Though Steven Stapleton could not be bothered to play at the recent Toronto shows, he did come to the city to lurk about the concert hall, bringing along 500 copies of this 7" red vinyl single. As limited Nurse With Wound items go, this one is fairly inessential to all but the most rabid collectors. Side A is taken up with "Penis Fruit Loop (Deambulation Mix)," a radically reworked version of the track from 1999's An Akward Pause. This track already appeared on The Wire Tapper 6 compilation that was included with the 200th of The Wire magazine, along with exclusive tracks by Current 93 and Coil. A while after the magazine debuted, Stapleton posted an MP3 of the track to the web for free download, complaining that the song had been mastered incorrectly on the Wire Tapper CD. The version on this single does not sound significantly different from either of those previously available tracks, an oompah band playing "Johnny B. Goode" while being sucked down a vacuum hose. What I do find strange is the speed at which the track has been mastered. To hear it correctly, you must play Side A at 33 RPM, even though Side B seems to be mastered at 45 RPM, and the packaging gives no indication of this disparity. "A Perfectly Natural Expectation" is exclusive to this release, as far as I know, a flashback of sorts to the queasy soundscapes of Automating Vol. 1. After a little girl intones the title, we are ushered through bizarre corridors of echoplexed sound, before being dropped off a couple minutes later right where we began. It's inessential to be sure, but also pretty nifty. As of this writing, this release and the other Toronto items were still available through a link at the Durtro website, so there's still a chance for those not lucky enough to have attended the shows.

Jonathan Dean