Nurse with Wound:Huffin' Rag Blues

Bessie Smith never sang this one but that doesn't diminish the otherworldly, warped 78 rpm-ness of Nurse With Wound's latest. Ostensibly the brainchild of Brit Steven Stapleton, NWW is impossible to stuff into any ordinary descriptive language. There's something of advanced intellectual music experiments (a la John Cage) but also gothic tinges, bits of Ornette and Eno, all out industrial noise, things approaching stupefied pop and ambient landscapes, but in NWW's 25 year existence you could count on only one thing - each album would be unique. It's as if an entire spice rack has been poured into a studio mortar and Stapleton's agile mind works it like a very rough pestle. Huffin' Rag Blues (Durtro/Jnana) is no less strange than its predecessors though it does have the distinction of being perhaps the most nakedly fun release in their catalog. From the balloon popping swingers on the cover to the colorful titles ("Juice Head Crazy Lady," “Wash The Dust From My Heart," “Groove Grease") to the feverish '50s chanteuse perfect vocals from guest singers Freida Abtan and Lynn Jackson, this is ball. One does feel vaguely kooky just absorbing it from the speakers, the aural equivalent of a gas soaked piece of cloth or one's fourth strong Manhattan in an hour. Fun isn't a word one usually reaches for with Nurse With Wound, which only confirms their pleasantly confounding nature. If this isn't what some expected then maybe it's their expectations that need to take a powder. Mr. Stapleton and his collaborators are doing just fine, throwing us an unstable, creaky, oddball cocktail party.