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nurse with wound, "thunder perfect mind"

One of the ironies of the music of Nurse with Wound is the fact thatwhile Steven Stapleton rarely releases something untouched (hencedifferent versions of CD, cassette and LP editions), he's continuouslyrecycling older materials. This month, a newly packaged version of1992's "Thunder Perfect Mind" is available, promised with new artworkand a new remix of "Cold". While TPM was billed as the sister album toC93's one of the same name, the two are musically unrelated. The firsthalf of the original CD is "Cold," 23+ minutes of a choppy looped riffwith loads of found sounds pasted in as effects or rhythmicallymatched, like the recurring glockenspiel sample which has appeared manytimes, reminding me vaguely of a Jaques Berrocal piece whose name I'mblanking on. "Colder Still" set the grounds for what was soon to becomethe played out rhythms and interworkings on both NWW albums 'Rock 'nRoll Station' and 'Who Can I Turn To Stereo?' but on TPM, however, thesound is deep, sparse and is beautifully drawn out to a solid 32¾minutes. "Colder Still" begins thunderous and moves through variouschilly and captivating moments throughout the duration, much like asurrealistic acid-trip influenced horror film score. It is indeed atrip. The Miss Ticker mix of "Cold" is this edition's bonus musicaladdition and honestly varies very little from shorter versions of"Cold:" "Head Cold" (from 'Large Ladies with Cake in the Oven') and"Steel Dream March of the Metal Men" (from the single of the same nameand 'Crumb Duck' CD edition). It's got more grumblings, squeals, EKGsounds, drills, chainsaws and breaking bits, but once you hear thatsignature repetitious riff, the similarities take more promenance. Ofall the versions this song has taken, "Miss Ticker" is now my favoriteas it's the least irritating, most varied and includes a cute voicemail message from John Balance tagged on at the end. As for the newartwork promised in the press release, it's just a digipack with thesame old booklet.

 

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