Though Steven Stapleton is inevitably characterized as a something of a"lone wolf" — a vaguely psychotic outsider, compulsively andprolifically pumping out mysterious and inscrutable musical esotericafrom some dilapidated shack deep in the Irish countryside — he has, infact, remained a thoroughly collaborative artist throughout his longcareer. It took 1999's compilation The Swinging Reflective: Favourite Moments of Mutual Ecstasyto finally demonstrate the impressive array of artists that Stapletonhas worked with over the years: from contemporaries like Foetus, TonyWakeford and The Legendary Pink Dots to artists like Stereolab, who aresituated well outside of NWW's post-industrial milieu. It is this sameintensely collaborative spirit that manifests on Angry Eelectric Finger (Spitch'Cock One),a newly-issued prologue to an upcoming triple-album set featuringcollaborations with Cyclobe, irr.app.(ext.), Jim O'Rourke and XholCaravan. These were long-distance reciprocations, with Stapletonsending raw materials to each of the artists, who were free torecontextualize and mutate the sounds as they saw fit. These longformremixes were sent back to Stapleton, who added some finishingproduction touches and let them stand. This unique process has yieldeda series of tracks in which the personalities of Stapleton's musicalaccomplices come through very strongly, even as they each reverentlypay homage to the work of Nurse With Wound. The disc opens with a piececredited only to NWW, a classic 11-minute brain-twister that utilizesbending, distorted bass guitar strings to disorienting effect. Eachmetallic pluck swoops and dithers around a senseless insectoid rhythm,the piece eventually expanding into a blasted Cold War furnace factorydominated by an ancient, wheezing iron lung. Erudite Nurse-o-phileswill recognize these sounds from An Akward Pause and the Current 93 collaboration Bright Yellow Moon,Stapleton clearly enforcing the "recycled sound" aesthetic from theoutset. Next up is Cyclobe's "Paraparaparallelogrammatica," certainlythe most gorgeous track on the album, a stately science-fiction mindexcursion of the kind that dominated Simon and Stephen's immeasurablywonderful The Visitors. It's a texturally rich space fanfare ofthe kind not heard since Atem-era Tangerine Dream, and perhaps not eventhen. Its indulgent cinematic sensuality bears little similarity toStapleton's cod surrealism, save for the narrative unfolding andnuanced, lysergic vibrations that dominate the track. It's one of thebest things I've heard from Cyclobe, and regardless of whether or notit bears any resemblance to the original NWW source material, I'mcertain that this would have appeared on the infamous NWW InfluenceList had it been released on some obscure German prog label in theearly 1970s. Matt Waldron's irr.app.(ext.) project has been responsiblefor some of the most intensely rendered audio phenomena outside of theNWW camp, and their match-up — tellingly entitled "Mute Bell ExtinctionProcess" — again reflects primarily the interests of the remixer,rather than the remixed. While eerily recalling such creepy NWWclassics as "Fashioned to a Device Behind a Tree," irr.app.(ext.) onceagain shows a unique talent for thought cancellation, creating aninsistently clandestine, industrial trance-scape that uses repetitionto progressively wipe clean all thoughts and prepare the listener forthe loss of physical cohesion. The last track is Jim O'Rourke's "TapeMonkey Mooch," a laptop-concrete take on the history and mystery ofNurse With Wound. In its own unique way, O'Rourke's contribution isprobably the oddest on this record. Strange to think this was createdby a current member of art-punk darlings Sonic Youth and the creator ofan endless barrage of John Fahey-influenced indie-pop; not so strange,however, to anyone who has ever witnessed one of O'Rourke's freeformlaptop collage performances, which often reference the 80'spost-industrial tape-music underground of Roger Doyle and HNAS.O'Rourke sound collage creates an abstract web of richly-detailedsounds, compounding details that give way to form and structure, whichmelt into abstraction and back into structure. It's a gloriouslybaffling riddle, and if its quality is at all indicative of thematerial on the forthcoming three-album set, I can hardly wait.samples:
- Cyclobe/NWW - > Paraparaparallelogrammatica
- irr.app.(ext.)/NWW - Mute Bell Extinction Process
- Jim O'Rourke/NWW - Tape Monkey Mooch
Read More
