Shipwreck Radio - June 9

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 9 - SHIPWRECK RADIO VOLUME TWO

The opening welcome is muddled and muddied, then the opening chimes give way shortly to a wavering and distorted sample of a woman discussing a documentary. This is interrupted by a clanging sample, then the discussion continues before it is interrupted again. The clanging begins to repeat, followed by a metallic melody that begins to fade almost as it's introduced, the clanging sample becoming more frequent and fragmented while a low tone builds imperceptibly in the background. The end of the clanging sample is caught; turned into a chittering and abstract line that floats above the low tone and below the still distorted clanging that continues to return and repeat. The chittering becomes almost a buzzing, burrowing into your ears, as the clanging gives way to a fuzzy, almost gong like sample, metallic in its own way, but gentler, sounding above the chittering. Around minute seven an insistent, accelerating rhythm comes in, followed again by the metallic melody from before, a little slower, that dances in and out with the chittering and gongs. Without warning,  the sampled female vocals return, manipulated into incoherence, with the insistent, accelerating rhythm returning and the gongs becoming harsher, the low tone in the background providing an uneasy surface for your mind to float upon as the female vocals return again with a recognizable refrain of “I'm not sure... about the artifice”. There are few other phrases that sum up Nurse With Wound as well as this, except perhaps for the “Categories strain, crack and sometimes break under their burden”...(perhaps the "But I'm not sure about the artist" fragment of vocals near the beginning of the track which cannot help but take on more significance upon an informed second listen). Clearly the track means to address the very heart of Shipwreck Radio—the artifice of taking samples recorded in the remote Norwegian district of Lofoten and turning them into something both uncanny and recognizable, when you encounter the samples or similar sounds in an unprocessed setting. Say, when you can recognize the accelerating rhythm as that of a stick being run along a fence or perhaps a length of ribbed metal tubing. The song doesn't belabor this point though, quickly letting the vocals fade away again, to return to the chittering, clanging and gongs; the sounds of Lofoten re-purposed, until a male vocal line enters around minute thirteen, cut up to sound like glossolalia. The last minutes of the track meander to it's conclusion, the gongs and metallic melody being the last to fade away, as it leaves you to your contemplation.