Nurse With Wound- Shipwreck Radio Volume 2: Eight Enigmatic Episodes from Utvaer

Artist: Nurse With Wound
CD Title: Shipwreck Radio Volume 2: Eight Enigmatic Episodes from Utvaer
Label: ICR
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 12/28/05

The second volume in a series recorded on the island of Utvaer, near the Arctic Circle, this double-CD is actually a pretty typical example of Nurse With Wound’s more industrial ambient work. Each track, named for the date on which it was recorded, is based mostly around long metallic drones and echoing clangs, with various additional processed bits of recording added for color. “June 9,” for example, incorporates a variety of rusty rattling sounds, while “July 4” is so distant and subdued it’s almost subliminal, but ever so gradually builds up to a high-pitched whistle. “July 21” is more ominous, with alarm bells and sudden increases and decreases in volume that evoke the passage of some indistinct object that’s both very large and very fast. The second disc is a bit more concrete, but still fairly rooted in vaguely industrial soundscapes. “June 6” uses a sort of insect-like click along with something that sounds like a motor starting, and the circular saw buzzing on “July 28” is actually a bit painful at times. “June 19” is the one really evocative piece presented here, and the only one that effectively conjures up images of a northern European fishing village, with its snippets of conversation, calling seabirds and what seems to be the clattering of seashells. It also eventually evolves into a soft, dub-infused rhythm that’s fairly accessible, if still avant-garde, and is definitely this album’s most interesting piece. The rest is excellent experimental ambient stuff, of course, and will no doubt be added to Nurse With Wound’s canon of offbeat classics, but given the unique environment in which this was recorded, a few more obvious references to Utvaer would’ve made this a bit more interesting to those who aren’t already devoted to the band.

Visit www.brainwashed.com/nww for more information on Nurse With Wound.