Nurse With Wound — Thunder Perfect Mind
Originally released in the early 90’s, Thunder Perfect Mind was very much a yin/ yang album from long-running sonic surrealist Nurse With Wound. It features just two tracks- one focused on in detailed industrial sounds, and the other on dark ambience with later forays into rhythmic fare. Here on Austria’s Infinite Fog Productions is a two-CD reissue of the album- the first disc takes in the original album, and on the second disc is a 2016 compilation album- Various Industrial Adhesives And Lubricants
The two CDs come presented in a six-panel digipak. On its outside, there’s a reproduction of the original album's art, which features a gathering/ party of well-dressed Victorians, who are seemingly all living dead- with rotting & deformed faces. Inside, underneath the discs, we find messy calligraphy texts. There’s also a fold-out glossy poster- featuring on one side the artwork for the album, and on the other side, more collage artwork for Various Industrial Adhesives And Lubricant.
Thunder Perfect Mind was first released in 1992. It is the "sister" album to Current 93's album Thunder Perfect Mind, as it was released around the same time; it features some basic sounds and lyrics are shared, but the overall sound between the two albums is vastly different.
On the first disc, we have the two tracks that make up the original album- "Cold" and "Colder Still"- the first track slides in just under the twenty-three-minute mark, and the second just over the thirty-three-minute mark.
So “Cold” opens with a fading in chuffing stream train tone- which is fairly soon added to by a locked throbbing tone, and sudden jerking shunts. In time, a more shrill alarm tone is added, as well as the addition of various other layers of buzz & hit, with, from time to a sudden jarring tone hit appears, as well as later lines of machine churn, metal bead rattle, typing writer textures, and later wonky horn work. It's a nicely unbalancing track that most certainly keeps you on your toes.
Next / finally, on the first disc is “Colder Still”. The track opens with several hits of orchestral crescendo- swirling/descending pitches, and a brief moment of evil female laughter. As we move on, we encounter slowly warping dark ambient tones, a steadily fading heart-like pulse, and other eerie /subtly surreal texturing. Later on, we get more dense/ active moments, for example, a blend of strange grunts & rapidly slicing metal on metal tones. But fairly soon we drifted back to the dark, disquieting ambience, before a more consistent mix of sinisterly stretched male & female voices appear with steady rhythmic patterns- the latter element be developed more on NWW albums such as Rock 'n Roll Station (1994) and Who Can I Turn to Stereo (1995).
As an album, Thunder Perfect Mind offers a more detailed, at times jarring take on the NWW sound, with the two different tracks working well to create a varied and, of course, very weird album.
On disc two, we have the compilation album Various Industrial Adhesives and Lubricants. This eleven-track album is from 2016 and features quite different varieties/ versions of tracks connected to those on Thunder Perfect Mind. It has a runtime of around sixty-seven minutes. We move from “Steel Dream Of The Metal Men” which is all about hovering recordings of metal on metal, higher vibe like tones, and piping electro textures. Though to the droned out metal rattling, brooding drone ringing’s, and baying tone reels of “Spooky Loop”. Onto “Colder Then” with it’s condescend siren tone like pulses & clutter tone pitch rattlings. It’s a worthy compilation, especially if you're largely looking to stay within the sonic palette of the main album.
It most certainly is great to see Thunder Perfect Mind back in print again, as it a important part in the development of NWW’s sound. This Infinite Fog Productions is nicely presented- with neat package design, and the double-sided glossy poster.