all intense headfucks and maybe some of the least accessible music in the NWW catalogue. Three albums were released as extremely limited LPs (around 100 copies each) which go for ludicrous amounts, three tracks of which were reissued on the Great Ecstasy of the Basic Corrupt CD - this material is all very 'musical', and it feels like Liles is kind of leading the show on these. I hope the other tracks get a wider release, though, as they're all excellent.

There are two albums reworking other people's music. Firstly, the superb Chromanatron, which uses multi-tracks of Sand's back catalogue as a basis. It's probably my favourite NWW album of this century, wonderfully weaving together psychedelic rock elements with sound collage and noise. The other is Changez Les Blockeurs, a remix of the legendary album by The New Blockaders, and probably the closest NWW has ever come to straight-up noise.

The only conventional studio albums from the era are Trippin' Musik and Opium Cabaret. The former uses a very weird set of effects that create a strange, whirling, wobbling sound that builds in intensity over each track, as well as a few quite melodic ambient pieces; the latter is an honestly very unremarkable, largely drone-led work that is much better used as backing on the live album Barren. A third album, Deadlined was left unfinished because Steve couldn't travel during the pandemic, and released in its incomplete state for some reason. It's decent but contains no surprises.

There's still a lot to enjoy in the more recent work, but knowing what NWW is capable of, a lot of it feels somewhat underwhelming. I suppose it's hard to be an experimental artist and still be pushing boundaries after 40 years, but I feel like there's a little bit too much safety on a lot of recent albums.

[The Mollusk]

Superb <3

[xxxx xxx x xxx]

Really interesting post @purlieu, thanks for that.  I promise I'll work my way through all those tracks.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

great post @purlieu agreed the fuck out of lots of it besides the fact that I agree with the masses and absolutely love Soliloquy for Lilith

[fuzzyste]

Stereolab are just one of those bands with just a gigantic discography and not much shite within it? Can listen to any album, EP, Comp and be happy.

[purlieu]

great post @purlieu agreed the fuck out of lots of it besides the fact that I agree with the masses and absolutely love Soliloquy for Lilith

Yeah, I know, everyone loves it and it's clearly a great drone album. I just find stuff without any space really hard to listen to. Gaps between the sounds and all that shite.