My Chance Meeting... Much like Steven Stapleton, I consider myself an obsessive collector of unsual music. I also have an appreciation for surreal and absurd art. For me Nurse With Wound combine these two pursuits. I first encounted the recordings of Nurse With Wound when my collecting was branching out from 'electro-industrial' to more experimental realms. The big names in avant-garde classical and krautrock were familar to me at the time, but I never heard anything like NWW before. My first buys were Chance Meeting... (yes the cover artwork was an influence on my purchase) and Ladies Home Tickler. My initial reaction was both were lacking, sounding like someone just threw them together quickly.

Needless to say I avoided more NWW for some time afterwards. I may have gained a few more releases used but the first NWW I really liked was Large Ladies with Cake in the Oven. It was filled with surreal sounds and a great track, "Brained", that was satisfying to my 'industrial' tastes at the time. Other NWW releases have shown me that 'avant-garde' ideas can actually be made entertaining to listen to. I have since gotten almost all the NWW recordings (available on CD), with my favorites including Homotopy to Marie, Soliquy for Lilith, Sugar Fish Drink, and Rock'n Roll Station.

The legendary Nurse With Wound List is something I didn't encounter until I was well into my way collecting unusual recordings of all types (beyond Industrial). I always heard mention of this 'list' and such and such artists is on it. I had owned Chance Meeting... for years, but never played it much and so I didn't notice the CD booklet contained a tiny reproduction of the list. After I realised my oversight I was surprised to find I already owned a number of these rare recordings (thanks to a good supply of CD reissues). Even with all my research into 'underground' music, many of the names were still complete mysteries.

I then took the challenge to find out as much as I could about these artists. With the help of the internet and printed sources and suggestions from others (esp. members of the NWW Discussion List) I put together this webpage. It like most pages are in constant evolution, so if you have something to contribute, don't hesitate to contact me.

I understand there is some critism about making too much out of the NWW List. That it hinders discovery of quality music not on the list and generally traps you in the past. I use the list as a spring board to find out about things I would not normally encounter on my own; Starting with related artists and labels and working my way out. I am often rewarded with a totally unrelated great find by accident while researching the list. Also a number of the artists on the list have since gone on to making worthwhile releases, so there is no need to look only backwards.

As I said above I enjoy unusual music. My interest in 'industrial music' has wanned conserdably over they years and I now view it mainly as an entry point (as 'progressive' is for many others). I am not a big fan of 'krautrock' (I find most of it too self-indulgence) or 'psychedelic' music (I find that most doesn't stand on its own, without drugs). I do however, like bands that are atypical no matter what genre they are lumped into. For more on my perspective on music, please visit my music page.

[1] versions of the list appear elsewhere on the internet. most with typos and other mistakes.
[2] Nurse With Wound Website <www.brainwashed.com/nww>
[3] "England's Hidden Reverse" by David Keenan. <www.safpublishing.com/store/pages/html/hidden_reverse_book.htm>
[4] Face Out 8, March 1981 <www.brainwashed.com/axis/nww/faceout8.htm>
[5] Motion Review <www.stalk.net/paradigm/pd0708.html>
[6] The Audion Guide to Nurse With Wound <myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ultimathule/nww/nww.html>.
[7] Nurse With Wound Discussion List <groups.yahoo.com/group/nww/>
[8] NWW Interview in Audion #28 Spring 1994
[9] NWW Interview in Wire July 1997 <www.brainwashed.com/nww/words/wire1997.htmll>
[10]"Post Operative Aural Medicine", by Paul Condon <www.uncarved.org/music/nww.html>
[11] "Crack in the Cosmic Egg: Encyclopedia of Krautrock..." by Steven & Alan Freeman. <myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ultimathule/krautrockers.html>.
[12] "Cosmic Dreams at Play" by Dag Erik Asbjornsen.
[13] "The Trouser Press Guide to Alternative Music: 4th Ed." edited by Ira Robbins <www.trouserpress.com>.
[14] "The New Trouser Press Record Guide: 2nd Ed." edited by Ira Robbins <www.trouserpress.com>.
[15] "New Perspectives in Music" by Roger Sutherland
[16] "Industrial Culture Handbook" by V.Vale

© 2002-2005 TGK

URL: tgk.konshak.org/nww/