Nurse With Wound — Man With The Women Face
The original album offers up two long tracks with a slightly smaller one in-between. Starting things off we have the very aptly named 18 minute track Beware the African Mosquito (Ring Your Doorbell, Put You to Sleep) which has as it’s main title suggest a very African feel about it, as does the whole album to a certain extent. It starts with a growing almost breathing rich drone that really feels like it’s born from vast African plains that span as far as the eye can see. To beginning with the pair of Stapleton and Potter add over the top a strange scuttling series of mad African percussion tones that repeat them self’s, as the piece progresses more surreal rhythmic and bizarre sound matter are added over the original warming expansive drone to make a wonderfully strange and quirky vibe that’s built and natured wonderfully by the pair. It builds to a great dense and quite noisy crescendo of buzzing fly sound before slipping away.
Next up is Ag Canadh Thuas Sa Speir which to my ears seems the least effective and focused of the albums tracks. It’s starts off a with distant doomy clunking tones and feed back smarts that’s quite rewarding before stopping forgetting about the original elements and going through a series of jarring electro feed back harmonics, fair organ tone, crashing samples and ultimately a Kraut rock like groove. The tracks just feels too thrown together and not managing to feel consistent enough. Lastly we have the track White Light From the Stars in Your Mind (A Paramechanical Development) which enters in with a drone texture like the first track but this feels a lot more restful and nocturnal. With the pair shifting around drifting tones, electro cricket sounds, echoed and bouncing male voice text saying “I am a wicthman” and general growing and building atmosphere- again it has quite a world/ African feel to it all. Like the first track it’s highly hypnotic and effective really sucking you well and truly into its strange surreal and revolving world. At about midway point a weird manchiekin singing voice is layered into the mix feeling like a English/ dreamy Resident's singing and more Conventional African drum elements takes hold soon joined by a jazzed out organ element. Towards the end it all droppings out with the male voice getting deeper and stretched saying “white light from the stars in your mind” over spacey yet creepy cinematic tone.
The second disk of different mixes and one unreleased track is very rewarding too and in some ways better as it drops the Ag Canadh Thuas Sa Speir and replaces it with the much more effective and focused track called Camel be air. First off we have African Mosquito(Blue Lacana Mix) which takes out the more quirky African percussive elements and put’s in a colder & well blue vibe with wind tones, shifting woodpecker sound, moans like sounds and all manner of cooler sound matter. It grows just like the original version just with a more dusk lit and shadowy vibe- a great take on the track really. Next up is Camel be air which starts off with a groaning camel like sound and lower electro sounds along with a smoky jazz like honk pitch with African percussive tinkling added here and there and a great feel of anticipation- before it opens up more musically with a wondering/ laid back eastern bass tinged instrumental rock/ jazz groove with some great honking repeated sax tones, with sound textured moved around over it’s top. Lastly we have White Light from your mind (home demo) which drops down at the vocal and building moments of White Light From the Stars in Your Mind, rather stripped of the production and shifting sonic layers. It’s an interesting bonus to end the disk.
So Another great NWW album with a great second disk that mostly stays out of the extra for the sake of it bracket- making a rewarding and different take on the original material.