Shipwreck Radio - June 15

It’s that time of year when a (no longer) young man’s thoughts turn naturally to the Sonic Structures and Enigmatic Episodes of Shipwreck Radio. Read the introduction to this series here.

JUNE 15 - SHIPWRECK RADIO VOLUME ONE

When you’re not listening to the Shipwreck Radio Sessions in “chronological” order, this is the opening track of Volume One and the introduction to Shipwreck Radio. And what an introduction it is…after the a drawling “ehhh” that prefaces the opening greeting and chimes, we get a sample of a man’s voice saying “Shipwreck Radio” and then the track launches full bore into a churning industrial groove. Crunchy bass beats with a metallic ringing melody over them. But this is Nurse With Wound, so it’s not quite that simple, in a hint of what’s to come the groove seems to glitch or skip several times in the opening thirty seconds before it settles in. Gradually a second, deeper, dirtier groove emerges from beneath the first; crashing into it as the song churns, the tempo fluctuating, unsteady, staying just off-kilter enough that you can never quite settle into it. The “shipwreck” radio sample returns, floating up to the boiling surface off the track as the groove gets filthier and filthier, each beat seeming to accumulate more sonic debris, the ringing metallic melody overwhelmed at times. 

At times it seems as though the track will glitch or skip, as it did near the beginning, the structure seething like turbulent waves. An almost roaring noise enters in, pairing with each beating, rising and falling as the song continues it’s never quite steady commotion. The “Shipwreck Radio” sample begins to become more insistent as the track passes the eight minute mark and the beat becomes tinnier, the bass dropping out as it becomes just crashing metal then almost guitar like, a low rumble building beneath it that I would swear is a re-processing of the drawling “ehhh” from the opening before it becomes almost a grumbling and after 10 and a half minutes the opening chimes return, winking at the shift in the song to an entirely new sonic direction by reminding those who are familiar with Shipwreck radio that this is a sound of beginnings. 

The beat fades out and sped up vocals introduce a drawling male voice, possibly slowed down, possibly not, the low grumbling sound contrasted with the helium high sped up vocal bursts. This drones on until for over a minute until a high, possibly female vocal sample enters saying “Kinda like thin slices of, um, a cross between… well it’s very livery, um, not very fishy, maybe liver, tuna…”. This new vocal sample repeats, describing what sounds like a possibly acquired taste, starting to be cut and processed more and more until we hear the sound of footsteps echoing on a wooden dock and then at fifteen minutes there is a dragging sound and then a crash of wood and then metal, like a dropped box that a spanner falls out of, and the third, final and shortest section of the song begins. Now we get a conversation between two males, one Steven Stapleton or Colin Potter, the members of NWW at the time, and the other, the Lofoten Deadhead, after whom the bonus disc for Shipwreck Radio Volume One is named. The droning male and higher vocals continue, keeping the sound muddy but the conversation, the heart of the song, I’d argue, still comes through.

NWW-“So, why the Grateful Dead?”
LDH-“Cause the Grateful Dead is the ultimate band (sigh); you know, it’s been my all-time high since the late sixties. I, uh, it’s the perfect kind of music to relax to and, you know, if the day has been hectic, you just put on a record, lean back and, well, there you are, rather a long and strange trip.”

This conversation repeats as the other sounds drop away, so that “well, there you are” becomes the last word on the track.

Here then is the genius of Nurse With Wound, the inspired working that goes into these Shipwreck Radio tracks. We start with an electronic, noisy groove that people expect when they imagine there is a genre called ‘Industrial Music’, but done extremely well and left as a convulsing beast, never settling into a predictable or clichéd rut. Then, it’s nearly impossible not to connect the muddled and mixed description of the livery tasting fish to the way NWW mixes and muddies genres, creating a taste, that while it may need to be acquired, is like nothing else. Finally, we get the Lofoten Deadhead, a short bit of conversation so inspiring to Steven and Colin they named the bonus disc after him, and well, you know that I’m going to argue that Shipwreck Radio is actually the perfect kind of music to relax to, and well, there you are.