The seemingly endless Nurse With Wound reissue program continues unabated with this digitally remastered version of Homotopy To Marie, presented by United Jnana in a digipak with partially restored artwork and, oddly, the same augmented tracklist as the 1992 World Serpent CD version.

Part of the problem with a CD reissue program is figuring out how to balance the two requirements of the collectible reissue. First, that it be a faithful replica of the original LP or CD being reissued, complete with original artwork and unshuffled tracklist. Second, that it offer the consumer who already owns the original an extra incentive to repurchase: b-sides, bonus tracks, remixes, etc. United Jnana's reissue of Homotopy curiously fails to satisfy either requirement, and merely succeeds at putting back into print a slightly superior version of the World Serpent CD from the early 1990s. The problem? The inclusion of the track "Astral Dustbin Dirge," not included on the original United Dairies Homotopy LP. The track was included on the 1992 CD version of the album, perhaps as an incentive for owners of the LP. United Jnana choose to repeat this same augmented tracklisting, even though past NWW reissues had sought to iron out such oddities from the back catalog.

At the risk of disappearing into the endless, tail-swallowing nexus of nerdy, self-righteous record collector ire, I'd like to point out that the inclusion of "Astral Dustbin Dirge" on this reissue is particularly strange, given the fact that the track was already made available very recently on United Jnana's CD reissue of Drunk With the Old Man of the Mountains, on which it belongs, having been originally issued on that LP in 1987. Though the track was apparently recorded during the Homotopy sessions, it does not bear any particularly striking resemblance to the rest of the material on the album. If UJ had wanted to include the track, simply as a historical addendum, couldn't they have put it at the end after a gap of a few seconds, so as not to disturb the sequencing of the original LP? Questions like these exist without an answer, and while this certainly does not ruin the experience of Homotopy, the overall messiness of a well-intentioned reissue program does begin to annoy.

Nitpicking aside, however, one might be curious how Homotopy holds up almost three decades on. The interesting thing about listening to early and mid-period NWW albums now is how striking a contrast they provide to the last decade of Nurse With Wound's output, which has become both more eclectic, and for lack of a better word, safer. I was underwhelmed by the majority Huffin' Rag Blues, mostly because it seemed to lack the chaotic unpredictability and gloriously unhinged strangeness of vintage NWW, qualities which Homotopy possesses in abundance. The digital scrubbing received by these tracks, while it might have excised some of the weird amorphousness provided by old vinyl, mostly works in their favor. Inspired by avant-garde composer Franz Kamin, the tracks on Homotopy explore noises and the silences between them, afterimage and resonating echo. The opening track takes its inspiration equally both from ritualistic krautrock freakouts such as Can's "Aumgn," and the long tradition of purposely obtuse avant-garde techniques, vocal ululations and sighs combined with water drips, jarring noise of uncertain origin, and reverberating room tone. It's an uneasy negotiation that Stapleton, in his prime, was masterful at manipulating.

The title track utilizes the striking of metallic objects (gongs? sheet metal?) to highlight the full range of resonance in the afterimage of percussive sounds. In the mix are some typical Stapletonian dialogue samples of unknown origin, a little girl with an English accent saying: "I didn't know anybody and there was a funny smell." The notion of creating a homotopy (two topological functions that can be continuously deformed into one another) with sound is a unique one, and while I'm not sure that Stapleton ever succeeds at this goal, the conceptual framework lends an atmosphere of complexity to the album, as the listener searches for reflecting, homotopical similarities in its sound sculptures. "The Schmürz" is the longest and most dynamic track on the album. To the metallic resonances of the title track are added a repetitive, Steve Reich-esque sample of military men marching, run forwards and backwards and placed over top of each other in unpredictably askew fashion. Gradually, grating noise and surrealistic, atonal crypto-jazz plonkings are introduced, as well as samples from an old LP of liturgical music. This is the Nurse at its best, as far as I'm concerned: pure audio surrealism, avant-garde anti-music that is nonetheless fascinating, cryptic, suggestive, dreamlike and cinematic in the way it unfolds. Homotopy To Marie, in any form, is essential listening for any truly adventurous fan of esoteric audio.

Jonathan Dean

29 August 2008